Newly released documents are shedding fresh light on a familiar name inside Washington’s justice machinery—and it’s not a flattering picture. Ray Hulser, a top deputy to Special Counsel Jack Smith, previously played a key role in stalling and minimizing investigations into the Clinton Foundation, long before becoming a central figure in what many conservatives see as a politically motivated crusade against President Donald Trump.
Hulser, who served as head of the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section during Trump’s first term, withheld critical information from U.S. attorneys investigating the Clinton Foundation and later provided incomplete and inconsistent accounts of that probe to both Trump’s DOJ and Special Counsel John Durham. Despite that history—or perhaps because of it—Jack Smith selected Hulser as one of his top lieutenants, with Hulser personally recommending subpoenas for the phone records of nearly a dozen Republican members of Congress.
Earlier this month, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan requested that Hulser appear for a transcribed interview as part of the committee’s investigation into Jack Smith’s partisan probes targeting President Trump and his associates after the 2020 election. Jordan pointed specifically to Hulser’s role in subpoenaing congressional phone records, a move that raised serious constitutional and political concerns.
Documents released by Sen. Chuck Grassley further revealed Hulser’s involvement went far beyond the Smith investigation. Grassley’s December disclosures detailed how, in early 2016, Hulser refused to support opening a preliminary investigation into the Clinton Foundation, despite requests from multiple FBI field offices. According to Durham’s report, Hulser dismissed the evidence as poorly presented and characterized hundreds of thousands of dollars in suspicious transactions as “de minimis”—a characterization Durham’s own findings directly contradicted.
Durham noted that the FBI’s reporting involved multiple international transfers between 2012 and 2014, suspected of facilitating bribery or gratuity violations. Not exactly pocket change, despite Hulser’s casual assessment.
Following Hulser’s refusal to support the investigation, FBI field offices were told—incorrectly—that the case was based solely on open-source material and a book. In reality, the investigations were grounded in Suspicious Activity Reports and confidential human source reporting. Even so, DOJ and FBI leadership repeatedly interfered, ultimately pressuring field offices to halt investigative steps and eventually close the cases altogether ahead of the 2016 election.
After President Trump won in 2016, the Clinton Foundation investigation was reopened by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arkansas. When then-U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland asked Hulser about the prior shutdown, Hulser reportedly denied it ever happened. He later provided Hiland with a heavily sanitized two-page timeline that omitted all references to DOJ and FBI interference—information that only came to light years later through the Office of Inspector General.
At one point, senior DOJ officials were so concerned about Hulser’s conduct that then–Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Rob Hur instructed Hiland to exclude Hulser and the Public Integrity Section from the Clinton Foundation investigation altogether. That directive alone speaks volumes.
Fast forward to the Biden years, and Hulser reemerged as a top deputy to Jack Smith, actively involved in the aggressive pursuit of President Trump—including approving subpoenas targeting sitting Republican lawmakers. After Trump’s reelection, Hulser was ultimately fired, despite media portrayals framing him as a neutral “career civil servant” unfairly dismissed.
Hulser himself attempted to defend his record in a Washington Post letter, portraying his career as one of impartial justice and subtly suggesting Trump’s guilt. The newly released documents tell a very different story—one of selective enforcement, downplayed evidence, and institutional protection for political allies.
Now, with President Trump back in office and officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and DNI Tulsi Gabbard cooperating with congressional oversight, long-buried facts are finally coming to light. Hulser’s role in shielding the Clintons while aggressively targeting Trump raises serious questions about how “public integrity” has been defined in Washington.
The good news? Accountability is catching up. The documents are out, the questions are being asked, and the era of unchecked political lawfare is finally being challenged—exactly what voters demanded when they sent President Trump back to the White House.
