The DOJ’s Trump investigation isn’t the first of its kind. Remember Clinton?

SHANNON LONGWORTH: WHILE THE FBI’S SEARCH OF FORMER PRESIDENT TRUMP’S HOME IS ABSOLUTELY UNPRECEDENTED, IS THE ONGOING FEDERAL INVESTIGATION A FIRST FOR THIS COUNTRY?

LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT.

PATRICK MANEY: “WELL IT’S CERTAINLY NOT THE FIRST TIME THERE’S BEEN A HIGH LEVEL INVESTIGATION OF AN EX PRESIDENT. AND THE MOST RECENT EXAMPLE IS BILL CLINTON.”

LONGWORTH: THIS IS PATRICK MANEY, A PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN.

HE’S TALKING ABOUT JANUARY 20TH, 2001–CLINTON’S LAST DAY IN OFFICE, WHEN HE PARDONED BILLIONAIRE MARC RICH OVER CHARGES OF TAX EVASION, FRAUD AND RACKETEERING.

IT LATER CAME OUT THAT RICH’S EX-WIFE, DENISE, HAD DONATED TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY.

THE SPECULATION WAS…THAT RICH BOUGHT HIS PARDON.

AFTER CLINTON LEFT THE WHITE HOUSE, HE WAS INVESTIGATED BY HIS REPUBLICAN SUCCESSOR’S DOJ.

MANEY: “AND THE REACTION OF THE CLINTONS WAS VERY SIMILAR TO TRUMP. WITH THE CLINTONS SAYING THIS WAS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED EVEN THOUGH, AS I MENTIONED, THERE WERE DEMOCRATS—PROMINENT DEMOCRATS—WHO CRITICIZED IT.”

LONGWORTH: INTERESTINGLY, SOME OF THE MAJOR PLAYERS ARE STILL AROUND.

RUDY GIULIANI WAS THE CHIEF PROSECUTOR IN RICH’S TAX EVASION CASE, AND A MAN WHO WOULD ONE DAY GO ON TO BE DIRECTOR OF THE FBI, JAMES COMEY, HELPED BUILD A CASE AGAINST THE FINANCIER.

MANEY: “I JUST THINK IT’S IMPORTANT TO KEEP THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE, AND HISTORY DOES MATTER.”