When the then-GOP presidential nominee spoke of “Crooked Hillary” Clinton on the campaign trail, crowds would often chant, “Lock her up! Lock her up!” in response.

Is Trump, now president, about to make good on that promise? Perhaps.

Ed Klein, former New York Times Magazine editor-in-chief, wrote a short piece for Newsmax earlier this week claiming that the Department of Justice “has reopened the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified material” that passed through an unsecured private email server she secretly used to conduct business while serving as President Obama’s secretary of state.

Following published revelations about the server, the FBI launched a criminal investigation into Clinton, which dragged on throughout last year’s presidential campaign. During a July 2016 press conference, then-FBI Director James Comey detailed several instances where Clinton was found to have violated statutes governing the handling of classified materials, but inexplicably added that the Bureau would not be recommending to the Justice Department that she be prosecuted.

Now, however, according to Klein, Trump’s DoJ is taking a new look at the case and plans to offer Clinton a plea bargain, according to one of her attorneys:

The discussion of a plea bargain took place late last month and was offered by a high-ranking Justice Department official to the Clinton lawyer.

During the exploratory talks with the prosecutor, the Clinton attorney was told that despite former FBI Director James Comey’s decision last July not to prosecute Hillary, the Justice Department has reexamined the email case and believes there are ample grounds for prosecuting Hillary on a number of counts.

It should be noted that the statute of limitations for violations of the Espionage Act, which would pertain to Clinton’s mishandling of classified information, is generally 10 years; by comparison, the statute of limitations for most other federal crimes is only five years. So she’s definitely not out of the woods yet, should the Trump administration decide to pursue charges. (Related: Did Loretta Lynch set herself up to fall over the Clinton email scandal?)

Under the plea agreement, Klein says, Hillary would be required to sign a statement that she indeed committed prosecutable crimes, but in return, the Justice Department would agree not to pursue any charges related to the email scandal.

In addition, the department would further agree not to pursue an investigation into alleged so-called “pay for play” deals between her husband and former President Bill Clinton, their family foundation, and foreign governments while Hillary was secretary of state.

Klein wrote:

The Clinton attorney cautioned that normally a plea is offered by a prosecutor only upon arraignment, and Hillary has not yet been charged with any crime.

Later, as reported by The Blaze, Klein said in an interview with Newsmax TV that he did not think Hillary would accept a plea deal.

“Sometimes she has trouble admitting that she’s Hillary Clinton,” Klein — author of Guilty as Sin — told America Talks Live host Miranda Khan. “This is a woman who never, ever admits she did anything wrong.”

But while he wrote at Newsmax earlier in the day that the DoJ is going to reopen Hillary’s case, he told Khan later that the department is only considering doing so, and perhaps as a way to take pressure off Trump related to the special counsel investigation into his campaign’s alleged “collusion” with Russia:

They are seriously thinking of reopening this investigation and therefore if she doesn’t take the plea agreement, which I agree with you, she almost certainly won’t, I think they will then proceed with this investigation and this is going to drag on for a long time and in a way balance the investigation that’s going on with President Donald Trump and his campaign advisers regarding so-called collusion with the Russians. [Emphasis added]

At this point, it’s difficult to know whether the Trump administration is actually considering charges against Hillary Clinton based on Klein’s conflicting claims. But it would make political sense for the president, who is increasingly displeased by and frustrated with the “Russia” investigation, to find some way to mitigate it, especially since he knows the D.C. Swamp is out to get him one way or another.

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

Newsmax.com

Trump.News

TheBlaze.com