House Republicans plan to request a second FBI investigation into whether Hillary Clinton lied under oath, they announced Thursday during a grilling of FBI Director James Comey.
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Republicans repeatedly asked Comey questions that were created to force him to reprise the more politically damaging aspects of his unusual public statement on Tuesday in which he said she was “extremely careless” in handling classified intelligence on her homebrew email server.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) asked Comey whether the FBI had investigated statements Clinton made to Congress while under oath, including when she asserted, “There was nothing marked classified on my emails, either sent or received”.
A number of Republicans suggested there was a double standard for charging everyday people accused of crimes as opposed to high-level people like Clinton.
“I’ve heard it a lot”, he says.
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said, “I did not e-mail any classified material to anyone on my e-mail”.
Asked if Petraeus got in trouble for far less than Clinton, Comey said, “No. It’s far worse”.
Instead, with a straight face and without apparent embarrassment, he smoothly raised a totally irrelevant nonissue (lack of clear proof of intent) to give Clinton a pass. In doing so, Comey employed a time-honored rhetorical device used by criminal lawyers every day in court rooms across America, i.e., raising an utter irrelevancy to divert, distract, confound and confuse the jury.
During the Congressional hearing, Comey acknowledged for the first time that there were only three classified emails, and that in each case the emails contained only “partial” markings – meaning, he acknowledged, that they were improperly marked and that as a result, the materials could have been reasonably judged as not classified. “So I mean-“, Cummings said.
The line of questioning implies that the server might have been paid for by the Clinton Foundation.
“I know the Department of Justice, I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case”.
“The fact of the matter is that according to Comey’s comments, in the past people who’ve done similar things, but not even to this magnitude, have seen their clearance suspended or revoked temporarily”, Scott told McClatchy, calling the legislation a “realistic response” to a situation that should have consequences.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said he wants presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton restricted from hearings where classified information is being discussed. And he said government workers who negligently handled classified information, including Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, could be subject to firing and administrative sanctions. “Everything that Director Comey said would lead you to believe that she did violate the law”, said Chaffetz.
“Obviously, this is very suspicious, just the optics of it all”, charged Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., tying Comey’s announcement to “Secretary Clinton is flying around in Air Force One with the president”. Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in opening the hearing.
Under an onslaught of Republican criticism, Comey vigorously defended the government’s decision and rejected GOP accusations that the presidential candidate was given special treatment.
If Clinton wins the presidency, she will be expected to swear an oath to “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States”, and will to the best of her ability, “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”.
And Trump on Wednesday renewed his accusations that the result of the FBI’s probe of Clinton was evidence that the governing system was “rigged” in favor of establishment elites.
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Presidential candidates in the U.S. are normally granted access to classified information once they are formally nominated as their party’s candidate.
