We will leave the debate about the appropriateness of that decision to others.
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Hillary Clinton has responded to the FBI’s scathing assessment that she was “extremely careless” with classified government secrets, by shifting the blame onto her former colleagues at the US State Department. He questioned the constitutionality of the law.
Mr Comey addressed the issue at a House of Representatives committee hearing that lasted almost five hours after House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that Mrs Clinton should be denied classified briefings during her campaign for the presidency. “Do you have any concerns about the way she did handle classified intelligence?”
“There is simply no excuse for Hillary Clinton’s decision to set up a home-cooked email system which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation by America’s enemies”, the letter said. The personal email system was an attempt to evade GOP scandal-mongers and to avoid the scrutiny she knew they would bring to bear no matter how benign her activities.
“I have no basis for concluding that she was untruthful with us”, he said.
In response to GOP questions, he did agree that if someone under his supervision had engaged in similar conduct, there would be administrative consequences, though no criminal prosecution.
Comey also testified that while people copied on Clinton emails had security clearances, some contractors who maintained the server and lawyers who examined her emails did not.
“Well, yeah, but again, again, keep in mind, even if you take, let’s assume, let’s assume that, the fact is that they weren’t even marked classified”. Clinton has said she used one device and returned all work-related emails. “He’s been ruined”, he said in a different interview.
Mr Comey, a Republican who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama and also served in the administration of former Republican President George W Bush, has built a reputation as a straight shooter who does not bend to pressure from either party.
Comey, for years a registered Republican who said he’s no longer registered with a political party, was deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration and was appointed in 2013 to a 10-year term as Federal Bureau of Investigation director by President Obama. I say that under oath; I stand by that. “There was no coordination”.
It is July 5, 2017: Comey just made his announcement – and the White House is clearly shaken.
During an exchange with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., Comey confirmed that the FBI’s investigation found at least three emails with classified markings on Clinton’s server, despite Clinton’s assertion during the Benghazi hearing that she had neither sent nor received any items marked classified.
Comey said in May that “there are no special rules” for anybody the FBI investigates.
Despite the no-prosecution decision, Comey had rebuked Clinton and her aides on Tuesday as being “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information and contradicted numerous explanations she’s put forward.
For most of the almost three decades Hillary and Bill Clinton have been at the heart of American public life, and Republicans have hunted them with Captain Ahab-like zeal, launching years-long investigations by congressional committees and independent counsels at every sign of a misstep – no matter how big or small, real or imagined.
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Democrats, on the other hand, accused Republicans of seeking to score political points, not get at the truth. “I think she was negligent – that I could establish”, Comey told the House Oversight and Government Reform panel.
