On Tuesday, the FBI released documents to Republican congressional leaders with details about their investigation into Clinton’s email server.
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Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, said that despite his position he is not allowed to read all of the sections of the documents, which “shows how risky it was to have this intelligence, highly classified to this day, on the former secretary’s unsecured personal server where it was vulnerable”. She said she had turned over to the State Department all the work-related emails from her four years as secretary of state, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in its examination of her server, uncovered several thousand work-related emails that had not been handed over.
As is common practice with FBI interviews of witnesses and investigative targets alike, a full transcript of the Democratic presidential nominee’s FBI interview does not exist and the FBI did not record the interview, Comey explained in his testimony in July.
Republicans are also demanding that the Justice Department open a new investigation into whether Clinton lied to Congress.
Though the Republicans failed to find evidence to support their claims that Clinton was negligent in preventing or stopping the deadly 2012 terrorist attack on the US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, they are now focusing on questions surrounding the Democratic nominee’s haphazard handling of emails containing government secrets.
The material contains classified information and was provided “with the expectation it will not be disseminated or disclosed” without the FBI’s agreement, the agency said Tuesday. “Committee staff is now reviewing the information that is classified secret”. The FBI has made public statements in describing its handling of the case, so sharing documents in support of those statements wherever appropriate would make sense. The staffers spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly about the security precautions.
During her hearing last October at the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee for the 2016 USA presidential election, said there was nothing “marked classified on my emails, either sent or received”.
In response to requests from the State Department, the Clinton camp turned over the other half, roughly 30,000 emails in total, to the State Department in December 2014. She faces Republican nominee Donald Trump in the November 8 election.
“The FBI should make as much of the material available as possible”.
For instance, Clinton claimed at the time that none of the messages on her machine were marked as classified, though FBI Director James Comey later asserted that at least three bore some markings indicating they were sensitive.
Sen. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley the Senate received the FBI’s interview summaries from the investigation. “My understanding is that we have not received them”.
Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, has sued under the Freedom of Information Act for the release of Clinton’s emails.
Chaffetz, R-Utah, said the documents germane to the FBI’s year-long probe are now stored in a secure facility and heavily redacted, the Examiner reported.
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In a rare moment of agreement, the Clinton campaign also argued for the public release of much of the material so that voters can judge the materials for themselves. A court hearing on the issue is scheduled for next week.
