FBI Director James Comey testifies Thursday during a hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
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During Republican congressman Trey Gowdy’s time questioning Comey, the congressman asked, “Secretary Clinton said she never sent or received classified information over her private e-mail”.
The FBI investigation found that Clinton and her staff were careless in the handling of classified information, which has prompted Republican lawmakers to call for the suspension of her security clearance.
Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey on Tuesday recommended that no charges be brought over Clinton’s email use during her time as State Department chief from 2009 to 2013. “In their eyes, you had one job and one job only, to prosecute Hillary Clinton”.
Chaffetz, the committee chairman, plans to continue the email probe, saying he would ask the attorney general to investigate claims that Clinton may have lied under oath.
Another Clinton got away with another ethical lapse, reinforcing the already widespread belief that there are two sets of laws, one for the Clintons and one for everybody else.
Gowdy interrupted, “so it was not true?” and then requested Comey respond with a shorter answer, “so you and I are not here quite as long”.
In another exchange with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), FBI Director Comey tried to explain that Clinton perhaps was not “sophisticated enough to understand” that a paragraph, or several paragraphs marked “C” meant “confidential, classified”.
“I do not believe that all of the professionals that I dealt with in the State Department were careless in handling classified material”, Clinton said.
Gowdy said he is concerned that there is still no “precedent” that would prevent future secretaries of state from using the exact same “email scheme”.
The White House yesterday said that both the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees would start receiving classified intelligence briefings from the intelligence community after they are formally nominated during their respective party conventions. However, it would be a reason to drag Clinton up to Capitol Hill for more embarrassing hearings – hearings that would probably sound a lot like the one conducted by Chaffetz and his colleagues today.
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As we’ve reported, Clinton has consistently held that she did not send nor receive any information “marked classified”.
