Pressed by Chaffetz Thursday on whether Clinton lied, FBI Director James Comey said during a hearing that he had not reviewed Clinton’s testimony because it had not been referred to him by Congress. Chaffetz assured Comey he would soon get a referral.
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It is a crime to mishandle classified information, and while Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey said there was evidence Mrs Clinton or her aides may have broken these laws, there was not enough evidence of criminal intent for a prosecution.
As we’ve reported, Clinton has consistently held that she did not send nor receive any information “marked classified”. The panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said lawmakers may seek a federal investigation into whether Clinton lied to the committee in testimony previous year.
In 2015 congressional testimony cited in the hearing by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Clinton stated: “There was nothing marked classified on my emails either sent or received”.
REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), New York: Despite your impeccable reputation for independence and integrity, Republicans have turned on you with a vengeance immediately after you announced your recommendation not to pursue criminal charges against Secretary Clinton. He added that based on Comey’s facts, if an “average Joe” had done what Clinton did, “they’d be in handcuffs”.
She was responding to comments from Comey, who said in two separate settings this week that it was highly likely that Clinton’s email server was infiltrated by sophisticated foreign spy agencies. “There is no classified material”.
Meanwhile, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, Russ Feingold, broke his silence about Clinton – who he’s endorsed for president.
LISA DESJARDINS: Comey argued that what Clinton may well have been worth some kind of punishment, but not prosecution as a crime. He went on to specify that Clinton was on seven of those chains that were classified as top secret. “I don’t think that’s for me to recommend”, he said.
Notice how Clinton continually used the words “marked classified” in an effort to make it seem less like she put sensitive USA information at risk.
Comey again refused to say.
“I think it’s possible, possible that she didn’t understand what a (c) meant when she saw it in the body of an email like that”, Comey told bewildered Republican lawmakers.
A “reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those. with whom she was corresponding about these matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation”. “I regret that but I am very glad that this is behind us now and we are moving forward”. “Because when the gap is not filled by you, it will be filled by others”, Cummings said.
The State Department said the markings on the emails were placed in error and “were no longer necessary or appropriate”.
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Republicans are trying other avenues to keep the email controversy that has clouded her presidential campaign for months, alive.
