The move appears to be an end run around strict restrictions imposed by the FBI, which warned members of Congress not to leak documents from its investigation involving the Democratic presidential nominee.
Advertisement
The letter notes that Clinton testified that she had provided the State Department with copies of all of her work-related emails, contradicting Comey’s testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in July.
[T] he FBI completed its transmission to the State Department of documents recovered by the FBI in the course of its investigation in connection with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail system during her time as Secretary of State. The staffers spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly about the security precautions.
Documents containing classified information are commingled with those marked as “Unclassified/For Official Use”.
“The FBI should make as much of the material available as possible, “Sen”.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement that the panel received “FBI witness interview reports, including that of Secretary Clinton’s interview, along with other materials from the FBI’s now closed investigative file”.
“The FBI conducted this investigation, as it does all investigations, in a competent, honest and independent way”, wrote Jason Herring, the FBI’s liaison with Congress, in the letter.
The FBI stated that the documents couldn’t be released either in part or in full unless prior agency approval is gotten.
The FBI has also provided documents from its investigation to the House Judiciary Committee, an aide said. “We believe that if these materials are going to be shared outside the Justice Department, they should be released widely so that the public can see them for themselves, rather than allow Republicans to mischaracterize them through selective, partisan leaks”.
Surrounding this issue are concerns that senators or their staff might leak information from the files that would damage Clinton. Here’s what you need to know as the Federal Bureau of Investigation handed over the documents to Congress.
“The FBI already determined unanimously that there is insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing”, said representative Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee.
The announcement follows a separate Judicial Watch filing which revealed that an “entire disc” of information had not been included in the original batch of materials handed over by Secretary Clinton in December 2014. “The alternative would be to break up the materials into separate classified and unclassified parts and preserve them in separate locations, which might be awkward or inconvenient”.
Advertisement
Fox reported that a congressional source confirmed Tuesday that the FBI’s summary notes from the interview were “heavily redacted”.
