The bill they introduced S.3134, the Taking Responsibility Using Secured Technologies (TRUST) Act of 2016, would put Congress on record saying that Clinton should have no access to classified information “until she earns the legal right to such access”.
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For more than four hours Thursday, FBI Director James Comey answered questions from the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
While Comey was the witness, Clinton was clearly the target of the hearing as Republicans seek to keep the controversy over her email setup alive to highlight her most glaring vulnerability heading into November’s election, questions about her character and honesty.
Director Comey was also asked by the chairman at the end of the hearing about Mrs. Clinton being the target of a criminal investigation into public corruption at the Clinton Foundation.
Comey’s decision, and the way he delivered it, infuriated Republicans who felt that the Federal Bureau of Investigation director in his unusually detailed and critical televised statement Tuesday had laid out a sufficient basis for prosecution.
Pressed by Chaffetz Thursday on whether Clinton lied, 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.
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues meant to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information”, Comey said today.
At the hearing, Comey was asked whether Clinton was eligible to hold a security clearance.
But it criticized presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the violence, saying both she and her staff showed a “shameful” lack of response to congressional investigators looking into the attack on a us diplomatic compound.
The director also said some of the communications were marked as classified, a finding at odds with Clinton’s previous characterizations that no information marked classified was moved through her system.
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. By Monday morning, the committee had replaced the document online with another version in which Koussa’s name does not appear.
He again warned the reporter not to go there: “I just wanted to give you a chance, just in case you didn’t want to burn your question”. “I did not coordinate that with anyone”.
Earlier this week, Comey acknowledged that his decision would spark “intense public debate, ” but he asserted that the investigation’s outcome was based on a “thorough” review.
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“I’ve heard it a lot”, he said. For one thing, powerful intelligence agencies like those of the Russians and Chinese, just like the US’s own National Security Agency, have the capability to hack even the government’s most secure servers.
