“What’s important? Let’s go talk about the emails once again”, Gutierrez said, referring to Republicans.
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Gowdy and other Republicans have raised concerns that the decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton reflects a double standard in the criminal justice system.
Gohmert was next in line to question Lynch, and began by offering a rebuttal to Gutierrez.
While Clinton has defended her practice as a matter of personal convenience similar to her predecessors, 57 percent in the poll say the issue worries them about how she might handle responsibilities if elected president, while 39 percent say it’s not related to how she would perform as president. Clinton also testified publicly before Congress in October.
Goodlatte and other House Republicans on Monday formally asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clinton lied to Congress.
Republican lawmakers have been sharply critical of the department’s decision not to pursue Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for the presidency.
Lynch then announced that she still would review Hillary Clinton’s case but would accept the recommendation of investigators and prosecutors at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department.
Under questioning from the Utah Republican, Comey said his agents had not reviewed Clinton’s testimony in October before a select House committee investigating a 2012 terror attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Clinton has said she did not send or receive emails marked classified when she sent them, claims that Comey contradicted last week.
Congressman Trey Gowdy’s questions and FBI Director James Comey’s responses regarding Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. And she insisted that the discussion with the former president was “social” and did not pertain to the email investigation.
Republicans demanded to know how Clinton could have avoided prosecution under a “gross negligence” law when Comey had described her and her aides as “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information.
“While I understand that this investigation has generated significant public interest, as attorney general it would be inappropriate for me to comment further on the underlying facts of the investigation or the legal basis for the team’s recommendation”, Lynch told members of the committee.
“I agreed to say hello”, Lynch testified. I saw no reason not to accept it, Lynch told the House Judiciary Committee.
For many Republicans on Capitol Hill, and indeed many voters, the law on its face would appear to indict Mrs. Clinton’s behavior.
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The issue of policing and discrimination against blacks was also raised by lawmakers as nationwide demonstrations are being held to protest the police shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile in St. Paul, Minnesota. Though she said the two did not discuss the Hillary Clinton email investigation, she expressed regret for the meeting and acknowledged that it had “cast a shadow” on the public perception of the Justice Department’s independence.
