House Republicans on Monday formally asked the Justice Department to investigate Hillary Clinton and determine whether she lied to Congress, a fresh challenge certain to shadow the Democratic presidential candidate.
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Republicans want Hillary Clinton to be investigated for perjury for her sworn testimony about her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Six in 10 voters say the outcome will have no impact on their vote this November, even as those who do largely say it discourages them from backing the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her handling of classified information while secretary of state ended one investigation.
And that – here I become slightly queasy about Comey’s self-appointed truth-teller role – he engaged in extensive editorializing: Clinton and her colleagues “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information”. The State Department re-opened a less serious inquiry into how Clinton and her staff handled classified information during her four-year tenure as agency head.
The FBI basically just wasted millions of dollars to confirm that everything Secretary Clinton has been telling the American people is a bunch of lies and it does not matter.
Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement that Comey’s testimony on Thursday “clearly knocked down a number of false Republican talking points”.
Referrals from Congress do not automatically result in full-fledged investigations, but they have spurred some notable criminal probes and indictments.
By maintaining a personal, unclassified email server, Clinton recklessly endangered the national security.
On Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation assumed the role of prosecutor and not simply investigator and took the unprecedented act of proclaiming that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.
Democrats will nominate Clinton to be their nominee at their national convention July 25-28 in Philadelphia.
Whether the controversy over the private email server will affect Clinton’s run for the presidency remains to be seen.
And Comey talked about “sophisticated adversaries”, saying, “She also used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries”.
The reason I stay apolitical is because it allows me to offer my opinions about matters of public discourse without people being able to say, “You are a staunch Republican – of course you feel that way!” Attorney General Loretta Lynch then issued a brief statement that the investigation was now closed.
Not true. The inspector general said she never sought legal approval, and if she had, it would have been denied.
However, it has mattered to far less powerful Americans in similar circumstances who have had their careers and lives destroyed.
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“There is no way anybody would bring a case against John Doe or Hillary Clinton for the second time in 100 years based on those facts, ” Comey told lawmakers, referring to a review of past prosecutions. “As the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again”.
