Angry Republicans Question FBI Chief Over Decision to Clear Clinton

Angry U.S. Republican lawmakers demanded answers Thursday from the chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation about why he concluded that Hillary Clinton was “extremely careless” in dealing with classified material in emails while she was secretary of state, yet decided no charges were warranted against the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

FBI Director James Comey appeared before a House of Representatives investigative panel two days after concluding there was no evidence that Clinton “clearly, willfully” had sought to violate U.S. laws by using private email servers stationed at her New York home, rather than more secure government email servers, while she was the country’s top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch subsequently accepted Comey’s recommendation to close the case without any charges against Clinton, who is seeking to become the country’s first female president.

But Republican lawmakers sharply attacked Comey’s conclusion to not recommend Clinton’s prosecution. They are questioning how investigators could find that Clinton sent or received 113 emails with classified information in them over her private email server and then conclude that she should not be prosecuted under a law making “gross negligence” a crime.

‘Two standards’ alleged

Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the panel’s chairman, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, told U.S. cable network MSNBC, “I worry that there are two standards: that if your name is Clinton or you’re part of the rich and powerful, you live under a different set of rules than everybody else.
“Because it does appear based on the fact pattern laid out by the director that if you had done those things, you’d probably be in handcuffs, you’d probably be going to jail and probably should, based on the statute,” Chaffetz said. “So, we want to ask him about that and now that the Department of Justice said they’re not going to prosecute, no reason they can’t provide us all the information.”

Clinton has yet to publicly comment on Comey’s conclusions that she and her colleagues at the State Department were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified material. When her use of a private email system first came to light more than a year ago, Clinton said she used one mobile phone for both government and private emails for “convenience,” but later acknowledged it was “a mistake,” leading to the year-long FBI investigation.

Clinton and her opponent in November’s national election, presumptive Republican presidential challenger Donald Trump, are set to claim their parties’ presidential nominations later this month. Then, by tradition, both candidates, as the possible next American leaders, would begin to receive highly classified national security briefings.

Access to national security information

But in the aftermath of the FBI findings about Clinton’s email records, Speaker Paul Ryan, leader of the Republican-controlled House, is calling on Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to block Clinton from receiving the national security briefings. Ryan said blocking her from the intelligence information “certainly constitutes appropriate sanctions.”
Ryan said if Clapper refuses the request, he wants the intelligence chief to provide his rationale for giving Clinton the information “despite the FBI findings.”

After the exhaustive search of more than 30,000 Clinton emails, Comey concluded that “no reasonable prosecutor would bring” criminal charges against her.

The FBI’s probe of her use of the private email server culminated last Saturday with investigators and government prosecutors questioning her for 3 1/2 hours at FBI headquarters in Washington.

Comey’s statement came a week after a political uproar over an encounter Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, had with Lynch, the country’s top law enforcement official, on an airport tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona. Both Bill Clinton and Lynch said they chatted for half an hour, although not about the email case, but subsequently regretted doing so while Lynch was overseeing the email investigation.

Trump has denounced the no-prosecution decision, saying at one point on Twitter, “FBI director said ‘Crooked Hillary’ compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! Rigged System.”

Well after Clinton left office in early 2013, she deleted about 30,000 emails she and her lawyers deemed to be personal and turned another 30,000 official government-related emails over to the State Department, as she was required to do in any event because of government record-keeping regulations. But Comey said thousands more emails were discovered as well.

Clinton said she never sent or received emails that were marked as classified documents. But Comey said FBI investigators found that 110 emails in 52 email chains contained classified information at the time they were sent, with eight of the chains having top secret information in the emails she turned over to the State Department. Three other emails with classified information were found in the additional emails.

Comey said investigators do not believe that Clinton’s emails were hacked by hostile, foreign interests. However, he said “hostile actors” gained access to private commercial interests that Clinton corresponded with and that her extensive use of personal email outside the United States and in the territories of “extensive adversaries” makes it possible they gained access to her personal accounts.

National polling shows Clinton with about a five percentage point edge over Trump four months before the November 8 election to pick the successor to President Barack Obama, who leaves office in January. Polls typically have a margin of error of about three points higher or lower.