Democrats appear to have thought that since Hillary Clinton lost, Republican lawmakers would put her email indiscretions to rest, but today, as The Washington Post reports, a top House Republican said Wednesday he will continue to investigate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman finishing his first term leading the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, made it clear the partisan bitterness that marked the presidential campaign is not going to go away.
“It would be totally remiss of us to dismiss [the email investigation] because she’s not going to be president,” Chaffetz said of the defeated Democratic nominee.
“I still have a duty and obligation to get to the truth about one of the largest breaches of security at the State Department,” he said. “Tens of thousands of documents still have not been turned over to Congress.”
Last week, senior Republican lawmakers were openly discussing the prospect of impeaching Clinton for setting up a private email server for official State Department business, even though the FBI concluded after two investigations that she should not be criminally prosecuted.
But now that the former secretary of state has lost her bid for presidency that threat has gone. But Chaffetz said he has a “duty” to find thousands of Clinton’s communications that have not been made public to determine if they contain classified information. He also said some State Department employees who helped set up the email server in her New York home could lose their security clearances.
“Do I anticipate calling Hillary Clinton to testify?” he said. “No.” But other State Department staff could be dragged, again, into an investigation that to many seemed closed.
As WaPo adds, Democrats said it’s time to put the email controversy to rest: Clinton lost.
“It is extremely disappointing that Chairman Chaffetz plans to continue investigating Secretary Clinton for years to come,” Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the Oversight Committee’s top Democrat, said in a statement.
“After everything our country has just been through – and particularly given that Donald Trump and Paul Ryan have both called for healing our nation’s divisions – I think the American people deserve more from Congress than to continue squandering taxpayer dollars on these baseless Republican accusations and partisan attacks.”
Sure, poor Hillary – it’s just not fair that she should face justice as well as be a loser in a national election against the “least qualified” candidate for President ever, right?
As a reminder, Trump said last month he would appoint a special prosecutor to examine Clinton’s use of a private email server. Such a prosecution would have to be pursued by his attorney general, who would have to agree with his assessment that the email practices violated criminal laws governing mishandling of classified information.
And as Politico reports, people close to Trump say former New York City Mayor Giuliani, one of Trump’s leading public defenders, is the leading candidate for attorney general.
via http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-09/democrats-extremely-disappointed-chaffetz-confirms-duty-continue-clinton-probe Tyler Durden