Republicans are calling on the Democrat-led House Oversight Committee to hold a hearing focusing on the State Department’s review of mishandled classified information associated with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
The letter, from a trio of Republicans, including the committee’s ranking member, Jim Jordan of Ohio, came one day after it was revealed that the State Department has so far found 30 security incidents in its yearslong review.
“We request a hearing to examine widespread security protocol breaches at the State Department concerning former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s private email server,” they wrote to Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland. “The unorthodox and unsecure arrangement she maintained exposed classified, national security and diplomatic-sensitive information to a myriad of risks and related issues.”
The review of the mishandling of classified information found 23 “violations” and seven “infractions” by 15 individuals, according to Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs. Some of them “were culpable in multiple security incidents,” said a letter sent a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is leading the congressional oversight of the security review.
Taylor said the agency considers any violation of security policies to be a “serious matter.”
The review caught the attention of President Trump, calling the findings a “really big” deal and challenging the Democrats to investigate at a time when they are engaged in a variety of inquiries into the president and his inner circle.
Wow! The State Department said it has identified 30 Security Incidents involving current or former employees and their handling of Crooked Hillary Clinton’s Emails. @FoxNews This is really big. Never admitted before. Highly Classified Material. Will the Dems investigate this?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019
Jordan, along with Reps. Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jody Hice of Georgia, warned the “wide-ranging fallout from these mishandling instances should not be minimized and obscured.”
The individuals under scrutiny were not identified, nor was it revealed if they were still employed at the State Department, per agency policy. The inquiry is ongoing, and Taylor said the number of people found culpable could increase.
Taylor said the violations of infractions by individuals still employed by the State Department were referred to the Bureau of Human Resources. A “broad range” of disciplinary or administrative actions that could be taken include “counseling, reprimand, suspension, and/or separation,” Taylor wrote.
Taylor said the agency is “making every effort to complete its review and adjudication” by Sept. 1.
