Top congressional Democrats lashed out at Republicans after an announcement that GOP leaders have launched probes into how the Department of Justice and FBI handled the investigations into the nongovernment email server Hillary Clinton used during most of her tenure as secretary of state during the Obama administration.
“This new investigation is a massive diversion to distract from the lack of Republican oversight of the Trump administration and the national security threat that Russia poses,” said Democratic Representatives Elijah Cummings of Maryland and John Conyers, Jr., of Michigan, respectively the ranking members of the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committees
“Ten months into the Trump administration and House Republicans still have not held a single substantive oversight hearing on clear abuses by the president or his top aides. That amounts to ten months of abdication of responsibility — a near total failure to question, investigate, or challenge the president or the White House, including on grave allegations of obstruction of justice.”
The investigation Republicans announced earlier in the day will likely to focus on issues such as how then-FBI Director James Comey decided to announce the conclusion of the Clinton email investigation and possibly usurped decision-making power that should have been reserved for DOJ attorneys, as well as recent reports indicating Comey may have been drafting a statement about the conclusion of the Clinton investigation before the interview with Clinton was even complete.
“The committees will review these decisions and others to better understand the reasoning behind how certain conclusions were drawn,” Republican Reps. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said in a press release. “Congress has a constitutional duty to preserve the integrity of our justice system by ensuring transparency and accountability of actions taken.”
Cummings and Conyers not only expressed their dismay at the investigations in general, they also directed a large part of their statement at former House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who has since resigned from Congress.
“If Republicans want to know why Director Comey discussed the investigation of Secretary Clinton publicly, maybe they should ask their own former Republican chairman, Jason Chaffetz, who harassed the FBI for months to reveal public details about the case,” the Democrats said.
“Rep. Chaffetz hauled Director Comey before the Oversight Committee to demand his public testimony, issued twelve unilateral subpoenas to Comey and others to force the production of internal investigative documents, and held five ‘emergency hearings’ directly before the election to harm Secretary Clinton’s presidential bid — all while completely ignoring the extremely troubling reports about Donald Trump and his campaign’s connections to the Russians. We must protect our democracy.”
