Sen. Ron Johnson shot back at CNN anchor Jake Tapper after the host used the phrase “crackpot conspiracy theory” and asked about Johnson’s requests for transparency on Hillary Clinton’s emails and information on the “unmasking” requests by Obama officials regarding retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
“You have not made the allegation that the Trump administration is making, which is that President Obama committed crimes,” Tapper told Johnson Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “You haven’t said anything along those lines, but your work, your requesting of this information of the national — the director of national intelligence, Ric Grenell — and again, I’m pro-transparency, release it all, your work is being cited as evidence for this crackpot conspiracy theory. Does that bother you?”
Johnson brushed aside Tapper’s assertion.
“You keep calling it a crackpot conspiracy theory,” Johnson responded. “I’m just trying to find out what happened. What we do know, because we got these records out of the National Archives, what President Obama saw when he got those emails from Hillary Clinton was not hillaryclinton.statedepartment.gov.classified, it was clinton.com.”
Johnson’s office made a request in early February, requesting additional information regarding the department’s administrative review of the handling of classified information on former Clinton’s private email server.
“It is unfortunate that the Department was unable to interview all the individuals needed to assess the extent to which Department employees mishandled classified information,” Johnson wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “Interestingly, a prosecutor who worked on the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s private email server told the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, ;the problem was the State Department was so screwed up in the way they treated classified information that if you wanted to prosecute Hillary Clinton, you would have had to prosecute 150 State Department people.’ The seemingly widespread and pervasive nature of these security violations, especially for the handling of classified information, is simply unacceptable.”
