Public fighting over the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server and the Clinton Foundation will cause “long-term damage” to the country, a Republican senator said Thursday.
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, suggested that the partisan fighting over the probes have damaged the reputation of the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
“This is one of the great long-term damages to the country,” Lankford said on Fox News. “The FBI has been seen as an apolitical organization… If there’s corruption, there’s corruption, and you treat everyone the same. If we hurt that reputation, it’s a long-term effect on the nation.”
Clinton’s use of a private email server was made public weeks before she declared her candidacy for the White House, necessitating an FBI probe that followed her on the campaign trail. After Attorney General Loretta Lynch came under fire for having a private meeting with Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac, it fell to FBI Director James Comey to decide if the former secretary of state would face an indictment. His decision not to recommend charges, despite concluding that she was “extremely careless” with classified information, angered Republicans. When he revealed that a new batch of “pertinent” emails had been found, in a letter sent 11 days before the election, it was the Democrats’ turn to accuse him of partisan gamesmanship.
“To be able to rush through investigations, not look at evidence, or to be able to push down and say, ‘No, don’t take a look at that,’ diminishes the role of the men and women that serve at the FBI — that should serve in such a way that they don’t care what the faith, what the political party, what the background is for any individual,” Lankford said.
The intelligence panel member said Clinton’s senior aides should have their security clearances revoked for the duration of the investigation, although he allowed that Clinton’s unique position as a presidential candidate means she should keep hers.
“Any other individual that was under investigation about security clearance violations or about sharing classified information would lose their clearance during that investigation,” he said. “For whatever reason, that has not happened in this case.”
