Attorney General Loretta Lynch promised Wednesday that the Justice Department and FBI are reviewing Hillary Clinton’s email snafu “independent” from politics or outside influence.
Lynch did so without mentioning the former secretary of state’s name once.
“If the FBI makes the case that Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information, put American security at risk, will you prosecute the case?” Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, asked Lynch during a House Appropriations Committee panel meeting Wednesday.
“With respect to our investigation into how information was handled by the State Department, how they handled classified information, as I’m sure you know, that matter is being handled by career, independent law enforcement agents, FBI agents, as well as career, independent attorneys at the Department of Justice,” Lynch responded.
“They follow the evidence, they look at the law and they’ll make a recommendation to me when the time is appropriate,” she added.
Lynch did not comment on the current investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct official business, but she did explain that the investigation “will review all the facts and all the evidence and come to an independent conclusion as how to best handle it.”
“And I’m also aware of no efforts to undermine our review or investigation into this matter at all,” she added, speaking to the possibility of interference by politics or outside influence.
Clinton has thus turned over roughly 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department from her time as secretary of state. Of those, about 1,700 have been deemed classified at some level, even though Clinton had insisted that no classified information was on any of her emails. Clinton has also withheld thousands of additional emails that she describes as personal.
