House Republicans who have been trying to see former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails in the Benghazi investigation weren’t satisfied with her press conference today.
“For instance, there remain serious questions about the security of the system she employed from a national security standpoint, who authorized this exclusive use of personal email despite guidance to the contrary from both her State Department and the White House, who had access to the server from the time Secretary Clinton left office until the time—almost two years later—the State Department asked for these public records back, and who culled through the records to determine which were personal and which were public,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the special committee investigating Benghazi, said in a statement.
“Without access to Secretary Clinton’s personal server, there is no way for the State Department to know it has acquired all documents that should be made public, and given State’s delay in disclosing the fact Secretary Clinton exclusively used personal email to conduct State business, there is no way to accept State’s or Secretary Clinton’s certification she has turned over all documents that rightfully belong to the American people,” he added.
Gowdy says he sees “no choice” but for Clinton to “turn her server over to a neutral, detached third-party arbiter who can determine which documents should be public and which should remain private.”
Presented with that scenario, Clinton said during her press conference that her server will remain private.
“Because Secretary Clinton has created more questions than answers, the Select Committee is left with no choice but to call her to appear at least twice,” Gowdy said. “The first appearance will be to clear up her role and resolve issues surrounding her exclusive use of personal email to conduct official business. This is necessary to establish our Committee has a complete record with respect to Secretary Clinton’s time in office. Our committee will then call her to appear before the Committee in a public hearing to answer questions specifically regarding Libya and the Benghazi terrorist attacks that took the lives of our four brave fellow citizens.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Clinton just rehashed talking points used by her defenders.
“The expectation that we merely trust that Secretary Clinton shared all relevant e-mails and that the process of vetting the e-mails was as thorough and unbiased as it should have been is insulting given the Clintons’ well-established history of misleading the American people,” Issa said. “This matter cannot be put to rest without a thorough forensic examination of the email server and an unbiased independent review of the records in question.”
“…That she is only now addressing this, years after the fact, seems to indicate her response has little to do with some sudden, revelatory desire for transparency.”
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Clinton “would certainly like this matter to go away because it would be the most convenient scenario for her.”
“Today’s press conference does not bring closure to this matter,” Chaffetz said. “The House Oversight Committee has a long history of investigating violations of the Federal Records Act and we will continue looking into this matter to ensure that all records were properly preserved in accordance with the law.”
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