Issa: If Sandy Berger Goes Down for Pants-Stuffing Classified Docs, Clinton Should Too

The former chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said “the only reasonable path forward is a criminal investigation” into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email.

Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) comments come after news that Clinton’s server, which she’d been called upon to let a third-party investigator review but refused, finally was ending up in the hands of the FBI.

“If any other American had shown the same disregard for securing classified information that Hillary Clinton showed, the United States government would move quickly and decisively to hold them responsible. Months after we learned about Clinton’s secret e-mail server, the FBI and DOJ have finally mustered the motivation necessary to take it into their custody,” Issa said.

The inspector general for the intelligence community confirmed in a memo this week that there was classified information in the emails stored on Hillary Clinton’s private server.

“My office received multiple Congressional requests for copies of Former Secretary Clinton’s emails containing classified Intelligence Community (IC) information,” wrote Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III. “These emails, attached hereto, have been properly marked by IC classification officials and include information classified up to ‘TOP SECRET // SI/TK // NORFORN.”

In a joint statement last month, McCullough and State Department Inspector General Steve Linick said the four emails in question — two determined by the intelligence community to have classified info — were found out of a “limited sample” of 40 in those 30,000 emails.

“Recall that, in 2003, Bill Clinton’s national security adviser, Sandy Berger, was caught removing five classified documents from the National Archives,” Issa said in reference to the infamous pants- and socks-stuffing incident. “He faced felony charges that were ultimately reduced to a misdemeanor, two years of probation, 100 hours of community service, a loss of security clearance for three years, and a $50,000 fine.”

“And both the FBI and DOJ recommended felony charges over General David Petraeus’ mishandling of classified information,” he added.

“After months of false assurances from Secretary Clinton, we now know that she recklessly maintained a private server containing classified documents, some of which were classified at the highest level. She also transmitted, received, and stored significantly more than five documents. The only remaining question is whether she will be held accountable for her actions.”