Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz, (R-UT) said he wants to question FBI Director James Comey’s recommendation to not bring federal charges against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information on her private email server.
Discussing Comey, Chaffetz said, “He has the greatest of reputations, a man of great integrity. But if you look at just the basic fact pattern why not hand that to the prosecutors and let them make the political decision? I wonder if you look back at director — former CIA Director Deutch, this is a person who plugged their computer into the internet—the Justice Department was going to prosecute him. President Clinton offered that person a pardon. So, this has been prosecuted or at least attempted to be prosecuted in the past. Why the difference now?”
When asked if Comey is correct, that there must be intent to bring charges, Chaffetz said, “That’s why we ultimately have to question the FBI director. That’s not the case. The first parallel we see, at first blush, is Director Deutch, he did go through this, was going to be prosecuted. The job of the FBI is to provide the fact pattern to the Justice Department and not make the political calculation that this is what a reasonable prosecutor would do. That’s not the job of the FBI.”
When asked if he plans to call Comey before the House Oversight Committee, Chaffetz said, “Perhaps. That’s why I had a conversation with him today. We’ll talk to a number of other members, the speaker and others. But that is very much in the possibility.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.