Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter asked Loretta Lynch, President Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, if she would investigate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server, as it’s been alleged Clinton used it to destroy official email records.
Vitter notes that Clinton, “released only four emails between her and her staff regarding drone strikes and U.S. surveillance programs.”
In a letter to Lynch, Vitter wrote, “Clinton had deleted emails on her private server, and therefore, failed to meet her general duty under 44 U.S.C. §3101 to ‘preserve records containing adequate and proper documentation of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, and essential transactions of the agency and designed to furnish the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency’s activities.’”
He added that it is Lynch’s job as a federal attorney to uphold and enforce the law.
“Attorneys General do not swear an oath to the President; they swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. Their job is not to justify clearly illegal actions on behalf of the President; it is to defend the Constitution against executive overreach,” Vitter said.
Vitter questioned: “If you are confirmed as Attorney General Eric Holder’s replacement, will you commit to a vigorous and transparent investigation of the allegations that Clinton used her personal email account and server to shield politically-sensitive material from FOIA requests?”
He added, “If we let Hillary Clinton get away with deleting all of her emails as Secretary of State, we’ll set a dangerous precedent for the Administration moving forward.”
Lynch’s nomination passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 26, 2015. As a member of the Committee, Vitter voted against Lynch’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in February, although her nomination now is before the full Senate.