FBI Director James Comey, left, speaks during a press conference on July 5, 2016, while Hillary Clinton, right, followed by aide Huma Abedin, to her right, at Andrews Air Force Base on July 5, 2016. (Photos: AP)
While FBI Director James Comey announced he will not prosecute Hillary Clinton over the email scandal, her troubles with the Bureau aren’t over yet. Mrs. Clinton, the former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic nominee for president, will still be the target of at least one federal criminal investigation.
During a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Thursday, Chairman Jason Chaffetz said he would be sending a referral to the FBI to investigate Mrs. Clinton for perjury regarding multiple false statements she made to Congress.
At least three statements she made to Congress were proven to be untrue during the FBI investigation into her mishandling of classified information by using a private, unauthorized email server to conduct official State Department business. When asked why he did not look into that activity, Director Comey said he would need a referral from Congress before investigating.
“You’ll have one,” Chairman Chaffetz said, within “a few hours.”
A referral by the State Department inspector general, who conducted a separate review that concluded Mrs. Clinton broke federal records-keeping regulations, kicked off the Bureau’s investigation into her email practices.
The statements in question were made during a hearing on Benghazi in 2015 and include Mrs. Clinton’s claim “nothing marked classified on my e-mails were sent and received” and that she turned over “all my work related emails.” Finally, the last statement related to the process used to sort and delete some 30,000 emails. Mrs. Clinton told the committee that her attorneys “went through every single e-mail.”
None of those sworn statements were true.
In essence, while Hillary Clinton misled the American public, she escaped prosecution on the email case by telling the FBI during a 3.5-hour long interview, the truth. However, she gave members of Congress the same various explanations that she gave the public, which have now been proven false by the IG audit and FBI investigators.
The FBI head said during his testimony on Thursday that Gmail was a more secure system and, though they could not find specific evidence of her account being hacked by hostile entities, they are operating under the assumption that it was. The Bureau did find evidence of her underlings’ accounts, which she frequently corresponded with, were compromised.
Director Comey was also asked by the chairman at the end of the hearing about Mrs. Clinton being the target of a criminal investigation into public corruption at the Clinton Foundation.
“I will not confirm or deny whether there is an open investigation into the Clinton Foundation.”
As PPD previously reported, the email investigation in January uncovered potential public corruption activities at the Clinton Foundation. That led the FBI to look at whether Mrs. Clinton sold access during her tenure as secretary of state, in addition to whether she mishandled classified information.
Below is the relevant statute on perjury:
Whoever—
(1)
having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or(2)
in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code, willfully subscribes as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true;is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. This section is applicable whether the statement or subscription is made within or without the United States.
