House Oversight Committee Democrats on Thursday repeatedly hammered Republicans for investigating possible record-keeping violations by Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonDemocrats worry negative images are defining White House Heller won't say if Biden won election Whitmer trailing GOP challenger by 6 points in Michigan governor race: poll MORE and not by other former secretaries of State.
“This hearing is supposed to be focused on a report issued by the State Department Inspector General [IG] that highlighted longstanding challenges with [the Freedom of Information Act] across five different Secretaries of State,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said during his opening statement.
The hearing was billed as "examining FOIA compliance at the Department of State."
“Yet, the Republicans splashed only one picture across the advisory they sent to press — a picture of Secretary Clinton,” Cummings said.
“If we’re going to put our national leaders under the microscope it shouldn’t be just the Democrats under investigation — and that’s what I feel like is going on right here,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.).
“This is a sham. The comments of the Republican leader earlier indicated that this whole attempt was to rip down Hillary Clinton and ruin her reputation.”
In addition to Clinton, the State Department IG report identified FOIA concerns under Secretaries Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and John Kerry
John KerryOvernight Energy & Environment — Presented by the League of Conservation Voters — EPA finalizing rule cutting HFCs Overnight Energy & Environment — Presented by the League of Conservation Voters — Senate Finance chair backs budget action on fossil fuel subsidies Kerry: 'We can't get where we need to go' in climate fight if China isn't joining in MORE — including that classified emails were received on the personal accounts of Powell and senior aides to Rice.
Committee Democrats on Wednesday night released a 2009 email exchange between Clinton and her predecessor, Powell, in which Powell sent her a detailed explanation of how he got around some of the State Department's security measures.
The emails, Cummings said, showed that Clinton’s use of a personal server was not outside of the norm for a person in her position.
“Rather than responding like Republicans by making a series of frivolous criminal referrals just to generate headlines to help Donald Trump
Donald TrumpCheney says a lot of GOP lawmakers have privately encouraged her fight against Trump Republicans criticizing Afghan refugees face risks DeVos says 'principles have been overtaken by personalities' in GOP MORE, our goal as a Committee should be to ensure that the historical record is complete,” Cummings said.
“If we are truly concerned with preserving the entire historical record, why hasn’t the Committee sent a letter asking AOL to see if any of Secretary Powell’s emails are recoverable?”
Chairman Jason Chaffetz
Jason ChaffetzCongress's latest hacking investigation should model its most recent Fox News Audio expands stable of podcasts by adding five new shows The myth of the conservative bestseller MORE (R-Utah) insisted that the committee has asked for records from the current and past four secretaries of State, but that the record was “incomplete.”
Neither Albright nor Rice used email, according to Ambassador Patrick F. Kennedy, undersecretary for management at State.
“I will work with you to recover those emails,” Chaffetz said to Cummings. “I just want the federal records.”
“All of them?” pressed Cummings.
“Yes, all of them,” Chaffetz said, adding that “there is but one investigation into the destruction of records.”
“We have a job to do and we’re going to do it.”
