Elijah Cummings called "frantic pre-election fervor," where much of the focus centered around the Clinton investigation instead of the sluggish Freedom of Information Act process.Ĭhaffetz has already scheduled another hearing for Sept. 8 hearing meant for this vein rapidly devolved into what Rep. If Chaffetz really wants the information, Maloney said, all he need do is schedule a hearing with the Intelligence Committee.Ī Sept. "Stirring up a hornet's nest about documents he can't see, which are being withheld from him from members of his own party." "I fear it's just pure plain politics as usual," she said. Maloney added that "the documents are actually being withheld by the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, not the FBI." "For several weeks the chairman has appeared in these hearings and has made it sound as if the FBI has refused to provide him with these documents." "The accusations and the charges and the attacks are almost out of control," said Maloney, a New York Democrat.
Carolyn Maloney offered a quick dressing-down of Chaffetz before the vote passed. After close to two hours of gridlock between the committee and State Department officials, the committee passed a motion 25-0 to hold a closed-hearing vote. Higgins responded that he would be willing to answer in a closed session. Still, members of the committee grappled over certain omissions that appear arbitrary, such as openly naming four of the five attorneys retained by Clinton in the file, but redacting the name of the fifth. Herring then echoed statements made by FBI Director James Comey from July about the lack of evidence that Clinton's activities merited criminal prosecution.Īlong with Neal Higgins, director of congressional affairs for the CIA, Herring repeatedly stressed that the redactions are meant to protect the private information and identities of individuals named in the file, and to protect potential-national security interests. "With all due respect, you don't get to decide what we think is relevant."
"Relevant according to whom," Gowdy asked. Trey Gowdy questioned why the FBI had furnished the House Intelligence Committee with documents containing far less redactions, Herring told the South Carolina congressman that the FBI had provided the committee with everything, redactions withstanding, it deemed relevant. Other forms not yet released to the oversight committee are forthcoming, Herring added. One of the newly released emails, for example, shows that former secretary of state Colin Powell advised Clinton about conducting State Department business on his private email server.įBI Acting Assistant Director Jason Herring reminded the committee Monday that the FBI had already provided various FD-302 forms, the official summaries of interviews from the investigation. While Republican members of Congress dissatisfied with that explanation have held repeated hearings since then to learn more, Democrats have noted that the hyper-focus on Clinton is at odds with the information the House is receiving. Upon closing that investigation in July, the FBI said Clinton's email habits had been "extremely careless" but lacked the criminal intent necessary to support charges. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican who chairs the committee, summoned agents from the FBI, Department of Justice and CIA for the hearing Monday under "threat of subpoena" to explain redactions from the files it has produced about the Clinton investigation. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, slamming the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for its persistent "grasping of straws" in the already closed Clinton investigation. "It's a sad goddamn day for this committee," lamented Rep. WASHINGTON (CN) - A congressional hearing into Hillary Clinton's email activities featured a baffling revelation Monday when Democrats noted that the redacted information over which Republicans are clamoring is being withheld by a different GOP committee.
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