Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would very much like to understand why Hillary Clinton and 6 of her closest "research aides" may still have access to classified State Department information despite FBI Director Comey's assertion that they were "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."
And, after sending numerous requests to John Kerry's State Department that 'shockingly' fell on deaf ears, Grassely has sent a letter to Secretary of State Tillerson asking why Hillary's security clearance hasn't yet been revoked given that "any other government workers who engaged in such serious offenses would, at a minimum, have their clearances suspended pending an investigation."
I have repeatedly asked the State Department whether Secretary Clinton and her associates had their clearances suspended or revoked to which the Obama Administration refused to respond. Recently, the State Department informed the Committee that six additional Secretary Clinton staff at State were designated as her research assistants which allowed them to retain their clearances after leaving the Department.
Director Comey stated that Secretary Clinton and staff were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” and “there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information…”
Any other government workers who engaged in such serious offenses would, at a minimum, have their clearances suspended pending an investigation. The failure to do so has given the public the impression that Secretary Clinton and her associates received special treatment.
Fox News corespondent Ed Henry covered the situation this morning on Fox and Friends:
“We’re learning from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley that she and six staffers in 2013 retained clearances where they still had access to top secret and classified information, Why? They were titled ‘research assistants.’ So the assumption on Capitol Hill is it was because she was writing her memoirs and saying, ‘Look, I still need access to this information in order to go through what happened in Syria, what happened with Russia. But obviously think back to what James Comey said in how Hillary Clinton handled classified information.”
“He obviously believes something needs to be done about this. The only positive for Chuck Grassley at this point is, there’s no longer a Democrat at the State Department, obviously. You got Rex Tillerson, so if you have these documents on why she retained these clearances, and for example does she still have a clearance today? A lot of former officials get to keep these clearances for years — when they’re consultants … some of them like to retain it because they say I was in the middle of all of these important issues. I need to keep abreast of it. Been then some of these folks in Washington — they say drain the swamp.”
Hillary Clinton and 6 aides had access to classified State Department information after she left office, lawmaker says | @edhenry pic.twitter.com/hJzHUaD7zC
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) March 31, 2017
Something tells us that the current State Department regime may be more responsive to Grassley's request for information.
The full text of Grassley’s letter can be read below:
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