House Oversight Committee Republicans on Tuesday formally called for an immediate hearing on security breaches at the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s leadership, after the department said Monday it had uncovered “multiple security incidents” involving more than a dozen employees.
In a letter to Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking committee Republicans Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows and Jody Hice said State Department officials conducting the ongoing security review into the matter should testify.
“We request a hearing to examine widespread security protocol breaches at the State Department concerning former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s private email server,” the Republicans wrote. “The unorthodox and unsecure arrangement she maintained exposed classified, national security and diplomatic-sensitive information to a myriad of risks and related issues.
On Monday, the State Department disclosed that it had identified “multiple security incidents” involving current or former employees’ handling of Clinton’s emails, and that 23 “violations” and seven “infractions” have been issued as part of the department’s ongoing investigation.
The information came in a letter to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who is responsible for overseeing the security review.
“To this point, the department has assessed culpability to 15 individuals, some of whom were culpable in multiple security incidents,” Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the State Department’s assistant secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs, wrote to Grassley. “DS has issued 23 violations and seven infractions. … This number will likely change as the review progresses.”
President Trump highlighted the finding in a tweet overnight, questioning whether Democrats would investigate and saying, “This is really big.”
Wow! The State Department said it has identified 30 Security Incidents involving current or former employees and their handling of Crooked Hillary Clinton’s Emails. @FoxNews This is really big. Never admitted before. Highly Classified Material. Will the Dems investigate this?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019
Former House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, now a Fox News contributor, said Tuesday that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should personally handle the probe into departmental misconduct.
“I love Mike Pompeo as the secretary of state,” Chaffetz said. “I have the greatest respect for him, he’s got his very full plate, but he has to personally get involved with this. Some people should be fired, they should lose their security clearances and they should be in jail.”
The State Department, dubbing the matter “serious,” said it expected to conclude its investigation by Sept. 1. The department acknowledged that the probe was unusually time-consuming.
“Given the volume of emails provided to the department from former Secretary Clinton’s private email server, the department’s process has been necessarily more complicated and complex requiring a significant dedication of time and resources,” Taylor wrote.
Hearings?!? Hearings for WHAT? What we need is INDICTMENTS and TRIALS.
Finally, someone has actually brought the evidence forth. When they also show Obama’s emails on her server and his violations, then maybe that will change the tone of the accusations. As many as 15 people participated in the unsecured email scandal? Wow!
@Randy: None of them actually used their own names they used aliases, even Stinkys daughter Chelsea had an alias, like China would be fooled.