Former FBI director James Comey has been called to Capitol Hill to resolve discrepancies in statements concerning his involvement in Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. During the 2016 Presidential election, Clinton was severely criticized for her use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State. While such use is not illegal, White House correspondents confirmed that users “must forward all work-related communications to their official White House email accounts”, something Mrs. Clinton failed to do. She later admitted to Fox News that her private use was “a dumb mistake” but insisted that the controversy following it was a “dumber scandal”.
Collusion
During campaigning, President Donald Trump repeatedly promised that “if he was in charge, Clinton would be in jail”. On Tuesday, House Republicans expressed concern that Mr. Comey and other senior Government officials may have “prejudged the matter before all the facts were known”, and cleared Clinton’s name before campaigning ended. They believe that Mr. Comey drafted an “exoneration letter” in advance, to her benefit, ensuring she did not face the brunt of the law. When asked whether he had decided Clinton was innocent before or after being interviewed by the FBI in July 2016, Comey replied “After”. However, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte is adamant that was a lie. In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Goodlatte complained that interviews with Clinton and other suspicious associates were never recorded.
In his opinion, the practice showed that “there is, truly, one system for the powerful and politically well-connected, and another for everyone else.”
Hypocrisy
While the focus remains on Clinton’s private server use, reports have surfaced that members of Trump’s own administration are doing the same thing. ABC News said, “at least six administration officials occasionally used private email to communicate about official business”.
The Times lists these current and former staffers as: “Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, Former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Chief Economic Adviser Gary Cohn, Adviser Ivanka Trump, Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller”. Clinton described the discovery as "height of hypocrisy" by the Trump administration.
The leak to the media came following a Freedom of Information request by the American Oversight pressure group. Its Executive Director Austin Evers said, “yet again we see that there’s one rule for the Trump family and another for everyone else.”
Moving on
Clinton is currently on a tour of her third memoir ‘What Happened’. She calls it a reflection on the 2016 election and why she thinks she lost to the Republican nominee, Trump. She opines that had she really committed any wrong by using her private email, members of Congress would be calling for an investigation but yet, they still haven’t. Concerning the Trump administration’s constant attacks on her, Clinton reiterated that there was “no basis for their hyperventilating and it was just a matter of hypocrisy at the highest level.”
