USA attorney general faces lawmakers’ questions on Clinton at Congress

Lynch replied that she “can’t speak” to the cases Issa referred to, and “every case has to be handled the same way”.

At the end of this story, Americans themselves will render the ultimate verdict on whether Clinton’s handling of classified information during her days at State should keep her out of the Oval Office and, effectively, end her political career.

Lynch did say, in response to questioning from Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, that she had never discussed Clintons email practices with either Hillary or Bill Clinton, and she also said she had not discussed with either of them a position in the Hillary Clinton administration.

The congressman said he did not have a chance and he saw other Republicans, many of them former prosecutors, getting the same treatment. Nor had she discussed with them a position in the Hillary Clinton administration, she said.

And Republicans criticized Lynch’s decision to adopt the unanimous recommendation from Comey and the Federal Bureau of Investigation team that investigated Clinton.

Rep. Jim Jordan of OH also asked the attorney Ggneral why she had accepted the recommendation even before it was announced.

“I think your actions made it worse, I really do, ” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

The FBI investigation found several thousand emails that are work related and not part of the 30,000 that Clinton turned over to the State Department, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Republicans grew frustrated with Lynch’s avoidance of answering legal questions as the meeting stretched into its third hour.

Goodlatte, the panel’s chairman, said Clinton’s carelessness with classified information “suggests she can not be trusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets if she is nevertheless elected president”.

Two key GOP chairmen have escalated an investigation into the security of Hillary ClintonHillary Rodham ClintonPoll: Clinton holds 3-point lead over Trump nationally Obama’s legacy: The trashing of free speech Ryan: “Dangerous call” to give Clinton classified briefings MORE’s email server, despite pushback from Republican leadership earlier this year.

Mr. Comey last week said Mrs. Clinton may well have broken federal laws by sending and receiving classified information on her secret server kept at her home in NY.

Mr Comey specifically rebutted a litany of Republican charges including that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been biased, ignored the law, applied it unjustly or co-ordinated the decision with Mrs Clinton’s campaign.

“If Attorney General Lynch doesn’t want to answer questions about the investigation, then she should have appointed a special prosecutor at the start of the investigation”, Goodlatte said, adding, “The American people deserve transparency about this investigation”. That followed police killings of Philando Castile, who was fatally shot near St. Paul, Minnesota, and Alton Sterling, who was shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.