Lynch says she uses government email for official business

Attorney General Loretta Lynch repeatedly dodged questions Tuesday regarding the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, and the FBI’s decision not to recommend she be charged.

Lynch sidestepped questions Tuesday about the false-statement accusations, telling the committee it should direct its questions about Comey’s conclusions to him.

That approach “does not seem to be a responsible way to uphold your constitutionally sworn oath”, said the panel’s chairman, GOP Rep.

“Secretary Clinton’s “extreme carelessness” possibly jeopardized the safety and security of our citizens and nation”, Goodlatte said.

In its May report on Clinton’s email practices, the State Department’s inspector general found that her decision not to use an official department email address “is not an appropriate method” of preserving emails under the Federal Records Act.

“We’re beating a dead horse here for political reasons”, said Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California.

But Republicans kept the focus on Clinton, trying to draw Lynch out on whether Clinton lied to the public or to Congress, and on a couple of occasions turning the conversation to then-president Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings 18 years ago. “Are you aware of that?”

Lynch’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee came a day after House Republicans asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clinton had lied to Congress.

In his testimony before Congress, the FBI Director alleges Hillary Clinton did not know what she was doing when she was violating Federal Laws; if that is true, it goes to her lack of “competence”, she has demonstrated she is “incompetent” to ever be trusted to handle classified material again.

Republicans demanded to know how Clinton could have avoided prosecution under a “gross negligence” law when Comey had described her and her aides as “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information.

Lynch repeatedly referred the committee to last week’s testimony by FBI Director James Comey, who gave a detailed account of the investigation in a almost five-hour appearance before another House panel and described the rationale for his advice that no charges be brought.

“Every case is different, every case has to be handled in the same way, every individual, whether they are a former secretary or anyone else, has to be reviewed with the facts and the law”, Lynch said to the committee.

Other Republicans on the committee did not have any better luck.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia halted a hearing and told Lynch that her refusal to discuss the investigation represented an “abdication of your responsibility”.

“I, as attorney general, am not able to provide any further comment on the facts or the substance of the investigation”, Lynch told the House Judiciary Committee in her first testimony before Congress since the conclusion of the case last week, when she chose to accept the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s recommendations not to file criminal charges against Clinton for her handling of classified information on a private email server.

“Why was this meeting, particularly in light of your previous appointment by President Clinton [to a position of USA attorney in New York], not grounds for recusing yourself?” he asked.

Lynch: – and I felt it was important to clarify that even before I had landed in Phoenix, I had made a decision. Some critics of the director’s recommendation believe that that meeting along with Lynch’s long-standing relationship with the Clintons influenced the outcome of the investigation.