Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and six of her “research aides” retained access to classified and top secret documents years after she resigned from the State Department in 2013, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, launched an inquiry into the matter Thursday, citing Clinton’s “extremely careless” handling of classified information as concluded by FBI Director James Comey last summer.
“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,” Grassley said in a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “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.”
Unbelievably, Clinton’s justification for retaining access was that she needed classified info to help write her memoir, Fox News reported.
Grassley went on to say that any government workers who’ve “engaged in serious offenses” would at a minimum have their clearances suspended.
“The failure to do so has given the public the impression that Secretary Clinton and her associates received special treatment,” he pointed out.
Chris Farrell, of watchdog group Judicial Watch, said that it is “outrageous” that Clinton and her aides could still have access after they left the State Department, especially given her past impropriety with classified information.
“It is so unimaginatively offensive that Hillary Clinton or her staff would have any access to classified or top secret information,” Farrell said. “It is a mindblower.”
In July 2016, FBI Director Comey, after investigating Clinton’s private email server, announced that “although we did not find clear evidence that that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
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