Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California said Friday that the FBI wants to indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with her top aide Huma Abedin, for using an unsecured private email system to conduct official government business, however, the bureau must first "triple-time make" a case that is already considered a slam dunk by normal standards.
"I think the FBI director would like to indict both Huma and Hillary as we speak," Issa, former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told The Washington Examiner.
FBI Director James Comey, in an attempt to shoot down concerns that the FBI may treat a Democratic presidential candidate more favorably than usual, told the Senate Judiciary Committee in December that he doesn't "give a rip about politics" and only cares about "finding out what is true and doing that in a competent, honest and independent way," reported The Hill.
The FBI opened an investigation into Clinton's email arrangement after the intelligence community inspector general revealed this summer that at least two emails found on her server contained information classified as "top secret" at the time Clinton received them. Since then, the State Department says that around 1,340 emails were retroactively classified as it prepared them for pubic release, including one email that was classified above the top secret level. Clinton has insisted that she never sent or received any information marked classified.
"You can't have 1,300 highly sensitive emails that contain highly sensitive material that's taken all, or in part from classified documents, and have it be an accident," Issa told the Examiner. "There's no question, she knew she had a responsibility and she circumvented it. And she circumvented it a second time when she knowingly let highly classified material get onto emails in an unclassified format."
Even if the FBI does end up recommending an indictment against Clinton, who has a good chance of becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, it's up to the Justice Department to bring charges, something that Issa believes would not happen under Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
"I've worked with both the last attorney general ... and this attorney general, and I really don't believe they'll do it," Issa said. "Doing it, by definition, would end her run for president."
Just two days ago, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, told Newsmax TV that his friends in the FBI say they are ready to indict Clinton, and if Lynch fails to pursue their recommendation, "they're going public."
"One way or another, either she's going to be indicted and that process begins, or we try her in the public eye with her campaign," DeLay said.
