House Panels to Reopen Investigations Into Justice Department’s 2016 Decisions

Rachel del Guidice / October 24, 2017

Lawmakers are reopening an investigation into decisions made by the Justice Department in 2016, including those relating to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information.

“Decisions made by the Department of Justice in 2016 have led to a host of outstanding questions that must be answered,” Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a joint statement released Tuesday.

The items under review, according to the House oversight panel, include:

• The move by the FBI to announce the investigation into Clinton’s use of classified information, “but not to publicly announce the investigation into campaign associates of then-candidate Donald Trump.”
• The FBI’s move to notify Congress by formal letter of the status of the [Clinton] investigation in October 2016 and again in November 2016.
• The FBI’s call to “appropriate full decision making in respect to charging or not charging Secretary Clinton to the FBI, rather than the [Justice Department].”

During Clinton’s tenure at the State Department from 2009 to 2013, she used a private email account and server while conducting State Department business.

Gowdy, who took over as chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee when then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, resigned from Congress in June, is continuing the investigation Chaffetz presided over.

“The impartiality of our justice system is the bedrock of our republic, and our fellow citizens must have confidence in its objectivity, independence, and evenhandedness,” Gowdy and Goodlatte said in their statement. “The law is the most equalizing force in this country. No entity or individual is exempt from oversight.”

It is in the best interest of the American people to review the decisions, the lawmakers wrote.

“The committees will review these decisions and others to better understand the reasoning behind how certain conclusions were drawn,” Gowdy and Goodlatte said. “Congress has a constitutional duty to preserve the integrity of our justice system by ensuring transparency and accountability of actions taken.”