The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Monday vowed to continue the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server despite the former secretary of state’s defeat in the 2016 presidential election.
“Just because there was a political election doesn’t mean it goes away, so of course I am going to continue to pursue that,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told reporters.
Chaffetz called finishing the investigation into Clinton one of his top priorities for the committee and noted the State Department has been “terribly slow and inefficient” in turning over documents forcing this to be dragged out.
“It was potentially one of the largest breaches in security in the history of the State Department. It cannot and should not be repeated ever again,” he said. “There are still open questions that we need to finish up so they won’t happen again.”
President-elect Donald Trump has indicated he does not intend to push for further investigation into Clinton's emails or the Clinton Foundation.
The FBI completed its own investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server while she serves as secretary of state. The agency concluded Clinton’s email use was “extremely careless” but did not recommend criminal charges.
The Utah Republican also vowed to not to be “a cheerleader” for Trump but to hold the incoming president – whom he has not met with since 2008 – accountable.
But Chaffetz has yet to respond to Democrats on the Committee asking for investigations into Trump’s potential conflicts of interest – including his global business holdings and family involvement.
Chaffetz, who noted Trump’s role as a multi-billionaire businessman is different than past presidents and plans to meet soon with incoming White House Counsel Don McGahn.
“My concern is that there is compliance with the law. I will tell you the president is exempt from a lot of these. I didn’t write these laws but that’s the reality of it,” he said, adding “maybe some of that should be tightened up but it’s not something I dove into.”
And while Chaffetz wouldn’t weigh in specifically about Trump naming his son-in-law Jared Kushner as a senior advisor to the president, the chairman did tell reporters: “if you’re going to have a relative working in the White House, that’s going to draw some questions and it will from us as well.”
