Good.
The recent revelation that former FBI Director James Comey had drafted the letter that let Hillary Clinton off the hook for any wrongdoing involved with her email scandal before all the witnesses were interviewed has revived interest in how that investigation was conducted.
Representative Trey Gowdy now plans to call on Comey to come in for questioning, regarding his decision to pen that letter.
“Have to, won’t we?” the South Carolina Republican told the Washington Examiner when asked about interviewing Comey.
Gowdy chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has opened a joint investigation with the Judiciary Committee in order to review the Justice Department’s handling of the politically charged investigation. Gowdy is particularly concerned that “the decision to charge or not charge [Clinton] was made before all the witnesses were interviewed,” but he emphasized that the investigation topics are structured in a nonpartisan way.
Comey will be in the spotlight on this one, as the focus is firmly on what information the FBI revealed, when, and why.
So was Clinton “extremely careless,” as Comey said?
The committees will also seek answers as to why it was not revealed that members of Trump’s campaign team were under investigation for ties to Russia, as well.
The investigators will demand an explanation for why Comey rocked the political world in October and November of 2016 with a pair of letters alerting Congress to a review of newly found Clinton emails. “Gather documents, gather access to witnesses, do your due diligence, and your investigation and see where it takes you,” Gowdy said of the investigators’ plans.
For those that think this is a “lock her up” moment, however, Gowdy warns that that’s not very likely. This is more of an exercise to restore confidence in the Department of Justice.
“No, not at all, any more than James Comey can unsend a letter that he sent in October,” he said when asked if anything might be reversed by the probe. “All of them are things that have caused people to lose confidence in the Department of Justice, on one side or the other, and there may be an eminently plausible explanation … Comey may have a really good explanation for why he felt like he had to send a letter in October and there was no other means of notifying Congress, but we need to hear it.”
Gowdy pointed out that it wouldn’t be an open hearing, but rather, an intensive, sit-down interview.
“I’m not a hearing guy,” Gowdy said. “I’m a five hours guy, not a five minutes guy, so, not a hearing.”
We may not get justice, but maybe we can get some answers.
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