A spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign said on Tuesday that House Republicans are overreaching with a new request to investigate Mrs. Clinton for possible perjury charges.
“This is pure partisan overreach,” Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said on CNN’s “New Day.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the House oversight committee, and Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia on Monday requesting an investigation into whether Mrs. Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, perjured herself in testifying before Congress.
“Let me just begin by stressing once again that obviously Hillary Clinton recognizes that this was an error; this was a mistake to set up her email arrangement this way,” Mr. Fallon said.
Mr. Fallon said Republicans didn’t like the outcome of the FBI’s investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email set-up, so now they’re trying to keep the issue alive and continue attacking Mrs. Clinton over it.
FBI Director James B. Comey said last week that Mrs. Clinton was reckless with her email arrangement but that the department would not be recommending criminal charges in the case.
SEE ALSO: Bob Goodlatte, House Judiciary Committee chairman: Email issue ‘will dog’ Hillary Clinton
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan also asked Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper to deny Mrs. Clinton intelligence briefings for the rest of her presidential campaign in light of Mr. Comey’s comments about the email set-up. CNN said Mr. Clapper denied the request.
“Now, I think that this effort by Jason Chaffetz to suggest that the FBI re-open its investigation is going to similarly fall flat,” Mr. Fallon said.
According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released this week, 56 percent of Americans said they disapprove of the FBI’s decision not to recommend charges in the case.
Mr. Fallon said that poll was taken before Mr. Comey’s extensive testimony before Congress on Thursday. The poll was conducted last Wednesday and Thursday, after Mr. Comey had announced on Tuesday that he was not recommending charges.
“On issue after issue, point after point that the critics keep trying to harp on, Director Comey actually said very helpful things that boosted Secretary Clinton on Thursday,” he said. “I think the public’s still absorbing that.”
On Thursday, Mr. Comey also questioned whether Mrs. Clinton was sophisticated enough to understand classification markings.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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