The government should deny Hillary Clinton the regular national security briefings presidential nominees generally receive, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday night.
Mr. Ryan also said the House will hold hearings and demand that FBI Director James B. Comey testify about why, after laying out a case against Mrs. Clinton’s secret email server, he refused to recommend charges against her.
“I think the DNI, the director of national intelligence, should block her access to classified information,” Mr. Ryan said on Fox News.
Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Comey announced the findings of the FBI’s yearlong investigation, saying Mrs. Clinton’s secret email account could well have been hacked by enemy agents. He said she did, in fact, send and receive information that was classified at the time she handled it.
Mr. Comey said Mrs. Clinton may well have broken laws but he would recommend that the Justice Department not pursue charges against her. He said he didn’t think anyone else had been successfully prosecuted for that level of offense.
Mr. Ryan said the FBI will have to turn over its investigative files so Congress, and voters, can see how Mr. Comey made his recommendation.
He also said that if Mrs. Clinton isn’t prosecuted, she should have her access to secret information cut off: a severe embarrassment to any presidential candidate but a step President Obama’s political appointees, who control those decisions, are unlikely to take.
Even if Mrs. Clinton faces no punishment, Mr. Ryan said Mr. Comey poked holes in the version of events she has given since news of her secret email account broke last year.
Mr. Comey said she did send and receive information that had classified markings at the time she handled it. He also said she did pose a risk of top-secret information falling into enemy hands and that she and her attorneys failed to return all work-related emails to the State Department, despite her insistence to the contrary.
“He shredded the case that she’s been making all year long,” Mr. Ryan said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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