Press Releases

Grothman Committee Holds Back-to-Back Hearings on Clinton Emails

(Washington, D. C.) – The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (OGR), of which Congressman Grothman (R-Glenbeulah) is a member, yesterday and today held hearings on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Sept. 13, 2016 Hearing:

Today’s OGR hearing focused on the failure to preserve federal records from Clinton’s time as Secretary of State.

The hearing included testimony from Justin Cooper, a personal employee of the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation. Two other witnesses invoked their Fifth Amendment right. Former Clinton staffer who set up the private email server, Bryan Pagliano, failed to appear at the hearing despite a subpoena.

Excerpts of Grothmans’s Remarks:

“You first became involved with President Clinton in 1999? From the time President Clinton left office, from then until today, you say you work for the Clintons. Was it personal for two years, the Foundation, executive services corporation? Who was cutting the checks?

“Did you have any coordination with the Foundation?

“Did you receive emails from Secretary Clinton or Huma [Abedin] about the Foundation?

“Did you receive  emails from Secretary Clinton or Huma [Abedin] about the State Department?”

Click here to view Grothman’s full line of questioning.

Background:

From 2009-2013, the State Department lost countless federal records due to inadequate record-keeping practices by Secretary Clinton and her staff.

Due to this inadequate recordkeeping, hundreds of received FOIA requests go unfulfilled and it remains unclear whether those requesters will ever receive a full and complete response.

Additionally, Clinton signed an affidavit promising that all her records were turned over to the State Department. Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) discovered disks which contain at least 14,900 of Clinton’s emails with the possibility for more to be discovered.

Sept. 12, 2016 Hearing:

Yesterday’s OGR hearing included testimony from federal officials from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Department of State, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency/Central Security Service about redactions, omissions and classifications in the investigative file of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

During the hearing, OGR Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) issued a subpoena on behalf of the committee for the FBI to hand over Clinton’s complete investigative file.

“The OGR Committee is committed to making sure that Secretary Clinton’s improper use of email did not jeopardize the security of Americans in any way,” said Grothman. “The fact that the FBI is redacting and omitting information from Clinton’s investigative file is making our job – the job we were elected to do by the American people – harder. Secretary Clinton and the FBI’s unwillingness to be transparent should not be prioritized over our nation’s security.”

Background:

On July 7, 2016, FBI Director James Comey testified before the OGR Committee that the FBI would provide to Congress whatever it could of Secretary Clinton’s investigative file without breaking the law or breaching FBI policy.

The FBI provided the OGR Committee with a production of Clinton’s investigative file on Aug. 16 and two additional, supposedly identical productions the following day. The three productions were not consistent and the FBI offered no explanation for the differences.

Additionally, the productions provided by the FBI were greatly redacted or contained complete omissions.

U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman is serving his first term representing Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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