Two days ago the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia), wrote a letter to AG Lynch that, for the first time, revealed that the FBI apparently struck “side agreements” with both Cheryl Mills an Heather Samuelson to, among other things, “destroy” their “laptops after concluding their search” (see “FBI Allowed 2 Hillary Aides To “Destroy” Their Laptops In Newly Exposed ‘Side Agreements’“).
Today, Jason Chaffetz, Chair of the House Oversight Committee, sent a follow-up letter requesting additional information and blasting the investigative process in which the “FBI inexplicably agreed to destroy the laptops knowing that the contents were the subject of Congressional subpoenas and preservation letters.”
But, perhaps the most startling takeaway from the Chaffetz letter is that limitations imposed by “side agreements” with Mills and Samuelson strictly prohibited the FBI from investigating the “intent” of Hillary’s staff to obstruct justice and/or destroy evidence subject to a Congressional subpoena. As pointed out by Chaffetz, the “side agreements” allowed the FBI to only review emails between 6/1/14 through 2/1/15 and only those sent/received by one of Clinton’s four email addresses used during her tenure as Secretary of State.
Even more disturbing, Chaffetz points out that the FBI agreed to the “side agreements” in June 2016 at which point they were already aware that Combetta deleted Hillary’s emails using Bleachbit on 3/31/15 after a conference call with Cheryl Mills and Hillary attorney, David Kendall. That said, the restrictions imposed by the “side agreements” strictly prohibited the FBI from reviewing Mills’ emails during that period which could have spoken to her intent to destroy evidence.
But, as always, we’re sure the DOJ and FBI will promptly clarify all of these new questions in a completely open and transparent way.
powered by sue.ng a legal search engine