Republicans are demanding answers from FBI boss James Comey.
On Monday, they
sent a letter
demanding to know why he didn’t recommend federal charges against
Hillary Clinton over her use of private email servers. Clinton “clearly
placed our nation’s secrets in peril,” the letter states. “No one is
above the law, and the American people deserve a more robust explanation
for your decision to not recommend criminal charges.”
The letter
sent by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia,
and committee member Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, also mentions
emails deleted by Clinton and forensically recovered by the FBI. They
want to know if the emails had anything to do with the Clinton
Foundation.
Director of HSBC Holdings
James
Comey did not recommend federal charges in part because he is connected
to the Clinton Foundation through the Swiss bank HSBC.
Comey was appointed Director of HSBC Holdings
in March, 2013. He became an independent non-executive Director and a
member of the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee. The
appointment was set to expire this year.
Wealthy HSBC clients lined up to
shower cash on the Clinton foundation,
including Jeffrey Epstein, the hedge fund manager and convicted sex
offender. Others include Canadian mining magnate Frank Giustra and
Richard Caring, the British retail magnate.
HSBC is connected to the Clinton Foundation
through a number of initiatives, including its “Building the Corporate
Coalition,” “Scaling Rainwater Harvesting for 21st Century Mexico,”
“Investing in Management and Leadership in Vietnam,” and other projects.
Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, and a number of
transnational corporations, also participate.
Clinton Money Mill
The Clintons have used the foundation to enrich themselves. Documents disclosed through litigation by
Judicial Watch
“provided a road map for over 200 conflict-of-interest rulings that led
to at least $48 million in speaking fees for the Clintons during
Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. Previously disclosed
documents in this lawsuit, for example, raise questions about funds
Clinton accepted from entities linked to Saudi Arabia, China and Iran,
among others.”
Hillary Clinton and her aides were involved in
fundraising for the foundation and “she turned the State Department into
the DC office of the Clinton Foundation.”
Special Prosecutor
Comey
may be on the periphery of Clinton’s use of foreign policy to raise
money for her foundation, but his position at HSBC may explain in part
why she received kid glove treatment while others accused of similar
crimes were prosecuted. His connection, however tenuous, should be
reason enough to revisit the case and appoint a special prosecutor, as
Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona has demanded.
Ohio Republican
Mike Turner
accused the FBI of being “steeped in political bias” and said there
should be an “independent and impartial decision” made about the
legality of Clinton’s use of email.