Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) on Tuesday castigated Republican lawmakers for calling special council Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation a witch hunt targeting President Donald Trump, arguing that Hillary Clinton was the only person connected to the 2016 presidential campaign to be "victimized by prosecutorial misconduct."
Jeffries also argued that James Comey was to blame for Clinton’s election loss, charging that the former FBI director "executed" her campaign.
"For the last few hours, we’ve sat in this hearing, and some of my colleagues, part of the cover-up caucus, have attempted to peddle conspiracy theories that the investigation into the Trump campaign’s potential criminality, where we were attacked by a hostile foreign power, is a witch hunt," Jeffries said at a joint hearing of the House Oversight & Government Reform and Judiciary committees. "There is not a scintilla of evidence that a witch hunt exists right now."
Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz appeared before the committees to testify about his report, released last week, on the FBI probe into Clinton’s private email server, which showed the FBI mishandled the investigation and bureau agents engaged in improper behavior.
Jeffries said that if any individual connected to the 2016 presidential campaign was a victim of prosecutorial misconduct, "her name was Hillary Clinton."
The congressman blasted Comey for violating Department of Justice protocol on multiple occasions during the Clinton email probe—most notably, he said, in July 2016, when the then-FBI chief publicly called Clinton "extremely careless" with her handling of classified information but recommended the department bring no criminal charges against her. Jeffries also cited Oct. 28 of that year, when Comey re-opened the investigation after finding new emails just 11 days before the election.
"What are you guys complaining about?" Jeffries asked Republicans. "You know what happened. James Comey decided to play judge, jury, and executioner, and on October 28th, he executed the Hillary Clinton campaign, killed her in Pennsylvania, killed her in Michigan, killed her in Wisconsin, and handed Donald Trump the presidency."
Jeffries also condemned Comey for not announcing an investigation into the Trump campaign for possible ties to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
"Stop peddling lies about a so-called Democratic witch hunt," he said.
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