Republicans quietly close House probes into decisions FBI made in 2016 about Trump and Clinton
- Inquiries looked at agency’s handling of Hillary Clinton’s email scandal and Donald Trump’s alleged ties with Russia
- Lawmakers said they ‘revealed troubling facts’ that need more attention while reviewing thousands of documents and conducting interviews
Republicans in the US House of Representatives say more investigation is needed into decisions made by the FBI and Justice Department in 2016 as they brought an unceremonious end to their year-long look at the department’s handling of inquiries into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails and Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
In a letter released on Friday evening, less than a week before Republicans cede the House majority to Democrats, the chairmen of two committees described what they said was the “seemingly disparate treatment” the two investigations received during the presidential election in 2016 and called on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate further.
House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte and Representative Trey Gowdy, House Oversight and Government Reform chairman – both of whom are retiring next week – sent a letter to the Justice Department and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying they reviewed thousands of documents and conducted interviews that “revealed troubling facts which exacerbated our initial questions and concerns”. Republicans have said since the election they believe Justice officials were biased against President Trump when they started an investigation into his ties to Russia and cleared Clinton in a separate probe into her email use.
The wrapping up of the congressional investigation, done in a letter and without a full final report, was a quiet end to a probe that was conducted mostly behind closed doors but also in public as Republican lawmakers often criticised interview subjects afterward and suggested they were conspiring against Trump.