Here’s what Republican lawmakers are thinking after news that Hillary Clinton deleted 30,000-plus emails she deemed beyond the range of congressional inquiries: 1) During Clinton’s four years as secretary of state and after, Congress sent dozens, perhaps hundreds, of document requests, subpoenas and other inquiries to the State Department. 2) Many of those requests, probably the majority of them, covered the secretary of state’s office. 3) Congress never received Clinton’s emails as part of the Department’s response to those requests. 4) Clinton destroyed at least half of her total emails at a time when those requests from Congress — including subpoenas — were fully in effect. 5) Congress wants to know what was withheld.
“It’s not just Benghazi,” says Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “Part of what we need to do is take an inventory of congressional requests, including subpoenas. It appears on the surface that none of the State Department’s responses was complete. We’re going to go back and ask them again.”
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., head of the Select Committee on Benghazi, will continue to lead the investigation into the attack that killed four Americans in Libya in September 2012. But Congress’ oversight of the State Department extends far beyond Benghazi, and as part of the effort to undo the damage done by Clinton’s secrecy, Chaffetz says he is going to ask every member of Congress to come up with an inventory of what they have requested from the State Department. Those requests will then be re-sent to State in light of the revelation about Clinton’s emails.
Chaffetz expects to receive new information, noting the former secretary’s statement Tuesday that, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.” Therefore, Chaffetz says he expects State to provide complete, unredacted versions of the emails that Clinton hasn’t already destroyed. “She claims everything was unclassified,” says Chaffetz. “So none of it should be held back. One hundred percent of it should have been made available to Congress. If 100 percent was unclassified, there should be no redaction.”
Chaffetz has been on the Oversight Committee for some time, chairing the Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations during the years Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chaired the full committee. That means Chaffetz is used to being delayed by the State Department. “State has been notoriously tardy in their responses,” Chaffetz says. “And obviously they have fallen short of their duty and obligation to provide a complete response.”
Completely apart from Benghazi, Chaffetz knows he has a lot of work to do. For all those requests and subpoenas, over all those years, “the State Department has never certified that they have given us 100 percent of the documents,” Chaffetz says. Now, the Clinton revelations have shown that a full response was not possible, given the former secretary’s secret system. So finding out as much as possible after Clinton’s document destruction will be a huge job. “We’re working on it every day,” says Chaffetz. “We’re really gearing up to do this.”
