GOP still wants Clinton probe
WASHINGTON» Democrat Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to President Donald Trump, but some Republicans in Congress are intensifying their calls to investigate her and other Obama administration officials.
As investigations into Russian meddling and possible links to Trump’s campaign have escalated on both sides of the aisle at the Capitol, some Republicans argue that the investigations should have a greater focus on Democrats.
Democrats who have pushed the election probes “have started a war of investigative attrition,” said GOP Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Several officials from former President Barack Obama’s administration and Clinton’s campaign have appeared before or been interviewed by the House and Senate Intelligence Committees as part of the Russia investigation, along with Trump campaign officials. The GOPled committees are investigating whether Trump’s campaign had any links to Russian interference in last year’s election.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has continued a separate investigation into whether Obama administration officials inappropriately made requests to “unmask” identities of Trump campaign officials in intelligence reports.
The House Judiciary Committee, which has declined to investigate the Russian meddling, approved a resolution this past week to request documents related to the FBI’s now-closed investigation of Clinton’s emails.
In addition, Republicans on that committee wrote the Justice Department on Thursday and asked for a second special counsel, in addition to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, to investigate “unaddressed matters, some connected to the 2016 election and others, including many actions taken by Obama administration.”
“The American public has a right to know the facts — all of them — surrounding the election and its aftermath,” the lawmakers wrote.
Republicans want to investigate the unmasking issue and also Clinton’s email scandal that figured prominently in the campaign.