Clinton Email Dispute Ropes in Her Predecessors Powell and Rice

Longtime partisan tensions on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee resurfaced on Thursday after Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah., revealed a plan to pursue his own investigation of agency officials’ use of personal email that is likely to include discussion of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s conduct as Secretary of State.

As reported by Politico, Chaffetz’ plan, which he justified as part of his committee’s jurisdiction over federal records and the Freedom of Information Act, met with lukewarm approval by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who cited fears of partisan appearances at a time when Clinton’s use of a private email server is already under investigation by the FBI, the Justice Department and the State Department and Intelligence Community inspectors general.

Yet another probe planned by House Science, Space and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, was postponed.

Speaking during the break between the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, Chaffetz said, “I’m not specifically trying to target the secretary, but when she creates her own private email system, she’s ensnarled herself.” He added, “I don’t think we should be any harder on her, but I don’t think we should be any easier on her. It’s bigger and broader than just Hillary Clinton.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing to counter what they see as a partisan investigation. Oversight Ranking Member Elijah Cummings, D-Md., on Thursday sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry asking for copies of archived emails with possibly classified information from the personal accounts of past secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, both of whom served during the George W. Bush administration.

“I have always been highly skeptical as Republicans across Capitol Hill have been competing with each other to launch numerous investigations of Secretary Clinton and her email practices,” Cummings said in a statement. “My concern has been that Republicans are spending millions of taxpayer dollars singling out Secretary Clinton because she is running for President—often leaking inaccurate information—while at the same time disregarding the actions of Republican Secretaries of State. In fact, none of the emails Secretary Clinton received was marked classified, and we have seen no evidence that any previous Secretary of State used an official email account,” he said.

The Powell and Rice documents apparently contained no classification markings, Cummings said, noting that they came to light when the State Department Inspector General disclosed them Wednesday to Cummings’ office. Cummings noted that Patrick Kennedy, the State Department’s undersecretary of State for management, received results of the IG’s look back at email use by five previous secretaries. The batch uncovered in December showed two documents containing classified information going to the personal account of Powell and 10 such documents going to that of Rice. The IG is considering whether the documents should now be designated as classified.

“Based on this new revelation,” Cummings said, in his document request, “it is clear that the Republican investigations are nothing more than a transparent political attempt to use taxpayer funds to target the Democratic candidate for president.”

Clinton’s campaign has not been able to shake or answer all questions about her use of a private email server, and emails from President Obama’s first term continue to be released in regular batches. Last week, the State Department for the first time withheld Clinton emails, 22 of them, considered top secret and not releasable.