By Katie Bo Williams - 09/07/16 11:16 AM EDT
House Oversight Republicans asked officials from the FBI and three other agencies for a classified briefing on Wednesday regarding redactions in the report on Hillary Clinton’s email server -- but were denied.
In response to the refusal, the committee has now scheduled a hearing for Monday morning at which the same four agencies -- the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Departments of Justice and State -- will be asked testify.
Large sections of the 58-page report, released on Friday, were redacted to protect classified information. Committee Republicans believe that some of the blacked-out information — such as names in “to” and “from” lines in emails — has been removed unnecessarily, according to a committee aide.
Among the redacted names is the name of the Platte River Networks technician who erased an archive of Clinton’s emails.
Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Tuesday asked a federal prosecutor to investigate whether Clinton or her aides were involved in the deletion, which occurred a few weeks after The New York Times publicly revealed Clinton’s exclusive use of the server during her time helming the State Department and after the House Benghazi Committee had issued a subpoena for records relating to the attack on the Libyan outpost.
Oversight Democrats have already hammered Chaffetz for both the aborted Wednesday meeting and Monday’s “hastily-scheduled” hearing.
"It is crystal clear that the FBI is now deeply regretting its decision to make a rare exception in this case and provide access to its internal interviews and documents because nothing will ever satisfy Chairman Chaffetz and his Republican colleagues,” Oversight ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a statement.
“
ince Republicans did not get the answer they wanted, they are now investigating the investigator, re-litigating every possible aspect of the investigation, and using taxpayer resources in a blatant attempt to harm Secretary Clinton's poll numbers and help Donald Trump. As I told Director Comey during his testimony before our Committee, the Republicans have now placed him on trial."
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/294780-fbi-refused-to-brief-oversight-committee-on-clinton-report
