Former Top FBI Official: DOJ Didn’t Want To Grant Access To Clinton Attorney Laptops
SaraACarter.com
There’s been so much written about the testimony of former FBI and DOJ officials to Congress and each little bit formulates a more cohesive picture of what was occurring during the probe into Hillary Clinton and that of President Trump’s campaign.
Within the thousands of pages of testimony released over the past month, the public learns more about how the bureau handled the probe into Clinton’s use of a private server to send classified government emails and the investigation into the alleged – now debunked – Trump Russia investigation.
The information raises significant questions of malfeasance, obstruction and bias in the investigations.
The testimony of James Rybicki, who served as chief of staff to former FBI Director James Comey, is one of them.
He left the FBI in January, 2018 to work in the private sector and was often cited in DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report into the bureau’s investigation of Clinton.
DOJ Tried To Block Access To Clinton Attorney Laptops
Rybicki’s testimony before the joint committee with the House Judiciary and House Government and Oversight last year reveals the intricate role of the DOJ in attempting to limit the FBI’s ability to gain access to laptops belonging to two Clinton confidants Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson.
Concern over the laptops and the FBI’s immunity agreement with Clinton’s lawyers to gain limited access to them was first reported by Fox New’s Catherine Herridge in 2016. Herridge revealed that Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson were granted immunity by the Justice Department in June, 2016, approximately one month before the FBI closed its criminal investigation into Clinton in exchange for access to the laptops that contained classified information.
Rybicki’s testimony, however, makes clear that the DOJ didn’t want to give the FBI access to the laptops. It’s also revealing in its nature, suggesting the the FBI agents – which believed the laptops contained classified information – chose to act differently than in has in other similar cases. They did not use their prerogative to obtain a Grand Jury subpoena for the equipment or issue a warrant to gain possession of them. Instead, the FBI negotiated and relied heavily on those they were investigating, Clinton and her lawyers, to set the terms of the deal, as previously reported.
As for the laptops, it is uncertain what happened them. According to then-Chairman of the House Judiciary Rep. Bob Goodlatte the FBI had a side agreements to destroy the laptops after conducting the limited search. On the other hand, other reportssuggest that the FBI did not destroy the laptops but instead, are still in possession of them.
FBI spokeswoman Carol Cratty referred SaraACarter.com to Inspector General Horowitz report, which did not disclose what happened to the laptops after the FBI investigated. Cratty did not say what happened to the laptops.
Tom Fitton, president of the nonprofit government watchdog group Judicial Watch, said mounting evidence suggests the DOJ and FBI were granting favoritism to Clinton during the ‘Mid-Year’ investigation. His organization is continuing to fight to obtain access to those emails, even those she claimed to have destroyed.
“We never received a full accounting of what happened to the laptop evidence,” Fitton told SaraACarter.com. “As best we can tell it’s a mystery.”
In November, 2016 Real Clear Politics, reporting on recent information uncovered by Fox New’s Bret Baier, stated that the “laptops of Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson” had still not been destroyed.
Rybicki Testimony
Rybicki, whose testimony reviewed by SaraACarter.com but has not yet been made public, told lawmakers that the DOJ did not want the FBI to have access to six laptops in Clinton’s lawyer’s possession. And once the laptops were in the possession of the FBI the access was extremely limited. Rybicki also recounts a meeting with then Attorney General Loretta Lynch, suggesting she, along with former FBI Director James Comey and others, discussed whether or not to pursue charges against Clinton.
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