The FBI on Monday released 100 new pages of material from its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email system, opening the possibility that classified information may have been mishandled.
The new notes and interview summaries are likely to shed new light on the bureau’s yearlong investigation into Clinton and her allies and spark additional outrage from congressional Republicans.
{mosads}Despite claiming that the former secretary of State and her aides had been “extremely careless,” FBI Director James Comey has insisted that his investigators did not find evidence to support a criminal charge against the Democratic presidential nominee. The Justice Department ultimately decided not to press charges over the matter.
However, Republicans have refused to accept the department’s conclusion and have accused officials, including Comey, of creating a double standard for Clinton.
Responding to the congressional pressure, the FBI has previously released some of the notes from its investigation, including a summary of Clinton’s interview with federal officials.
The new release on Monday contains summaries of interviews conducted by the FBI — known by the form number of 302 — of several contractors and government officials involved with the State Department in some fashion. Many of the names have been redacted.
One story that appears sure to outrage critics of the Obama administration is evidence that high-ranking State Department staffer Patrick Kennedy pressured the FBI not to classify an email in Clinton’s archive. The email contained information about arrests following the 2012 attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, and Kennedy offered a “quid pro quo” to keep it unclassified, one FBI official claimed.
The State Department has disputed the characterization, noting that portions of the email were ultimately classified.
Still, lawmakers and aides from the House Oversight and Intelligence committees, speaking with Fox News, have claimed been outraged with the report. Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) told the news outlet that there could be at least “four hearings” on the material later this fall.
Democrats have repeatedly opposed the House GOP’s focus on the outcome of the FBI investigation and have claimed that Republicans are merely trying to hammer Clinton on the issue to damage her presidential hopes.
—Updated at 11:13 a.m.