House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is gearing up for “years” of investigations into Hillary Clinton’s record should she win the presidency on November 8.
“It’s a target-rich environment,” Chaffetz told the Washington Post in a story out Wednesday. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.”
Chaffetz, who unendorsed Trump after the “Access Hollywood” tape broke as someone he could not back “in good conscience,” announced in a reversal late Wednesday that he still planned to vote for the GOP nominee. Yet his comments to the Post suggest he is already thinking far past Election Day, and focused on making the most of his position in a Republican-controlled House if Clinton wins.
“She’s not getting a clean slate,” he told the Post. “It’s not like the State Department was bending over backwards to help us understand what was going on. We’ve got document destruction. We’ve got their own rogue system. We’ve got classified information out the door. We’ve got their foundation doing who knows what. I mean, it took them four years just to release her schedule.”
Chaffetz, who oversaw an investigation into Planned Parenthood over the alleged sale of fetal tissue that found no wrongdoing by the healthcare provider, has already trained his sights on the Democratic nominee. In September, he subpoenaed the FBI for its full investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Future committee hearings, Chaffetz told the Post, would focus on issues like whether State Department officials tried to get Clinton’s emails declassified.
According to the Utah congressman, the intensity of his investigations hinge in part on whether Clinton gives administration posts to members of her inner circle who were caught up in previous probes.
“If they put on the same play, she’s not going to get good reviews from the critics,” he cautioned.
Other congressional Republicans, including Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have also pledged to serve as a “check” on a possible Clinton administration.
