Donald Trump declaimed a new nickname Thursday for the members of Hillary Clinton’s staff who were granted immunity by the FBI as part of a now-closed investigation into her use of a private email server: “The FBI Immunity Five.”
“You saw what happened about taking the Fifth Amendment and her ringleaders getting immunity deals,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Bedford, New Hampshire. “We’ll call them, really, the FBI Immunity Five.”
He continued: “They gave so much immunity there was nobody left to talk to. There was nobody left! Except Hillary! They probably gave her immunity too.”
In July, FBI Director James Comey announced that the agency would not recommend charges against Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state.
In March, the Justice Department granted immunity to Bryan Pagliano, the former staffer who helped set up Clinton’s private email server during her tenure as secretary of state. Pagliano invoked his Fifth Amendment right to decline to testify before a House committee in September 2015.
The New York Times reported in September that the FBI also had granted immunity to Paul Combetta, a computer specialist for a private company that maintained Clinton’s server when it was moved to New Jersey.
On Friday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told the Associated Press that the FBI granted immunity to Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills. On Tuesday, Comey told Congress that his agency granted Mills immunity in order to inspect information contained on her laptop during the investigation.
The FBI also granted immunity to 2008 Clinton campaign staffer Heather Samuelson and John Bentel, the former director of the State Department’s Office of Information Resources Management.
Watch below:
Donnie, with all your scandals, your staff is going to go down like Ted “Carnival” Cruz when it comes to testifying against you.
Wocka wocka wocka.
Desperation is a cruel mistress, in’t she?
Sad.
He continued: “They gave so much immunity there was nobody left to talk to. There was nobody left! Except Hillary! They probably gave her immunity too.”
You would think that a man who has been so enmeshed in our civil and criminal justice system would have a more nuanced understanding of it.
He’s got the best words. Today’s it’s immunity.
There never should have been an investigation. No one has been prosecuted for administrative use of email in the history of our country. They were looking at using an obscure 1928 statute that has never been used for criminal charges.