Chaffetz Asks DOJ To Bring Charges Against Clinton Aide

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 3: Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, questions witnesses during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Examining Federal Administration of the Safe Drinking Water Act i... UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 3: Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, questions witnesses during the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Examining Federal Administration of the Safe Drinking Water Act in Flint, Michigan on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images) MORE LESS
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House Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said he would not back off from the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email use even though she lost the presidential election, and he’s staying true to his word.

Now that Jeff Sessions has been confirmed as attorney general, Chaffetz has asked the Justice Department to either convene a grand jury or bring charges against Bryan Pagliano, a Clinton aide who helped set up her private email server. Chaffetz wrote a letter to Sessions on Thursday referring Pagliano for prosecution for failing to comply with a subpoena to testify before the House Oversight Committee.

Pagliano refused to appear before the committee despite subpoenas demanding that he do so, prompting the committee to vote to hold him in contempt of Congress last year.

In his letter to Sessions, Chaffetz wrote that Pagliano was required to comply with the subpoena and that failing to do so amounts to a misdemeanor offense.

“There is no legal basis for Pagliano’s refusal to appear before the Committee. If left unaddressed, Pagliano’s conduct in ongoing a lawful congressional subpoena could gravely impair Congress’s ability to exercise its core constitutional authorities of oversight and legislation,” Chaffetz wrote in the letter.

In a statement announcing his letter to Sessions, Chaffetz said that the “authority to compel witnesses is integral to Congress’s and the Committee’s investigative powers.”

Chaffetz’s letter asking for charges against Pagliano comes as the Oversight Committee chair has declined to launch an investigation into ties between Trump aides and Russian officials.

Read the letter:

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