Comey: If Hillary Worked at the FBI, There Would Be ‘Severe’ Consequences

Thursday at a House Oversight Committee hearing on the FBI’s investigation and conclusions into presumptive Democratic presidential front nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of private unsecured email servers during her tenure as secretary of state, committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) questioned FBI Director James Comey about possible consequences Clinton would face if she worked at the FBI.

Partial transcript as follows:

CHAFFETZ:  Do you really believe there should be no consequence for Hillary Clinton in how she dealt with this?

COMEY: I didn’t say — I  hope folks remember what I said on Tuesday. I didn’t say there is no consequence for someone who violates the rules regarding handling classified information. There are often very severe consequences in the FBI involving their employment, involving their pay, involving their clearances. That’s what I — that’s what I said on Tuesday. And I hope folks walk away understanding that just because someone is not prosecuted for mishandling classified information, that doesn’t mean if you work in the FBI, there aren’t consequences for it.

CHAFFETZ: So if Hillary Clinton or if anybody had worked at the FBI under this fact pattern, what would you do to that person?

COMEY: There would be a security review and an adjudication of their suitability and a range of discipline could be imposed, from termination to reprimand, and in between, suspensions, loss of clearance, so you could be walked out, or you could, depending upon the nature of the fact, you could be reprimanded, but there is a robust process to handle that.

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