On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC) reacted to a report that the FBI gave immunity to Paul Combetta, the computer specialist who deleted Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails, by stating that if Combetta was given transaction immunity, it would be like giving the triggerman in a robbery immunity, and “it looks like they gave immunity to the very person you would most want to prosecute, which is the person who destroyed official public records after there was a subpoena and after there was preservation order.”
Gowdy said, “[I]f the FBI and Department of Justice gave this witness transactional immunity, it is tantamount to giving the triggerman immunity in a robbery case. … But it looks like they gave immunity to the very person you would most want to prosecute, which is the person who destroyed official public records after there was a subpoena and after there was preservation order.”
He added, “The devil’s in the chronology. … Keep in mind, the story broke about her email, and then there was a preservation order, and then there was a subpoena, and then there was her press conference, which has been thoroughly and totally debunked, all of it was demonstrably false, and then there was a conference call between David Kendall, Cheryl Mills and Platte River. And then emails that had been in existence for five years. Emails that he’s known about, at least since December of 2014, he decides to delete, sua sponte just all on his own. And that defies logic why some techie in Colorado would, despite a subpoena, despite a preservation order, but after a conference called with David Kendall and Cheryl Mills, decide on his own, that he is going to destroy public records. And then you grant this person immunity, which means, perhaps that he cannot be prosecuted. … We need to ask the FBI what kind of immunity did you give, and why did you give it to the triggerman, why did you give it to the person who actually destroyed government documents?”
Gowdy further stated that there was “an effort to obstruct justice.” And that part of the way intent could be proven in the case against Clinton “is the destruction of evidence, the consciousness of guilt, the multiple false explanations for you did something, which are legion in this case, from Secretary Clinton and others. Even this witness can’t get his story straight.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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