James Comey: ‘We Don’t Think’ Hillary Followed the Law, Others Would ‘Lose Their Clearance’

FBI director James Comey said Thursday in Washington that “we don’t think” Hillary Clinton followed the Federal Records Act and other transparency laws. In a similar scenario, Comey admitted, a lower-level State Department staffer “might lose their clearance.”

Republicans seized on the opportunity. Senator David Perdue of Georgia, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations State Department and USAID Management Subcommittee, provided the following statement to Breitbart News calling for her security clearance to be revoked:

As the head of the State Department, Hillary Clinton was directly responsible for protecting sensitive information and ensuring her employees did the same, and she failed on both fronts. Of all of the people involved in this scandal, Secretary Clinton should have known she was putting national security at risk and immediately stopped all non-secure communication involving classified information. Secretary Clinton’s actions were a direct violation of the Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement she signed, but since the FBI has decided that Secretary Clinton is not subject to the law, at a minimum, her security clearance should be revoked.

Without a security clearance, it would be more difficult for a potential commander-in-chief to access some information over email, which could marginalize the position of commander-in-chief within national security circles.

Original tea party Founding Father Michael Johns told Breitbart News prior to the hearing that the tea party would be calling attention to the “security clearance” issue before Thursday morning’s Oversight session. “The political opportunity to drive that home is significant,” Johns said.

Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold made a solid showing in Thursday’s hearing, getting Comey to claim that hacker Guccifer “lied” when he said he breached Clinton’s inbox directly.

Here are the two major Comey admissions that could provide the basis for a Republican plan forward to further investigate Clinton’s conduct with congressional authority.

Shot: She Did Not Follow The Law

Comey took this pointed question from Congress at the Oversight Committee: Did Hillary Clinton make sure she “complied with federal transparency laws including Federal Records Act and State Department record preservation?”

Comey replied: “We don’t think so.”

Comey said that he knew this “in some respects” from the inspector general’s report, which insiders feel was more substantive than Comey’s findings.

“She said she ‘fully complied,’ so there again is another issue,” the congressman responded.

Chaser: She Could Lose Her Security Clearance

Asked what penalties similar rule-breakers at the State Department would face, Comey was clear that there is a double standard.

“They might get fired, they might lose their clearance…it might be something higher on the disciplinary (spectrum),” Comey said.

Asked whether Clinton could lose her security clearance “in this case”?

“That’s not for me to say,” Comey responded.