Exclusive–Ron DeSantis Shocked as Comey Damns Hillary Clinton as ‘Unsophisticated’ About Classified Info

A Florida congressman serving on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee told Breitbart News Thursday he was shocked FBI Director James B. Comey Jr. would excuse Hillary Clinton’s “extreme carelessness” in handling her classified electronic correspondence while secretary of state.

“He said: ‘I don’t think she is particularly sophisticated about classified information,’” said Rep. Ron DeSantis (R.-Fla.), who was a conservative candidate for Senate until he withdrew to clear the path for Sen. Marco Rubio (R.-Fla.) to enter the race to keep his seat.

DeSantis said, “That is really a stunning finding because she is the head of a very important cabinet agency and she is actually herself, what they call, an O-C-A, an original classification authority, so she’s dealing with classified information and she is responsible for classifying certain information that’s generated by her agency.”

Clinton has had a long public career and should have an understanding of information security, he said. Clinton was a lawyer for Democrats on the Watergate committee, a U.S. Senator from New York, in addition to the first lady and secretary of state.

“It was really, really stunning to be in government that long, to be in that type of a position and yet not have any sophistication about how to keep the nation’s secrets,” he said.

“I think Comey was trying to exonerate her when he said that but, I think he really damned her,” he said. “In fact, Hillary Clinton signed a document saying she understood all of the responsibilities of handling classified information.”

Clinton’s suitability for future government service has been severely challenged, he said.

“It was a devastating indictment of Secretary Clinton’s conduct,” he said. “It is pretty clear that the FBI’s investigation has demonstrated that she has been lying consistently to the public for over a year now.”

“If you have a mid-level person in the FBI or in the military do this, they’re probably going to be out of a job and they’re probably not going to have security clearance,” the congressman said.

The congressman said Thursday’s hearing was not the end of the story, particularly when Comey told the committee the FBI did not review statements the former first lady made under oath to Congress for perjury because the criminal referral from the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General did not mention this path of inquiry.

“At the end of the day, when you are investigating someone, anything they say is always fair game,” he said. In fact, after the directer made that assertion, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R.-Utah), promised him he would receive a referral from the committee before the end of the day.

The committee was going to look into the testimony Clinton gave to the House Select Committee on Benghazi and the affidavit she submitted in federal court, in which she swore that all the work-related emails were submitted to the State Department by Dec.14: “We know that was false.”

The congressman said the committee is also interested in reviewing Clinton’s interview with the FBI Saturday.

“Did they record it? Did they transcribe it?” he said. “When you talk to the FBI, even if you are under oath, if you make a false statement, that’s actionable.”