Grassley turns up heat on Clinton, State
Politico
By RACHAEL BADE and ANNIE KARNI
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is amping up his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email setup and the special work status of one of her top confidantes — just as the Democratic presidential front-runner’s allies are accusing Grassley of using his oversight authority to hurt her campaign.
Grassley (R-Iowa) took two new steps last week. On Wednesday, he issued a letter to former Clinton aide Heather Samuelson, who screened Clinton’s emails as secretary of state to initially determine which ones would be turned over to the government and made available publicly, and which ones were deemed private and would later be deleted. Among other things, the missive, obtained by POLITICO, asked what level of security clearance Samuelson had at State; several hundred of Clinton’s emails, which she routed through a private server, have since been deemed classified.
Then, on Thursday night, Grassley blocked the nomination of a top-level Obama State Department nominee, Thomas Shannon Jr., to be undersecretary of state for political affairs. Grassley is seeking documents from State in his long-running investigation of a job arrangement for top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Her designation as a “special government employee” allowed Abedin to work as an adviser to Clinton at State at the same time she consulted for a private company with close ties to the Clinton family.
Grassley, a 35-year veteran of the Senate who already has held up a number of other State appointees over what he views as the department’s lack of cooperation with legitimate congressional inquiries, is plainly frustrated.
“Two-and-a-half-years ago I began a broad inquiry into the government’s use of special government employee programs. …Two and a half years have passed … and the State Department has still not produced the materials I have requested,” he said on the Senate floor Thursday evening. “The Department of State’s refusal to fully cooperate with my investigations is unacceptable.”
The State Department responded that Grassley’s “mounting requests … contained nearly 200 detailed questions and 65 unique document requests” and are overwhelming the department’s resources.
“We have responded in 16 formal letters and many briefings, calls and emails,” spokesman Alec Gerlach said in a statement. “The Department is committed to working with the Committee and providing responses as quickly as possible, but the growing effort needed to accommodate these requests is overwhelming the resources we have available.”
The news comes as Democratic senators join Clinton supporters from the outside group Correct the Record in blasting Grassley’s efforts as a politically motivated witch hunt. They’re accusing him of working with a former Grassley aide, now at the State Department inspector general’s office, to dig up dirt on the campaign — an accusation the State IG employee and Grassley both deny and pushed back on as recently as Friday.
“Why are nonpartisan public service positions being used as political pawns, especially if they are being blocked just because Sen. Grassley doesn’t want Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States?” Senate Minority Leader Reid (D-Nev.) said on the Senate floor on Nov. 9. “How much money will Republicans in Congress waste to try and bring down Hillary Clinton?”
Grassley has pushed back, arguing that his “belief in and exercise of the oversight role by Congress is long-standing and nonpartisan.”
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