By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Monday, July 11, US Representative Martha Roby (R-Montgomery) warns that FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to prosecute former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D), “Is a really dangerous precedent.”
Congresswoman Roby said, “My friend & chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy,” carefully walked FBI Director James Comey through Hillary Clinton’s proven deceptions and how prosecutors (like he and Comey used to be) would generally use such actions as evidence in determining intent.
Rep. Roby continued, “Of course, 18 U.S.C. 793(f) doesn’t require proof of intent for the criminal act of mishandling classified information by “gross negligence.”
Roby said that Gowdy skillfully made the point that, “Even by Comey’s artificially-higher bar for what ought to be prosecuted under the statute, there is plenty of evidence to suggest intent was present.”
Rep. Roby warned, “Whatever you think about the scandal, this is a really dangerous precedent. As Gowdy states, “there’s nothing to keep a future secretary of state or president from this exact same email scheme, or their staff,” he said. “You mentioned there is no precedent for criminal prosecution. My fear is there still isn’t.””
Roby said, “As a lawyer, this situation is breathtaking. As a Member of Congress who has had to review significant amounts of classified material, it is disturbing to think that such serious misconduct with our nation’s sensitive information could basically go unpunished. There is a reason so many Americans are losing faith in institutions that we have depended on for fairness and justice for generations. The past seven days have revealed a lot, but stay tuned because I think there’s more to come…”
Congresswoman Roby served with Rep. Harold Watson “Trey” Gowdy III (R-South Carolina) on the Select Committee on Benghazi that recently released its report.
FBI Director James Comey defended his decision to not recommend to prosecutors that they indict former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the email server scandals; because there was no evidence that Mrs. Clinton or her aides had any intent to mishandle the classified and some top secret emails that she received while she was Secretary of State.
Republicans were not happy with the FBI director’s decision.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) said, “The recklessness we have seen from Secretary Clinton—this sort of cavalier attitude toward accountability and responsibility—it is not confined to one person or one government agency. It goes on every day in this administration.”
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee and the last Democratic candidate standing after US Senator Bernie Sanders (I from Vermont) endorsed Clinton and dropped out of the race on Tuesday.
Mrs. Clinton will face Donald Trump in the general election.
With no viable challengers left standing both of the major party conventions are once again just largely meaningless affairs that somehow still get lots of television coverage.
Congresswoman Martha Roby represents Alabama’s Second Congressional District.
