New FBI inquiry initiated into whether Clinton lied to Congress?

Breaking: FBI to Investigate Clinton for Lying Under Oath to Congress About Email Server

We all heard this exchange this morning:

“Did Hillary Clinton lie under oath?” Chaffetz asked.

“Not to the FBI,” Comey responded. “Not in a case we were working.”

Chaffetz quickly reminded the FBI director that while under oath last October, Clinton stated that “there was nothing marked classified” in her emails, either “sent or received.”

While Comey said he was “aware” of the statements, the FBI has not investigated the testimony as there hadn’t been a referral from Congress to investigate the alleged perjury by Clinton in her statements before Congress.

“Do you need a referral from Congress to investigate her statements under oath?” Chaffetz continued.

“Sure do,” Comey replied.

“You’ll have one,” Chaffetz said. “You’ll have one in the next few hours.”

And then Trey Gowdy followed up:

“Did Clinton email classified information?” Gowdy asked.

“Yes,” Comey replied.

“Did she use just one device?” Gowdy continued.

“No,” Comey said, “there were multiple devices.”

“Did Clinton return all work-related emails to the State Department?”

“No,” Comey said, “the bureau found others.”

“Did her lawyers read through every single email they reviewed before returning the material to the State Department?” Gowdy pressed.

“No”, Comey said, “they had not.”

The cumulative result is:

During questioning by House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz on Thursday, FBI Director James Comey was grilled about whether Clinton had perjured herself. The exchange ultimately culminated in Chaffetz announcing that he will send a referral to the FBI on Thursday to investigate Hillary Clinton’s testimony under oath last October in regards to statements about the setup of her private email server.

The Free Thought Project stops short of saying such a request has been confirmed to have been received by the FBI, so it's not actually clear this story is ripe to be breaking, but they think so.

This is a CBS recap (which stops short of any comment about anything being sent to the FBI by this committee):

This vid doesn't have an embed code: http://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/fbi-director-testifies-after-decision-...

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A special counsel -- or whatever they call them these days -- should be appointed to look into this. It would give Republicans what they want: a stick to beat Hillary with until the election, and after if need be. But it would also send a refreshing signal that it's not OK for important people to perjure themselves without consequence.

An odd development. It takes a Clinton to turn the Republicans from knuckle-dragging troglodytes into a responsible opposition party. That might be the worst indictment of her of them all.

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Please help support caucus99percent!

Damnit Janet's picture

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

From a reality TV show huckster into a serious Presidential candidate.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

No, it took the entire GOP clown car and party apparatus to turn Trump into a bona fide presidential canddiate. Clinton didn't make that mess, but she could well make a much, much bigger one come January.

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MsGrin's picture

parties. With the Republicans, it kept weak candidates in the field far longer than they would have been without corporate overlords. On our side of the aisle, there was a specialist recruit from the other team who orchestrated multiple PACs and bought off the media (in some case, just outright BOUGHT the media outlet, kept the name and replaced the staff)... Our team worked harder than theirs to expand the reach of Citizens United.

NO WAY Clinton lifts a finger to reverse it since she paid for this election with the spoils of it.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Against almost anybody else except the corrupt Clintons.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

I think the worst indictment of all may be that Democrats in Congress (and the White House and the Department of State) do not seem at all concerned about whether she lied or not.

It's not about which party you belong to; it's about the country. Should the country have a President who would rather do dicey things with classified info than be fully accountable to an FOIA request? Why aren't Democratic politicians looking for answers?

After all, Democrats still have time to nominate an untainted candidate at the convention. The nominee doesn't have to be Bernie, although I would not want to face the blowback if the nominee is neither Hillary nor Bernie. The nominee could be Biden, who supposedly was ready to jump in if the FBI recommended prosecution, which it should have, if it made any recommendation at all. (Didn't Comey say the FBI usually doesn't make any recommendation relative to prosecution?)

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Lookout's picture

I guess we should plan on non-stop investigations from here on out. There's plenty to investigate. I hope the foundation is among those things being examined!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

MsGrin's picture

as in we're all already drowsy with it months ahead of the general election.

The Republicans had promised they'd impeach her on Day One... hard to imagine I think they are correct in pursuing her NOW, but if there's a flicker of a chance we can be spared another looooong Clinton winter. So far, they are making sense (a LOT more sense than the Dems). My mind boggles.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

But, I told everyone who would listen to me (1 comment at TOP, and two very cute little kitties) that 4 or 8 years of another Clinton would be awful for exactly this crap. I frankly don't know how much of what they did was real, and how much was a bunch of made up crap, but it was a downer that went on for 8 years. And while we were all paying attention to the side show, the Clintons (yes, both of them) went about fucking up my country. Jason Chaffetz may be my new best friend.

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I can't wait to see what all this does to her approval ratings.

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MsGrin's picture

Yes - I completely understood before I read the caption!

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

k9disc's picture

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

elmo's picture

That's what the Clintons both do. They make other Democrats defend them for their indefensible behavior, then they waltz into the sunset with their bags of cash and leave other people to clean up their messes behind them.

After Bill, we ended up with George W. Bush. I shudder to consider what will happen after Hillary's scandal filled reign.

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Even the smallest person can change the course of the future

if the republicans get the FBI to investigate if clinton lied to congress, this new investigation should take all of say, 30 minutes? Comey said she sent classified. Comey said she used more than one device. Clinton told the GOP she hadn't. Under oath. Nope. I was wrong. It should take about 5 minutes. I'd say by noon tomorrow we should have this wrapped up, bagged and tagged. And the good news? Feast your eyes on this.

There are two statutes of U.S. Code that govern perjury before Congress. Section 1621 of Title 18, often called the “general perjury” statute, prohibits individuals from lying to Congress while under oath, while Section 1001, also known as the “false statement” statute, covers testimony given while not under oath. A person convicted of perjury could face fines up to $100,000 or up to five years in jail.

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jwa13's picture

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When Cicero had finished speaking, the people said “How well he spoke”.
When Demosthenes had finished speaking, the people said “Let us march”.

$100,000 is just the tiny cost of doing clinton business.

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hester's picture

and any elected, appointed or other government office. Just spare the US this person, please. We've had enuf

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Don't believe everything you think.

snoopydawg's picture

Their foundation has tentacles every where.
Huma Abedin was working at the state department, the Clinton foundation and the new group that the person she put on the state department staff for a few months started.
And why would Chelsea need to have access to Hillary's email account during her time as SOS if Hillary wasn't working on foundation business at the same time after she was told to keep it separate from her state department duties?
Was Chelsea able to read classified or even unclassified emails from the state department and other government agencies?
The foundation is as much a charity organization as the TPP is a trade agreement.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

MsGrin's picture

Not that I like being able to supply the name of Clinton businesses, but it's been that sort of year.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Bollox Ref's picture

I can't believe I'm agreeing with Republicans!!

This is what the Clintons do to the body politic. Screw it up.

Reminds me of the episode in Seinfeld when Elaine meets opposite Jerry, George and Kramer.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

SiriusMoonLight's picture

This shit sandwich known as Presumptive Nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton for the electorate's consumption. They have no one to blame but themselves if this is hard to swallow for thinking voters. This has got to be THE most flawed presidential candidate in US history. If this thing gets drug out through November, you can say President Drumpf. God I just threw up a little....

Time to buy popcorn futures Dash 1

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vtcc73's picture

It's all clear as a bell. I now know why I'm disgusted by HRC, AKA "shit sandwich". I don't care for bread.

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Alphalop's picture

More like a shit wrap...

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

vtcc73's picture

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Alphalop's picture

So now you can suffer with it too. Wink

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXH_12QWWg8]

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

vtcc73's picture

I figured there was a 50-50 chance you'd pick it up. cheers

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Alphalop's picture

will pick it up.

Pretty much everything else is right over my head though, lol!

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

vtcc73's picture

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

vtcc73's picture

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Alphalop's picture

damn funny, lol!

Stupidity is pretty damn common...

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"I used to vote Republican & Democrat, I also used to shit my pants. Eventually I got smart enough to stop doing both things." -Me

If either party gave a rat's ass about the country, it would dump its nominee at the convention. At least no one suggested Trump got his win as a result of election fraud. How many lawsuits are pending because of the behavior of State Democrats and Bill Clinton during the Democratic primary?

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It's possible Trump is negotiating for a price to leave the race before the convention. Supposedly the initial offer is 150 million, but Trump will probably ask for 5 billion dollars. If Trump is replaced, Hillary is definitely toast.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgjRXK_vsTo]

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Raggedy Ann's picture

Ivanka, for VP, they might up the ante to buy him out.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Not Henry Kissinger's picture

this scene pops into my head:

(Full screen for best effect)

a flaming trainwreck derailing at top speed into a ditch, and the only thing any of the prisoners on the Democratic bus can do is jump out of the way.

Comey, Obama, Bernie, Warren... they're not gonna stop her. Hillary & Co. is a firey ball of inevitability hellbound for glory, and woe betide the well-meaning fool who dares stand between her and her destiny.

Which leaves me rooting for Republicans to find some way of slowing her down before she skids right over all of us.

God, what a nightmare.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

WoodsDweller's picture

It would be fitting for Hillary to be convicted of perjury as well. If they can't get enough mileage out of this before the election, at least we know what the first impeachment charges will be.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

life long democrat that hoped she went to jail, as opposed to a life long democrat that hoped she didn't.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

WoodsDweller's picture

On Tuesday I opined that the press conference by Comey was the "leak" we expected if the FBI was politically precluded from recommending an indictment. Now I'm wondering if the FBI wasn't instructed to investigate a crime where proof of intent was required for indictment, which is always hard to prove (set up to fail). Thus the "reasonable prosecutor" would not indict on those charges. By going public with the findings of fact (which would ordinarily be buried when the recommendation to not indict was issued) Comey set the stage for this testimony in front of Congress. Why did the Republicans all of a sudden act like they had three digit IQs? Because they had rehearsed the Hell out of this performance.
Now the FBI has its facts as part of its now concluded investigation, all they need is a crime to go with it. The Republican Congress can supply that. I have no idea what the procedure is here, whether Congress can act directly (I'm guessing not until she is President) or whether they can issue a request to the DoJ to indict on perjury charges. Lynch is already on record as deferring to the FBI recommendations, and (happily) accepted those recommendations in the current case. The FBI could, with modest review of the testimony transcripts, recommend indictment on perjury charges, and Lynch would have a shitstorm of controversy if she rejected that recommendation.
Need to check my popcorn supply.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

WaterLily's picture

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k9disc's picture

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“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu

MsGrin's picture

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

I've been half joking about this for a while now, but I'm starting to get the feeling that it really might happen. Nobody except the Democratic establishment is happy about the email situation.

In the long run, though, I think that perjury charges are nothing compared to what could come out about the relationship between Hillary's State Department and the Clinton Foundation. That is the issue that I'm much more interested in having disclosed to the public.

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reflectionsv37's picture

The first bill put forward in the next congress if she wins the presidency.

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

riverlover's picture

Ya know, just in case. Lame duck Congress can't do this, amirite? Oh, too busy passing TPP.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

finally nail her ass on this perjury charge.Then we don't have to worry about her inauguration because there wont be one.

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I just want the Clintons and their scandals to go away and take Trump with them. We need to come together and be good to each other, we don't need these leeches now.

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Beware the bullshit factories.

Alligator Ed's picture

A much briefer interview would have been as follows:

Chaffetz: Mr. Comey, did you interview Clinton?
Comey: Yes
Chaffetz: Did she answer questions.
Comey: Yes, she did.
Chaffetz: Where do we send the perjury referral?

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MsGrin's picture

but it sums it up quite nicely.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

I've been a lifelong Democrat for a few decades but that will change immediately after the convention or Bernie endorses her, whichever comes first.

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Comey kept saying she broke the law but there was no criminal intent to charge her with. I guess that depends on what questions you ask her.

1. Why did you set up an email server?
At minimum and I think it is worse the answer is to keep her emails private (this was said in a deep under oath by Huma)

So first, these are not your emails Hillary they are the governments and you do not have the legal right to hide them and setting up a private server to do so is clear intent to bro the law.

2. If the government had not found out about your private server, two years after you left office, what was your plan to return this government property?

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http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nsa/cuba_mis_cri/annals.htm

Comey's conclusions on intent are ludicrous.

#ComeyIsWithHer

#FBIIsWithHer

#ExecutiveBranchIsWithHer

#WhoIsWithUs

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to figure that out.

How can one set up different servers for activity covered by laws and policies with no intent?

If she had been sleepwalking and accidentally set up servers, I might consider the 'no intent' to be satisfied, but not in this case.

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dfarrah

SparkyGump's picture

corporate lackey and her golden handcuffs.

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The real SparkyGump has passed. It was an honor being your human.

Classic --the enemy of my enemy is my friend don't know how else to word it

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featheredsprite's picture

than "proven stupidity in handling top secret information."

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

MsGrin's picture

that on the surface there appears to be actual perjury if the Congress asks, pretty please, that the Bureau consider whether what she said under oath to Congress is consistent with what has been uncovered since she said it.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Is daring them to a fight?

"I just believed that the material that was being communicated by professionals ... they did not believe that it was [classified]," Clinton said during an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "I did not have a basis for second-guessing their conclusion and these [emails] were not marked. They were not marked."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-fbi-director-was-speculating/a...

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“The first duty of a man is to think for himself”

HoundDog's picture

In Atlantic City Hillary Clinton lambasted Donald Trump for taking "destructive risks with other people's money" and for denying American voters an "informed choice." what a poignenty unfortunate themes she chooses to highlight the day after FBI Director Comey's report that Hillary Clinton knowingly lied when she first said, "I never received, nor sent any classified information" from her private account. We already knew from the scathing IG report that she lied when she assured Democratic voters and delegates that her illicit basement server was authorized by the State Department.

Her Democratic primary victories were based on deliberately fraudulent representations which have besmirched her character, and damaged her already low "trustibility," even more than the poor judgment she displayed when she decided to take such reckless risks with our national security for selfish reason in the first place.

A besmirchment reminiscent of John Edwards' willingness to gamble the Democratic Party's election chances and the well being of the United States in order to pursue his obsession with becoming president despite the disqualifying affair he was hiding while his wife was dying of cancer. Democrats were outraged, most especially, those of us who were his supporters. Both were willing to take "destructive risks" with the Democratic Party's election chances in order to selfishly pursue their own obsessions with becoming president based on equally delusional presumptions that they would not get caught. Clintons' destructive gamble was worse as she also has jeapordized our national security. John Edwards immediately withdrew in shame once his deception was discovered, Hillary Clinton, however, appears intent on trying to bulldoze her way to a Democratic Party "lock-in" and has shown little sign of remorse.

Is this implausible denial of reality not a continuation of the same judgement order she continues to fall victim to? The Democratic Party convention delegates must not endorse these shameful and reckless choices. Unlike the Republicans who appear to be stuck with Donald Trump, the Democratic Party rules apparently contain an exception that allows even pledged delegates to change their vote in the event of a major issue of conscience. This is such an issue.

If she does not withdraw within the few weeks she will put the Super Delegates and even her own pledged delegates, in the awkward position of having to replace her or knowingly endorse this deception which will be a disaster for their own reputations, the Democratic Party, and our Nation.

What kind of a person would do this? Knowingly lying to her own supporters, voters, and delegates telling us we have nothing to worry about, when she has known all along what she has done. We see two independent disqualifying issues - her character, and her judgement.

If she withdraws now, she still may be able to do so retaining some few shreds of grace and legacy. If, on the other hand, she chooses to try to bulldoze through with the apparent strategy of getting "locked-in" at the Democratic convention, we know the Republican drumbeat for her prosecution or impeachment will escalate and expand to include influence peddling and public corruption at the Clinton Foundation. She will eventually go down like Richard Nixon, in complete disgrace and breaking the hearts of young women and girls everywhere for whom she is a hero.

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