By Juliegrace Brufke
Two top House committee chairmen requested in a letter written to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Monday a criminal investigation into whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lied under oath while testifying before Congress.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said the presumed Democratic presidential nominee’s sworn testimony does not match up with the evidence collected by the FBI pertaining to the use of her private email server — warranting an investigation by the Department of Justice.
“In light of those contradictions, the Department should investigate and determine whether to prosecute Secretary Clinton for violating statutes that prohibit perjury and false statements to Congress, or any other relevant statutes,” the letter reads.
The request comes in the wake of FBI Director James Comey’s recent testimony saying Clinton’s truthfulness in her statements before Congress weren’t considered in the agency’s investigation.
“I didn’t know the FBI director needed a permission slip to look at truthful testimony before Congress,” Chaffetz told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “The FBI director precise in answering her questions –he said Hillary Clinton didn’t lie to the FBI. The question is did she lie under oath to the American people, and that’s what we want the answer to.”
Chaffetz said following the FBI’s year-long investigation, it shouldn’t be difficult to compare her testimony with what she told the agency.
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