The Washington Times: Republicans accused the Obama administration Monday of “a cover-up” of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of top secret emails, after FBI investigative files show a top department official tried to bribe the FBI into not declaring some of her messages secret.
Patrick Kennedy, undersecretary for management, offered a “quid-pro-quo” to let more FBI agents into some countries where their numbers were being limited by the State Department, in exchange for the FBI going back and lowering the classification on Clinton emails, according to one accuser in the FBI’s files.
The revelation comes as emails hacked from the account of John Podesta, longtime Clinton associate and now her presidential campaign chairman, suggest the State Department was giving Mrs. Clinton’s team inside information about the progress of its own efforts to process Mrs. Clinton’s messages.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the accusations were “insulting.”
But Republicans said they showed a striking effort by President Obama’s team to protect Mrs. Clinton.
“A senior State Department official’s attempt to pressure the FBI to hide the extent of this mishandling bears all the signs of a cover-up,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said in a statement after the FBI released its third batch of investigative files. “This is why our aggressive oversight work in the House is so important, and it will continue.”
