Trump tweets.
Tweet suggests the former top aide to Hillary Clinton should face jail time
The president urges the Justice Department to act on ex-FBI chief and ex-Clinton aide.
WASHINGTON» President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to suggest that Huma Abedin, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton, should face jail time, days after the State Department posted emails found on her estranged husband’s computer that included confidential government information.
In a tweet, Trump also urged the Justice Department to act in prosecuting Abedin and former FBI Director James Comey, whom the president fired in May amid the mounting investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and contacts between Moscow and Trump’s campaign.
The president’s tweet comes just days after the State Department posted online thousands of Abedin’s emails, which were captured on the computer of Anthony Weiner, her estranged husband.
Those emails — some of which contained classified information — spurred the FBI in October to reopen its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, although the bureau ultimately would conclude that the messages gave them no reason to change their conclusion not to recommend charges against Clinton or any of her aides.
The tweet also follows a Daily Caller report that Abedin had “forwarded sensitive State Department emails, including passwords to government systems, to her personal Yahoo email account.”
Comey had said, even as he recommended they not be charged, that Clinton and her aides were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information, and the president’s tweet seizes on that theme. Comey has said, too, that although the FBI did not find evidence that Clinton’s personal email domain was hacked, it would not be likely to see such evidence, given those who might make such attacks, and that hostile actors had gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Clinton was in contact.
Asked if Trump was urging the Justice Department to investigate Abedin, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders replied: “The facts of that case are very disturbing. The president wants to make clear that he doesn’t feel that anyone should be above the law. In terms of any investigation, that would be something the Department of Justice would need to de-
cide.” A Clinton spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. Dan Schwerin, a former Clinton campaign speechwriter, defended Abedin on Twitter.
Trump has long suggested that Clinton be prosecuted for her use of the private server and, although he backed off that sentiment soon after his election, he has renewed the calls in recent months as he has attacked his own Justice Department repeatedly.
His comment on the “sailors pictures” seems to be a reference to 30-year-old Kristian Saucier, who was sentenced to a year in prison for taking photos in a classified area of a nuclear submarine. Trump has previously compared that case to the Clinton email probe, suggesting that Clinton was given leniency that others weren’t. Saucier, though, tried to destroy evidence — which is a critical indication of bad intent that investigators found lacking in the Clinton case.
Trump previously accused Comey of leaking sensitive information after the former director testified that he had asked a friend to pass on notes he had taken of his interactions with Trump to a reporter for The New York Times in hopes of securing a special prosecutor to take over the Russia investigation. Ethics experts said Comey’s actions appeared to be legally protected, provided he did not disclose classified information.
In his tweet, Trump referred to the “Deep State Justice Dept,” an apparent reference to the president’s contention that some elements of the U.S. intelligence apparatus have attempted to undermine his election. Trump has said there is no evidence that he colluded with Russian agents during the campaign.
Sanders said Trump “obviously” does not consider all members of the Justice Department to be among a “deep state” conspiracy to sabotage his presidency. She emphasized that Trump appointed Christopher Wray to run the FBI because the president “wants to change the culture of that agency and he thinks he’s the right person to do that.”
Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general whom Trump fired in January after she refused to defend his travel ban on immigrants from some Muslimmajority countries, accused the president of slandering Justice Department employees and called his pronouncements “dangerous.”
After Comey was ousted, the Justice Department appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is handling the ongoing Russia investigation and brought charges against former Trump aides, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn.