WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) co-sponsored legislation that would revoke former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security clearance as well as the security clearances of Secretary Clinton’s colleagues at the State Department who exhibited extreme carelessness in their handling of classified information. The Taking Responsibility Using Secured Technologies or TRUST Act expresses the sense of Congress that Secretary Clinton should not have access to classified information again until she earns the legal right to such access.
“Following the FBI’s investigation, it is clear that Secretary Clinton cannot be trusted with classified information. Despite the many assertions in defense of her email practices, the FBI found that Secretary Clinton did email classified information, she did use multiple devices, and her email may have been subject to a possible breach. The TRUST Act will revoke Secretary Clinton’s security clearance until she earns the legal right to access classified information, a necessary step in light of the FBI’s findings,” said Senator Capito.
The legislation follows the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) investigation into Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail system. In an announcement earlier this week, FBI Director James Comey said that “there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” and “none of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff.” The FBI uncovered several thousand additional emails related to her position, some of which contained classified material, that were not included in the 30,000 emails Secretary Clinton handed over to the State Department. Director Comey concluded the FBI’s findings with “we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.”
Director Comey stated the investigation initially focused on whether classified information was transmitted on Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail system and evolved to determine if there is evidence that classified information was not properly transmitted or stored on that personal e-mail system and whether there is evidence that the system was hacked by foreign or hostile hackers. While Director Comey confirmed that classified information was transmitted and stored improperly and the personal e-mail system may have been hacked, he formally recommended that no charges be filed against Secretary Clinton.
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