The new acting Attorney General filling in for Jeff Sessions once said he would have indicted Hillary Clinton based on the facts of her email probe.
In a USA Today op-ed from July 2016, Matthew Whitaker, slated to be the interim Attorney General, said he disagreed with former FBI Director James Comey’s conclusion that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring charges on Clinton.
“Director Comey’s judgment was that ‘no reasonable prosecutor’ would bring the case,” he wrote. “I disagree. I believe myself to have been a reasonable prosecutor, and when the facts and evidence show a criminal violation has been committed, the individuals involved should not dictate whether the case is prosecuted.”
Whitaker indicated Clinton’s blatant mishandling of classified information using her unsecured private server was likely a felony offense.
“The facts also show it was gross negligence when she removed the information from State Department security,” he continued. “Secretary Clinton made the decision to use a personal email system, one that had inferior security to the State Department’s or even another commercial vendor’s email service.”
He also expressed doubt that any other State Department employee would have been granted the same leniency for mishandling classified information.