Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized former President Donald Trump and stressed her purported innocence in an interview with Margaret Hoover of PBS’ “Firing Line” on Friday.
Clinton echoed sentiments that Trump poses a threat to democracy and mocked him for directing his administration to investigate her only to not file any criminal charges. While the Trump administration never formally accused Clinton of breaking the law, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey in July 2016 said that Clinton had stored 110 emails containing classified information on a private email server, with eight email chains containing top secret information.
“He basically ordered his attorney general to reopen an investigation into me,” Clinton told Hoover. “He ordered his two secretaries of state to reinvestigate me. They investigated the Clinton Foundation. You know, I’m the most investigated, innocent person you have ever met.”
Trump’s Department of Justice investigated Clinton and her foundation but ultimately did not bring charges against her, according to The Hill. Comey, at the time, explained that he had decided not to pursue charges against Clinton as, even though her handling of “very sensitive, highly classified information” was “extremely careless,” it was not done in a way that was clearly intentional.
Federal law, however, makes it a felony to “mishandle classified information either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way.”
“There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation,” Former Attorney General, and Trump critic, Michael Mukasey wrote in the Wall Street Journal in July 2016.
While the Clinton Foundation has largely avoided legal scrutiny, it has been accused of ethical shortcomings.
Former President Bill Clinton, Hillary’s husband, for example, used taxpayer funds afforded to him under the Former Presidents Act to purchase IT equipment and cover staffing costs at the namesake foundation, Politico reported. The Clinton Foundation also accepted donations from foreign governments, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which led to conflict of interest allegations during Clinton’s time leading the State Department.
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