GOP chair: Clinton using Supreme Court speech to distract voters from emails
A prominent Republican senator says Hillary Clinton’s planned speech on the Supreme Court is an effort to distract voters from the investigation into her private email arrangement.
Sen. Chuck Grassey (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been targeted by Democrats for his refusal to consider Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination and is expected to face the brunt of Clinton’s ire during a speech later on Monday.
{mosads}But in a statement ahead of Clinton’s address in Madison, Wis., Grassley accused the Democratic presidential front-runner of dodging public questions about her private email server.
“This is simply a blatant attempt by Secretary Clinton to politicize the Supreme Court and to change the conversation after a damaging story about her in The Washington Post,” Grassley said, referring to a lengthy story analyzing the controversy over her email.
The Post story revealed that 147 FBI agents are involved in the bureau’s investigation into whether classified information was mishandled.
In an interview with Politico published on Monday, Grassley said, “The FBI’s going to question her,” apparently referring to a Los Angeles Times report that the bureau was in the early stages of preparing interviews for its probe.
In addition to the FBI, Clinton’s unusual email situation is also under scrutiny from internal watchdogs at the State Department and a collection of federal intelligence agencies.
Grassley has also scrutinized the matter as the head of the Judiciary panel, which has authority over the Freedom of Information Act.
“It’s no wonder Secretary Clinton doesn’t want to let the American people have a voice in the direction of the Supreme Court,” Grassley said in his Monday statement.
Senate Republicans are refusing to act on Obama’s nominee for the high court, saying voters should decide in November who ought to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia earlier this year.
In her remarks from Wisconsin on Monday, Clinton is expected to criticize Republicans for their refusal to consider Garland’s nomination and warn against any nominee who might be proposed by Donald Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner.
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