GOP chairmen want Justice to turn over Clinton email notes

Two Republican chairmen are demanding that Attorney General Loretta Lynch turn over Department of Justice records for its interview with the team that helped oversee Hillary Clinton’s contentious private email server. 

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who is in a tough reelection race, and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) sent a letter to Lynch Friday requesting that Justice turn over notes and related materials for interviews conducted with Bryan Pagliano, Justin Cooper and any other employee of Platte River Networks. 

{mosads}Platte River Network maintained the unauthorized server, while Pagliano — who was granted immunity to cooperate with a now closed FBI probe — and Cooper helped manage the server. 

“These individuals tasked by Secretary Clinton and her senior advisors to manage her servers did not have security clearances, and, in some cases, did not have a particular expertise in cybersecurity,” the two lawmakers wrote. 

The two GOP members added that “it is important for the American public to have a thorough understanding of how Secretary Clinton’s aides handled sensitive national security information.”

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee, chaired by Smith, and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, helmed by Johnson, are both probing Clinton’s email setup while she was serving as secretary of State. 

Friday’s letter comes after the FBI released a summary of Clinton’s interview with the bureau, as well as a summary of its investigation. Smith and Johnson said the release “raised significant additional questions” about the email setup. 

“The FBI’s release of information regarding its investigation highlights many inherent limitations of its review due to the destruction of evidence and inability to recover devices used by Secretary Clinton,” they added. 

The FBI closed its probe in July after Director James Comey announced he wouldn’t recommend charges against the Democratic presidential nominee. 

Clinton’s campaign, however, has continued to be dogged by the scandal amid a steady stream of email releases and GOP lawmakers showing no signs of ending their own investigations. 

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) asked a federal prosecutor to investigate the deletion of a cache of emails from Clinton’s server, while Smith is pushing three companies, including Platte River Networks, to comply with subpoena.