FBI Director James Comey's announcement on former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton's email investigation "just doesn't smell right" and questions surrounding the decision that she shouldn't face criminal prosecution will be addressed in upcoming congressional hearings on the decision, House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, said Wednesday morning.
"It is unusual for a prosecutor to say they're going to take the FBI's advice when they have that discretion themselves and unusual for the FBI director to say that no prosecutor would take this case," the Virginia Republican told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.
"So, it just doesn't smell right that he would pose it to them in a way that gives them a complete off the hook."
Goodlatte said that Comey called him just after his announcement to tell him he hadn't informed him or Lynch before the announcement because he didn't think it was appropriate to disclose what he was going to say ahead of time.
Beyond that, Goodlatte said Comey didn't respond to his questions, although he said he "hoped to be able to answer to them soon," so the lawmaker wrote them in a
letter and sent that to him.
"He did not offer responses yesterday, so we are continuing to demand those responses," Goodlatte said. "We also have scheduled, and it's been scheduled for quite some time, Attorney General Loretta Lynch appearing before the Judiciary Committee next weekend, and obviously, most of those questions will be posed to her as well."
Goodlatte noted that Comey had said no "reasonable" prosecutor would go after an indictment against Clinton, but "why was it that during this administration seven people have been prosecuted under similar circumstances?"
For example, he said,
Navy Chief Petty Officer Lyle White, was convicted of removing documents from his office and taking them home on a laptop's hard drive, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 60 days in jail and a $10,000 fine, both of which were suspended in recognition of his guilty plea.