Hillary Clinton was the only former secretary of state who refused to be interviewed by State Department's Inspector General for
their report on how she and her predecessors poorly managed their email, and she needs to "come clean," House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said Wednesday.
"We have inspectors general, nonpartisan, they rely on going under the hood, [being] able to interview past secretaries of state," the Utah Republican told
Fox News' "Outnumbered" program, noting that former Secretaries Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright and up through Secretary [John] Kerry agreed to interviews.
"The only secretary of state that refused to be interviewed through her counsel was Secretary Clinton," said Chaffetz, and there have been ongoing issues with records retention.
Clinton "created this vulnerability," he said. "She needs to come clean," and could have done so with an interview with the inspector general.
The problem occurs throughout several parts of the government, Chaffetz said, but in the case of the State Department "we do rely on these records and it is the law that you are supposed to go through a process, and she did not follow it."
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, Wednesday defended Clinton saying she acted in "good conscience," but Chaffetz said he does not know how one would come to that conclusion.
"She set up a private email service with herself," said Chaffetz. "There is deep concern about records retention and the inspector general report stating there were clearly problems…[this is] something she should answer to."
Meanwhile, he said, it is "very uncommon" for someone like Clinton not to cooperate with investigators.
"I have not gone through every word of this report but on the top line issues of concern she didn't answer questions," said Chaffetz. "Nobody has been disciplined at the State Department for lack of compliance and when you cannot interview the actual person, that says a lot about where they are going with it."
The FBI is also conducting an investigation, and Chaffetz said he has a "strong belief" in FBI Director James Comey as a "serious minded person."
"He testified before us in the House Judiciary Committee a number of weeks ago, he reviews this every day, has his finger on the pulse and obviously this investigation continues," said Chaffetz. "I would like to have that concluded sooner than later."
But still, with Americans trying to make vital decisions on the presidency, "if you're trying to clean up your record, sit with the inspector general to do that and in this case, Secretary Clinton refused to do it," said Chaffetz.
He deferred comment, though, on how the report will affect Clinton as the front-running Democratic candidate, preferring to address the dangers of her having used a private email server.
"When the secretary of state, serving in one of the most sensitive positions in government, has this private setup, it potentially puts lives at risk," said Chaffetz. "It is a national security concern. There is classified intelligence, according to news reports I am reading, vulnerable to attack, by our adversaries. That is my concern that we solve this and understand how pervasive it is and we protect people whose information may have been compromised."