Hillary Clinton should not be allowed to run for the presidency, GOP nominee Donald Trump said Thursday, considering the latest news that the FBI has been conducting a criminal investigation into the activities of the Clinton Foundation and her "pay-for-play corruption."
"In other words, the FBI is investigating how Hillary CLinton put the office of secretary of State up for sale in violation of federal law," Trump said during a rally in Jacksonville, Fla. "The investigation is described as a high priority. It is far reaching and has been going on for more than one year."
Further, Trump said, the FBI agents are saying the investigation is "likely to yield an indictment," and that an "avalanche of information is coming in."
However, he said, after the crowd's chants of "lock her up, lock her up" ended, "the system is rigged, just remember that."
"It shows that the political leadership at the Department of Justice is trying to protect Hillary Clinton and interfering with the FBI," Trump said. "By comparison, four-star Gen. James Cartwright, is in serious trouble for doing to what Clinton did, and may go to jail five years. Gen. Cartwright, a four-star general respected by everybody, [did] a tiny, tiny fraction [of what Clinton did] and may go to jail for now five years."
The system is rigged, he continued, because Clinton shouldn't be allowed to run.
"It was also reported that the laptops of Clinton's top aides, which had been slated for destruction were not in fact destroyed," Trump said. "Good job by the FBI. The FBI is successfully using them to gather information for their criminal investigation."
More than 650,000 emails were found, Trump said, poking fun at her claims that deleted emails were about daughter Chelsea's wedding and some yoga classes.
"No less than five foreign intelligence agencies successfully hacked into the Clinton's illegal and not secure server and accessed classified information to create a ongoing security threat to the United States," Trump said. "Hillary Clinton engaged in a massive, far-reaching criminal conduct and equally far-reaching cover-up. She created an illegal email server to shield and guard her activities."
The investigation should have taken place while the probe of Clinton's private email server was going on, but she was protected by the DOJ, Trump continued.
"She illegally transmitted confidential information and lied about it to Congress," Trump said. "She illegally destroyed federal records, including 33,000 emails after receiving a congressional subpoena. And she made 13 phones disappear some, with a hammer. Who in this room has gotten rid of a phone and then smashed the hell out of it with a hammer?"
Trump also told the cheering crowd that Clinton lied to the FBI and to Americans many times, including saying "I don't recall" 39 times while she was being interrogated by the FBI.
"Those are all lies because she recalled everyone of them," Trump said. "A high-ranking government official caught selling her public office and endangering national security and engaging in a massive criminal cover-up, if she were to win it would create an unprecedented Constitutional crisis."
And, he continued, she'll likely be under investigation for many years, and that will be "likely to conclude in a criminal trial. This is not what we need this country folks. We need somebody that will go to work to bring our jobs back. Take care of our military. To strengthen up our borders."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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