Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has "nothing to do" with an alleged attempted "quid pro quo" scheme between the FBI and the State Department, but if its determined high-ranking State Department official Patrick Kennedy broke the law, he should "absolutely" be fired, President Bill Clinton's former special counsel Lanny Davis said Tuesday.
"Fact one, there isn't a single document or word in this story that alleges that Hillary Clinton knew or was involved in this story," Davis told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "Fact two, the career diplomat who is mentioned, not lieutenant, but career diplomat argued that [it] three years later should be deemed classified. He lost the argument. Third fact. The FBI documents says it was the FBI's agents' idea for the favor to be done."
Meanwhile, House Government Oversight and Intelligence Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, has called for an investigation into the revelations, and Davis said he wants Chaffetz to make sure he sticks with the facts of the case.
According to FBI records released on Monday, Kennedy asked for the FBI's help last year to change the classification level of an email from Hillary Clinton's private server in a proposed bargain described as a "quid pro quo" that would have allowed the FBI to deploy more agents in foreign countries.
The FBI rejected the request to release the email, which was related to the 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Had it been approved, the State Department could have archived the email, which described reports in November 2012 that Libyan police were arresting attack suspects.
The email was forwarded to Clinton's private email address by Jake Sullivan, a State Department director of policy planning.
"Congressman Chaffetz has a right to make the inquiry, as long as he sticks to the facts that are not in dispute," Davis said Tuesday. "Remember, Ambassador Kennedy is career-appointed by Republicans and Democrats. He's there as a career. He argued about a document that was deemed classified three years later, after the document was not classified at the time in 2012. If Congressman Chaffetz deals with those facts and finds any wrongdoing, I would be surprised because the FBI yesterday said there was no quid pro quo. Indeed, there was an FBI agent who initiated the idea of more personnel in a foreign office."
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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