John Ashcroft: This is Not The Justice Department That I Knew
With FBI Director James Comey announcing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal would be reopened, Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft weighs in on the backlash as well as the political fallout as Election Day quickly approaches.
“Well, first of all, I’m deeply saddened by what’s happened by the Justice Department,” Ashcroft told the FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto.
Ashcroft then brought up claims that the Department of Justice blocked the FBI from using many of the investigative tools available to it in its investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
“There’s been a pervasive perversion of the Justice Department process over and over again and recent reports like in The Wall Street Journal that suggest that, not only suggest, allege that the Justice Department has denied investigative tools to be used in investigations related to the Clinton Foundation and frankly, the absence of the use of tools that should have been used in the initial investigation of Hillary Clinton.”
As a result, Ashcroft explained, “The Justice Department sent the FBI in to investigate the Clinton Foundation with its hands tied behind its back.”
The fact that the investigation is being reopened now, so close to the election, was not a surprise to Ashcroft, but the result of stonewalling by Hillary Clinton and her staffers.
“This isn’t an October surprise in my judgment, this is the continuity of an issue which had been stonewalled, for which information had been requested which was not fully given and there was an erroneous statement earlier, much to the acclaim of the people who did the stonewalling, that the investigation was over.”
According to Ashcroft, it is unfair for the Clinton campaign to blame the FBI for the timing of the announcement when the campaign’s stonewalling is ultimately at fault due to its lack of transparency and delays in providing information requested.
“There’s a sense in which it’s a little disingenuous to be complaining about information coming out late when you are the cause of the information coming out late because of a significant stonewalling effort that’s been unfortunately facilitated by the way in which the Attorney General and others have allowed this particular investigation to be conducted.”
Ashcroft viewed this investigation as damaging the credibility of the Justice Department he once knew.
“This is not the Justice Department that I knew, in which I trusted, which I admired.”