Mike Pompeo thinks now's the time to talk about Hillary's emails

Just three weeks before the election, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is reviving an old Republican trick: goading the media into covering Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“We’ll continue to do the right thing, we’ll make sure that all these emails get to the right place,” Pompeo told reporters on Wednesday. “We will do everything we can to make sure that the American people get a chance to see as much as we can equitably produce.”

Multiple investigations into Clinton’s emails have turned up no proof of substantive wrongdoing. In 2019, a State Department probe reviewed more than 33,000 emails provided by Clinton. Investigators concluded there was “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.”

It’s not clear what Pompeo hopes to accomplish by releasing more of his predecessor’s emails, but critics have pointed to the widespread media coverage of Clinton’s emails as one of the reasons for her loss to Trump in 2016.

In 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey accused Clinton of being “extremely careless” with handling classified information, while admitting that there was no “clear evidence” that Clinton intended to violate the law. FBI officials later concluded they were “fairly confident that there wasn’t an intrusion” compromising classified information.

Four years later, Trump supporters still chant “Lock her up!” at rallies — a reference to Trump’s false claims about Clinton’s email use.

As Election Day draws closer, Trump has expanded his roster of political opponents who should be in prison to include President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden.

“Where are all of the arrests?” Trump demanded to know last week.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.