Republicans get back to the hard work of investigating Hillary Clinton's emails

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) turned his attention back to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s years-old emails this week, the same day he voted to acquit Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment.

On Wednesday, Johnson sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanding more information about a 2019 State Department investigation that exonerated Clinton of wrongdoing.

In his letter, Johnson, who was first elected in 2010, said he had been investigating Clinton’s emails for almost five years and was determined to continue that work.

“Since March 2015, I have conducted oversight of Clinton’s private email server,” he wrote. “As part of that continued oversight, I write to request additional information about the Department’s September 2019 report.”

Johnson demanded the State Department answer more than 20 distinct questions about its investigation, including how investigators “uncovered no persuasive evidence of systemic misuse relative to the deliberate introduction of classified information to unclassified systems.” Johnson also sought the names and titles of dozens of State Department employees who were contacted as part of the investigation.

Johnson said he expected answers to his questions by Feb. 20.

The report he referenced Wednesday was initiated under Trump and found that “by and large, the individuals interviewed were aware of security policies and did their best to implement them.”

It further concluded that there was “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.”

Throughout the impeachment proceedings, which culminated with Trump’s acquittal in the Senate Wednesday evening, Republicans repeatedly complained that Congress should be more focused on issues that matter to the American people, insisting the trial and House inquiry before it were a waste of time.

“I have heard enough. It is time to vote,” Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) tweeted prior to the vote, demanding the chamber “return its focus to the priorities of the American people like lowering the cost of prescription drugs.”

In December, Trump himself demanded a quick impeachment and Senate trial so that Congress could “get back to business.”

Now it appears that business is Clinton’s emails.

Despite claims of Democratic inaction, last year alone, the Democrat-led House of Representatives passed nearly 600 bills, some of them bipartisan, including legislation addressing voting rights, health care, prescription drug prices, LGBTQ equality, gun safety, and immigration.

Most of those bills have since stalled in the Republican-led Senate under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has called himself the “Grim Reaper” for his role in refusing to bring them to a vote.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.