Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday joined Donald Trump’s call for a special prosecutor to look into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
“If you're waiting on this Justice Department to hold anybody in the Obama-Clinton world accountable, you'll die of old age,” the South Carolina Republican said in a statement on Thursday. “It’s sad but it's true.”
I think Mr. Trump has it right when he is calling for somebody outside the Justice Department to look into this matter.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Graham argued that Clinton has been caught in a public lie about the matter several times, with no consequences.
“The public statements Secretary Clinton has made about the email systems have all fallen,” he said. “She said she turned over everything that was work-related but there's thousands of work-related emails that have not been turned over.”
Trump called for an independent investigation into Clinton’s emails earlier this week at a campaign rally in Akron, Ohio.
“After the FBI and Department of Justice whitewash of the Clinton email crimes, they certainly cannot be trusted to quickly or impartially investigate Hillary Clinton’s new crimes, which happen all the time,” he told the audience on Monday.
Graham, a famously outspoken critic of Trump who has said he will not be voting for the his party’s nominee in November, said he agreed with him on the email probe.
“I think Mr. Trump has it right when he is calling for somebody outside the Justice Department to look into this matter,” he told Fox News on Wednesday.
He also said that an Associated Press report this week, which revealed that while at the State Department Clinton granted time to people who had donated to the Clinton Foundation, was a “gift from the political gods” for Trump.
It has become clear that the rules are different for the Clintons than they are for everyday Americans, and that must stop.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
South Carolina’s junior senator, Republican Tim Scott, called for a special prosecutor to look into the matter back in July, after FBI Director James Comey recommended that no charges be filed against Clinton for using the private server, although he scolded her staff and her as “extremely careless.”
“Now more than ever, I believe a special prosecutor is needed in order to assure the American people that politics are not overriding the truth in this case,” he said, protesting that the matter proved that “the rules are different for the Clintons than they are for everyday Americans.”
Another S.C. Republican, Rep. Jeff Duncan, has also long called for a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s time at the State Department.
“Without taking that extra step to ensure impartiality, the American people’s faith in our system of government will only further erode and Secretary Clinton’s legitimacy as a candidate will forever be in question,” he wrote in a Facebook post in July.
The controversy about Clinton’s emails has persistently overshadowed her campaign’s efforts to get out from under it. This week a federal judge ordered the State Department to set a timeline to release 15,000 previously undisclosed emails that are being reviewed. State Department lawyers said they will process and release the first batch by mid-October, just weeks before the election.
Vera Bergengruen: 202-383-6036, @verambergen