Letter to The Honorable James B. Comey, Jr., FBI Director - Handling of Classified Material

Letter

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable James B. Comey, Jr.
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535

Dear Director Comey:

The Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC) and the Inspector General of the State Department (State OIG) recently notified the FBI and several Intelligence Community agencies of a compromise of national security information in connection with Hillary Clinton's use of a non-governmental email server while Secretary of State. Specifically, in a sample of 40 of Secretary Clinton's emails IC identified four containing classified IC-derived information. These recent revelations raise important questions about the role the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken and will continue to take in this matter. In addition, a notification from the IC indicates that these classified emails existed on a thumb drive and may exist on a server. According to a briefing provided today by the IC and State OIGs, former Secretary Clinton's personal attorney, David Kendall, was in possession of the thumb drive at the time of the notice to the FBI and other IC components. This raises very serious questions and concerns if a private citizen is somehow retaining classified information.

Accordingly, please explain whether Mr. Kendall had the requisite security clearance and authorization to be the custodian of classified national security information. If not, please explain what steps the FBI has taken or plans to take to secure and prevent further dissemination of the classified information contained on the thumb drive. In addition, what steps are being taken to hold anyone in this matter accountable for unauthorized possession of classified material?

If you have any questions, contact XXXXX my Committee Staff at (202) 224-5225.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary

Source