A House panel grilled FBI Director James Comey on his decision not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state, but the congressmen never truly got to the bottom of Clinton's email scandal, according to the author of an explosive new book on the Clintons.

New York Times bestselling author Jerome Corsi says the key question is this: Why did Secretary Clinton feel it was necessary to have her own private email server, off-line from the State Department's secure email server?

The answer, he says, is provided in his new book, "Partners in Crime: The Clintons' Scheme to Monetize the White House for Personal Profit."

"The crime partnership of Bill and Hillary Clinton had the perfect set-up with Bill heading the Clinton Foundation and Hillary appointed secretary of state," said Corsi, a WND senior staff writer. "The opportunity for the Clintons to enrich themselves was never greater with Bill positioned to solicit donations from those desiring favorable State Department policy decisions from Hillary."

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But this scam would not work if Hillary's State Department emails were available to be archived on the State Department system, thus subject to FOIA requests. According to Corsi, the scam required emails passing classified information to top officials in the Clinton Foundation as well as Teneo, a corporate advisory firm established by Clinton ally Doug Band.

"With advance knowledge of U.S. foreign policy initiatives – including meetings being scheduled with foreign heads of state – the Clinton Foundation and Teneo could work overtime to make sure foreign operatives seeking favors knew where to send checks in their 'pay to play' scheme," Corsi explained.

"By keeping all her emails on a private server, Hillary and her trusted operatives in the State Department – Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills – could play like an orchestra Hillary's schedule, orchestrating her policy decisions for maximum gain – provided Bill Clinton and top officials at the Clinton Foundation and Teneo had inside access to classified top secret national security information sure to pass through Hillary's email traffic."

Order your copy of No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Jerome Corsi's newest blockbuster, "Partners in Crime: The Clinton's Scheme to Monetize the White House for Personal Profit," now in stock -- weeks ahead of the official Aug. 2, 2016 release date - only at the WND Superstore!

All of this adds up to two crimes, in Corsi's estimation.

"The crime was not only corruption – the selling of 'official acts' as secretary of state for personal gain obtained via 'donations' to the Clinton Foundation – the crime was also inurement – operating a 501(c) tax-favored charity for personal gain, at the same time the politicized IRS denied tax-favored status to conservative, tea-party-affiliated groups," Corsi said.

At the end of his book, Corsi calls for a state-level campaign to shut down the Clinton Foundation. He asks his readers to present formal complaints to their state attorneys general and demand the state criminally investigate the Clinton Foundation and shut it down nationally until the state investigation is complete.

"'Partners in Crime' gives you the information you need to conduct that campaign at your state level and to play a role in it, not just by reading the book, but by acting on the information that I wrote in 'Partners in Crime,'" Corsi said.