FBI Director James Comey is sworn in on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 7, 2016. GOP aims for Hillary in FBI hearing

Frustrated by FBI Director James Comey's decision not to recommend criminal charges for Hillary Clinton, House Republicans used his Thursday testimony to hammer Clinton's past defenses of her private email server — their latest bid to undermine the Democratic frontrunner's trustworthiness.

And a top Republican said he would ask the FBI to probe whether Clinton had previously lied to lawmakers during congressional testimony — a move that could keep the email scandal alive well in to the election, although it was unclear how that referral would play out.


While Comey's nearly five hours of testimony didn't provide any new bombshell revelations, it gave Republicans a chance to ask the FBI chief directly about Clinton's past statements explaining her homebrew email system, including that she never sent or received items marked as classified.

"That is not true," Comey said in answer to a question from Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). "There were a small number of portion markings on, I think, three of the documents."

It's the kind of statement that will almost surely be played on endless repeat in Republican attack ads, although Democrats were quick to point out that the State Department said some of the emails had been erroneously marked as classified.

With the legal process effectively closed by Comey's recommendation — and the Justice Department's subsequent decision — not to press charges, the political parties settled into familiar lines of attack: Republicans held out contradictions between Comey's statements and Clinton's as evidence that the former secretary of state is untruthful, while Democrats said the hearings were just the latest political witch hunt aimed at Clinton, particularly in light of Comey's judgment that she didn't break the law or lie to FBI investigators.

"Despite the partisan motivations of this hearing, we are glad it took place and that Director Comey had the opportunity to expand upon his remarks from earlier this week," said Brian Fallon, a Clinton spokesman. "The Director's explanations shut the door on any remaining conspiracy theories once and for all. While Republicans may try to keep this issue alive, this hearing proved those efforts will only backfire."

Still, Comey's testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was ripe with political fodder for Republicans.

Asked whether Clinton's earlier testimony that she did not email "any classified material to anyone on my email" and "there is no classified material" was true, Comey responded, "There was classified material," which would seem to be a direct contradiction of Clinton's statements.

Meanwhile, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, even told Comey that the FBI would get a referral from Congress “in the next few hours” asking the agency to investigate comments Clinton made under oath during her late October testimony before the Benghazi panel. Following the hearing, Chaffetz said he was working with other lawmakers to formally craft a referral that could come as early as Thursday, although the request could be delayed to Friday.

"I’m totally shocked that the FBI did not look at the congressional record and the testimony of Secretary Clinton," Chaffetz said. "I didn’t know they need to have a formal letter. But they’re going to get one."

Republicans also reiterated their belief that the Democratic candidate is held to a different standard, an assertion that Comey rejected. As he opened his testimony, Comey stressed he and FBI investigators conducted the probe “consistent with the highest traditions” of the agency.

And more than two hours into the hearing, Comey furiously rebutted notions that he may have coordinated with the White House and the Clinton campaign when he announced the results of his probe earlier this week — the same day Clinton and President Barack Obama campaigned together in North Carolina.

“The White House, the Department of Justice, nobody outside the FBI family had any idea what I was about to say,” Comey told Rep. John Mica (R-Calif.), who had wondered what he would tell his constituents when they raise questions about the Clinton investigation. “I say that under oath, I stand by that. There was no coordination. There was an insinuation in what you were saying that.”

Comey added: “I don't mean to get strong in responding, but I want to make sure I was definitive about that.”

As he did in an extraordinary news conference earlier this week, Comey said he looked at whether Clinton and her aides intended to violate the law. The FBI director stressed that in nearly 100 years, the Justice Department has only once brought charges of “gross negligence” since a statute outlawing the practice passed in 1917 — and that, in his view, Clinton's case didn’t merit that same conclusion.

“No reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in 100 years focused on gross negligence,” Comey declared to lawmakers. “I know that's been a source of some confusion for folks. That's just the way it is. I know the Department of Justice, I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case.”

In addition to underscoring the FBI’s conclusion that the former secretary of state was “careless,” Comey — on multiple occasions — floated the idea that Clinton may not have understood what classified markings on three of her emails meant. The mark is a “C” in parentheses. Democrats, however, noted that the State Department said this week some of the emails marked “classified” should not have been.

Comey announced this week that the FBI would not recommend charges against Clinton, ending a lengthy investigation into whether the likely Democratic nominee and her aides at the State Department violated laws governing classified information.

He did, however, lay into Clinton and her staff with an extraordinary rebuke of their behavior at State. Noting that the FBI’s probe found Clinton used multiple email servers and several devices, Comey called the former secretary of state’s handling of sensitive and classified material “extremely careless.”

Attorney General Loretta Lynch — whose private meeting with Bill Clinton last week triggered a political firestorm and questions of potential impropriety during an active investigation — announced Wednesday night that she would follow the FBI’s recommendation and not bring charges against Hillary Clinton.

Since Comey’s stunning news conference, Republican lawmakers have fought back with letters to the administration, Thursday’s hastily called hearing and legislation that would yank Clinton’s security clearance — making it clear the issue won’t disappear for Clinton, at least in the political sphere.

“We’re mystified and confused by the fact pattern you laid out and the conclusions you reached,” Chaffetz told Comey in his opening remarks. “It seems there are two standards and there’s no consequence for these types of activities in dealing in a careless way with classified information.”

Chaffetz argued that if the “average Joe” handled classified material in the same way Clinton did, “they’d be in handcuffs.” He pressed Comey on whether Clinton lied under oath, to the public, and whether another person who had engaged in the same behavior as Clinton would be granted a security clearance at the FBI.

Gowdy, who led the House’s investigation into the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, Libya, repeatedly grilled Comey on statements Clinton had made during the course of the probe into her email server — such as her statement that she had only one device and that she had turned over all work-related messages to federal investigators.

Comey refuted both during his news conference earlier this week, and he refuted them again before Gowdy and the rest of the committee.

“There’s nothing to keep a future secretary of state or president from this exact same email scheme or their staff,” a furious-sounding Gowdy told Comey. While a military official may be punished for similar mishandling of information, “if you are Hillary Clinton and you seek a promotion to commander in chief, you will not be.”

Near the end of the hearing, Chaffetz repeatedly grilled Comey on whether Clinton allowed people without security clearances – referring to her attorneys – access to classified information. Ultimately, the FBI director answered “yes,” though Comey stressed there was no evidence of criminal intent.

Fallon, the Clinton campaign spokesman, immediately responded on Twitter that attorneys who sifted through the former secretary of state’s e-mails had top secret-level clearances. Chaffetz told reporters afterward that he was referring to Heather Samuelson, a former State Department aide under Clinton who also helped sort through the e-mails. Chaffetz said she didn’t have a security clearance, but a December 2015 letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) showed Samuelson had actually retained her top secret/sensitive compartmented information security clearance.

Meanwhile, committee chairmen from both ends of the Capitol are investigating. And Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who called for Clinton’s clearance to be revoked almost immediately after Comey’s announcement, made his request formal on Thursday in a letter to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence.

“If the FBI won’t recommend action based on its findings, Congress will,” said Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), who introduced Senate legislation with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) that would deny Clinton her security clearance. “At the very least, Secretary Clinton should not have access to classified information, and our bill makes sure of it.”

Democrats are sure to go on the attack against Republicans, accusing the GOP of overreach. Before the hearing began, the Clinton campaign dismissed it as “another taxpayer-funded sham inquiry” and released past statements from Chaffetz and other top Republicans praising the respected FBI director.

The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, told Comey: "I firmly believe your decision was not based on convenience but on conviction." And he pushed back against Republicans who have lashed out against Comey’s decision.

“I want to make it clear that I condemn these completely unwarranted political attacks against you,” Cummings told the FBI director. “They have attacked you personally, they have attacked your integrity, they have impugned your professionalism and they have somehow suggested you were bought and paid for.”

But Republicans have defended their inquiries as a basic duty, particularly after questions raised following Comey’s news conference.

"We'd be remiss if we didn't actually ask questions,” Chaffetz said in a brief interview outside the Republican National Committee headquarters before the high-profile hearing. "Both sides get an equal opportunity to ferret out the truth."

Heather Caygle contributed to this report.