Rep. Jason Chaffetz also sent a letter to Platte River Networks, the IT company that handled some of the server work for Clinton, seeking information about potential destruction of evidence. | AP Photo Chaffetz seeks probe of whether Clinton destroyed evidence

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz on Tuesday sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia asking him to investigate whether Hillary Clinton and her aides destroyed evidence and obstructed justice in the scandal over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

Chaffetz also sent a letter to Platte River Networks, the IT company that handled some of the server work for Clinton, seeking information about potential destruction of evidence.


The letters come after the FBI last Friday released the notes on its now-closed investigation into Clinton's handling of classified information through her private server. The FBI’s investigation found that an individual, whose name was redacted in the report, used an online program called BleachBit to delete a file on the server containing Clinton’s emails. The unnamed staffer deleted the files after remembering an earlier request from longtime Clinton aide Cheryl Mills that changed "email retention policies" for Clinton's server.

"The FBI's investigative files reveal evidence that an engineer at Platte River Networks, the company responsible for maintaining the Secretary's third personal email server, deleted Secretary Clinton's email archives in March of 2015, despite knowing they were subject to preservation orders and a congressional subpoena," Chaffetz said in the letter to Channing Phillips, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.

"In light of this information, the Department should investigate and determine whether Secretary Clinton or her employees and contractors violated statutes that prohibit destruction of records, obstruction of congressional inquiries, and concealment or cover up of evidence material to a congressional investigation," Chaffetz added.

The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Clinton told reporters later on Tuesday that there was "no concern" when it came to her email archives.

The leading Democrat on the oversight committee also leaped to Clinton's defense. “Unfortunately this is the latest misguided attempt to use taxpayer funds to help the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, and to essentially re-do what the FBI has already investigated because Republicans disagree with the outcome for political reasons," ranking Oversight member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a statement.

Speaking to radio host Hugh Hewitt, Chaffetz suggested that he “might” subpoena longtime Clinton friend Sid Blumenthal, who sent dozens of memos to the secretary of state, some of which contained information later deemed classified.

“I mean, we still have a lot of moving parts here, and we’re trying to recover this. This, Hugh, this is potentially one of the largest breaches of security in the history of the State Department. So we’re not letting go on this. We’re going to get to the truth. We’ve got to make sure that this classified information isn’t able to walk out the door,” Chaffetz added. “Remember, there are two email systems at the State Department. You don’t just simply get a classified email and then whoops, I forwarded to the wrong person. You have to go to great lengths to take it off that system, or summarize what you saw, and put it on the non-classified system. So how Sidney Blumenthal and others are integrated into this really still, we need to get to the truth.

Pressed on whether he would use his subpoena power to gather people like Blumenthal to testify before the committee, Chaffetz responded, “I am not going to be bashful in using it.”

“I’ve tried to bend over backwards to give people a fair, honest chance. But if not, we’re going to start issuing subpoenas, absolutely,” the Utah Republican said.

As far as whether the process could go up through the Nov. 8 election, Chaffetz remarked, “Hillary Clinton chose this timeline, not me.”

“She decided to hold this information for years,” he continued. "And, but now that the FBI has concluded their portion, and by the way, the FBI did not, has not looked at her testimony before Congress, has not looked at other things that she did potentially with the destruction of documents. So that will continue, and we’re going to go full steam ahead."