In a series of moves that could keep Hillary Clinton answering questions until Election Day, Republican committee chairmen in the House and Senate are considering launching new probes into Hillary Clinton’s tenure at the State Department, according to multiple GOP lawmakers and aides.

The committee leaders — who have so far let the House Select Committee on Benghazi take the lead investigating Clinton’s response to the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya — are now eyeing their own spin-off probes into the Democratic front-runner for president and her aides.


Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wants answers about Clinton’s email server, including the possible mishandling of classified information, and what he called “a potential conflict of interest” for Huma Abedin, a top Clinton campaign manager and former State Department official. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) is closely following allegations that her top aides also used personal email for work purposes, as he prepares for a possible inquiry once the Benghazi panel finishes its work, according to two committee sources.

Other panels, including the Senate Intelligence and Homeland Security committees, are monitoring an FBI probe into problems with classified information that moved through Clinton’s unsecured, homemade email server. And Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) — whose office had originally asked House chairmen to hold fire on investigating Clinton-related matters while the Benghazi panel finishes its work — has not ruled out the prospect of allowing another panel to investigate these offshoot matters, according to a leadership source.

Republicans hadn’t want to muddy the waters for the Benghazi panel by bombarding the State Department with document requests and subpoenas. But now, with new revelations of missing records or alleged conflicts of interest, the GOP is reevaluating that stance.

While leaders would prefer that the Benghazi panel wrap up first, if Republicans feel there’s a critical mass of investigations and new revelations, they may set their panel chairmen loose. Otherwise, new probes could begin when the Benghazi panel releases its findings as soon as the end of 2015 — meaning those inquiries would drag deep into election seasons and even, potentially, up to the election.

“As chairman of the committee, I have a responsibility to look into this,” said Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chief Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), whose panel has also sent letters seeking more information. “There are lots of very legitimate questions that Congress should be asking here — and the former secretary needs to answer.”

Republicans, for their part, face a tricky political calculation: Too many probes risk the appearance of an anti-Clinton political circus, which would buoy the Democrats’ argument that Republicans are just trying to make their top 2016 prospect look bad.

That’s the view Democrats are already taking.

“It’s election season, and congressional Republicans are running the same series of plays, just on a different field,” said Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill. “It’s not surprising, but it is disappointing.”

But the GOP feels emboldened by the fact that independent executive branch inspectors general, including one working for the intelligence community, have also raised questions about mishandling of classified materials.

“It’s fair to say the Benghazi Committee doesn’t want to be all-things-Hillary… but all this just keeps going and growing,” Chaffetz said. “It’s like we haven’t closed the loop … We’re not going to be any harder on Hillary Clinton because she’s running for president — but we’re not going to be easier either.”

Right now, the chairmen are in the initial stages of inquiry. But if they move forward with full-blown investigations, that could cause a host of problems for Clinton, who had hoped to put much of this behind her by agreeing to testify before the Benghazi panel in October.

Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy’s panel since last summer has been probing the events that led up to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack that killed four Americans. Its investigation led to a number of revelations, notably a New York Times story this March that reported Clinton sidestepped government transparency rules and used personal email exclusively.

Around the same time, reports surfaced that the Clinton Foundation, a philanthropic group started by the former first family, was taking donations from foreign governments while she served as top diplomat.

Chaffetz and House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) had at the time expressed interest in investigating both developments, according to two GOP sources.

However, Boehner, according to multiple sources on at least three committees, asked House chairmen to hold off at least temporarily so as to not blunt the Benghazi panel’s work.

“The reality is that it doesn’t make sense for four different committees to request the same information from the administration that has a record of slow walking crucial information because that could undermine the Select Committee from getting the information it needs,” said a House leadership aide. “Instead, it’s better for the Select Committee to get its information and then we can make strategic decisions about other committees’ document requests.”

Since then, Republicans have felt more pressure to act, particularly after news that an intelligence community inspector general found at least four out of a sampling of 40 Clinton emails contained classified information. It referred its concern to the Justice Department.

Gowdy (R-S.C.) has said he is not interested in expanding his probe beyond the Benghazi attack and does not want to investigate whether Clinton Foundation donations affected the secretary of state’s foreign policy positions, or State’s incomplete record of emails, or the classified emails issue.

The panel is trying to do about 40 interviews over the next few months, and wrap up its probe by the end of the year.

Other chairmen, however, are ready to join the fray.

As recently as last week, Chaffetz and the speaker’s office discussed the prospect of probing some of the new revelations that go beyond Benghazi, according to two GOP sources. The young new Oversight chief has grilled administration officials for using personal email in the past, even pressuring the leader of the Chemical Safety Board, Rafael Moure-Eraso, who had done so, to resign.

According to GOP sources, Chaffetz is eager to look into the use of personal email for work purposes by Clinton and her staff, as well as the Clinton Foundation donations.

But before leaving for August recess he and leadership agreed to hold off on launching an inquiry while the Benghazi Committee wraps ups its findings.

In the Senate, chairmen are already starting to act.

House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz is pictured. | Getty

Following reports that Clinton’s lawyer David Kendall kept a thumb-drive backup of her emails, including some likely classified, Grassley sent a letter to the FBI to ensure it had secured the intelligence. About a week later, The Washington Post reported that the FBI was probing the security of Clinton’s email system as well as the thumb drive.

Grassley this week also slapped a hold on State Department nominees to the Foreign Service and other posts until he gets more information about a “potential conflict of interest” with Abedin, who worked for outside firms while serving as Clinton’s close adviser.

Abedin is now the vice chair of Hillary for America.

Grassley isn’t alone in the Senate. Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr initially prompted the intelligence community watchdog’s letter revealing that Clinton had classified information on her server.

The North Carolina Republican told POLITICO he’s watching closely as things play out at DOJ.

“From a jurisdictional standpoint, anytime there could be intelligence documents that aren’t securely held, I’m concerned,” he said. “When my staff carries classified documents around here, they’ve got a blue bag with a key and they’ve got to process it with strict instructions.”

In addition, Senate Homeland chief Johnson says he’s making his own inquiries about securing classified information, yet another promise that Clinton’s problems on Capitol Hill are likely to be far from over — even after the Benghazi Committee finishes its work.

“Obviously the secretary is not being forthcoming with the information,” he said. “It looks pretty suspicious to me.”