[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 113 (Wednesday, July 13, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H4823-H4824]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE STANDARD OF LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO THE CLINTONS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Texas (Mr. Babin) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, our Nation's top law enforcement officials
took a very dangerous turn last week when they essentially rewrote the
law for the well-connected and privileged in America. This should be
deeply troubling to all ordinary Americans, both on the left and on the
right.
For those of us who work hard every day, play by the rules, and live
by the law, when we cross the line, it is the law that holds us
accountable. But that standard of law does not seem to apply to the
Clintons.
John Adams warned during the formation of our Constitution that we
must be a nation of laws, not a nation of men. Undermining this
founding principle for the privileged not only demonstrates poor
judgment, it further erodes our trust in the institutions of
government.
So it is left for us to now ask whether what we have come to is a
nation of laws, or is it a government of the rich and powerful?
Do we have a Department of Justice or a department of ``just us''?
FBI Director James Comey testified before Congress to the many laws
that former Secretary of State Clinton
[[Page H4824]]
broke, acknowledging ``extreme carelessness'' while denying ``gross
negligence,'' which by definition are one and the same.
Then, incredibly, Mr. Comey said that there was no need for
prosecution. Therefore, the choice not to apply the law equally to
Hillary Clinton is not only a major blow to public confidence and the
rule of law and equal treatment under the law, it also suggests that
the rule of law has become nothing more than a word game. It confirms
everything that we hate about the current state of politics in our
country.
The FBI basically just wasted millions of dollars to confirm that
everything Secretary Clinton has been telling the American people is
nothing but a bunch of lies, and it doesn't matter.
However, it has mattered greatly to far less powerful Americans in
similar circumstances who have had their careers and their lives
destroyed. Public servants and military servicemembers who are not in
positions to hold private meetings with the Attorney General, as Mrs.
Clinton's husband did just days before this decision, have been jailed,
fined, and lost their jobs and their security clearances.
We may never know just how much damage was caused by Clinton's
callous disregard for the law and our national security secrets. Were
informants killed? Were they lost or compromised due to her negligence?
Do foreign intelligence services now retain tens of thousands of
emails from her private, unsecured servers that can now be used against
the United States or against her to the detriment of the United States
of America?
We have an absolute duty to find out.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair would remind Members to refrain
from engaging in personalities toward a presumptive nominee for the
Office of President.
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