Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency before serving as secretary of state, slammed the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home Monday, highlighting the disparity between that raid and the treatment of former presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The FBI’s raid was revealed by Trump in a statement on Monday and reports indicated that the raid revolved around supposed classified documents.
“Executing a warrant against ex-POTUS is dangerous,” Pompeo tweeted. “The apparent political weaponization of DOJ/FBI is shameful. AG must explain why 250 yrs of practice was upended w/ this raid. I served on Benghazi Com where we proved Hilliary (sic) possessed classified info. We didn’t raid her home.”
Executing a warrant against ex-POTUS is dangerous. The apparent political weaponization of DOJ/FBI is shameful. AG must explain why 250 yrs of practice was upended w/ this raid. I served on Benghazi Com where we proved Hilliary possessed classified info. We didn’t raid her home
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) August 9, 2022
The House Benghazi Committee released an 800-page report in June 2016 which claimed several damning actions or inactions regarding the terrorist attack that murdered four Americans in the Benghazi compound in Libya on September 11, 2012, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens.
Among the claims: The State Department headed by Clinton knew the Benghazi compound was undermanned; requests for increased security at Benghazi were either ignored or outright refused by the department; political concerns delayed the Obama administration’s response to the attack, and that Clinton and others in the Obama administration parroted the false narrative that the attack was a response to a video.
According to the report, there was a “shameful” stonewalling of the investigation by the Obama administration, particularly with regard to Clinton’s private email server.
“What may appear at first blush to be a lack of competence on behalf of the State Department now appears fully intentional and coordinated,” it concluded. “Delaying the production of documents sought by letter, informal request or subpoena has decided political advantages for those opposing the investigation.”
In August 2017, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who had been appointed by former President Barack Obama, ordered the State Department — which Hillary Clinton headed as secretary of state — to investigate its own emails regarding the Benghazi attack, as Politico reported. Mehta wrote in his ruling:
To date, State has searched only data compilations originating from outside sources — Secretary Clinton, her former aides, and the FBI. … It has not, however, searched the one records system over which it has always had control and that is almost certain to contain some responsive records: the state.gov e-mail server.
If Secretary Clinton sent an e-mail about Benghazi to Abedin, Mills, or Sullivan at his or her state.gov e-mail address, or if one of them sent an e-mail to Secretary Clinton using his or her state.gov account, then State’s server presumably would have captured and stored such an e-mail. Therefore, State has an obligation to search its own server for responsive records.