A delegation of lawmakers issued a criminal reference to the Department of Justice on Wednesday calling for charges to be brought against top FBI and DOJ officials over what they claim was a biased and bungled investigation into former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a secret email server.
Eleven Republican lawmakers sent a criminal referral to the DOJ demanding charges be filed against Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, former acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boenta, and FBI legal counsel Lisa Page, according to the formal referral sent to the DOJ.
In the six-page letter, the lawmakers outline charges that should be brought against these current and formal officials due to what the lawmakers claim was a bungled investigation into Clinton's use of a homespun server to store classified information during her time as secretary of state during the Obama administration.
The lawmakers allege that Comey and others remained loyal to Clinton during the investigation and downplayed evidence that led to potential charges against the Democratic candidate to be dropped during the contested election between her and Donald Trump.
"We believe that those in positions of high authority should be treated the same as every other American, we want to be sure that the potential violations of law outlined below are vetted appropriately," the lawmakers write in the letter, which was spearheaded by Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security.
Comey, the lawmakers claim, violated the law when he leaked several classified memos to the press in a bid to damage President Donald Trump's administration.
"It would appear that former Director Comey leaked classified information when sharing these [classified] memos," the lawmakers write, referring that he be prosecuted for violations of multiple federal statues governing such activities.
They further allege that Comey dropped the Clinton investigation in order to protect her 2016 presidential bid.
With regard to Clinton, the lawmakers allege she violated the law when her campaign obfuscated payments to the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which is responsible for compiling an anti-Trump dossier based on dubious methods. (Disclosure: The Washington Free Beacon was once a client of Fusion GPS. That relationship ended in January 2017. For more information, see here.).
"For disguising payments to Fusion GPS on mandatory disclosures to the Federal Election Commission, we refer Hillary Clinton to DOJ for potential violations" of federal statutes governing such activity.
The lawmakers outline a range of evidence that they say implicates the other current and former officials mentioned above. A full copy of the criminal referral can be viewed here.