Republicans urge probe against Hillary Clinton for perjury

Washington: Republican Party members have formally asked the US Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation for perjury against the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton to determine if she lied to Congress.

"The evidence collected by the FBI during its investigation of Secretary Clinton's use of a personal email system appears to directly contradict several aspects of her sworn testimony," chairmen of the US House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee, Bob Goodlatte and Jason Chaffetz, said in a statement on Monday.

Clinton testified at length before Congress regarding the scandal surrounding her use of private e-mail servers to handle official business while she was secretary of state, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week determined, after investigating the matter, that she should not be indicted, EFE news reported.

In light of that investigation, the Justice Department accepted the FBI recommendations and did not file charges against Clinton for using a private server during her 2009-2013 tenure as the top US diplomat, although FBI Director James Comey called her actions in handling certain secret information "extremely careless".

Republicans said that a contradiction exists between Clinton's testimony before Congress on being questioned why she had sent classified information from her server and the federal law enforcement agency's conclusions.

"In light of those contradictions, the (Justice) Department should investigate and determine whether to prosecute Secretary Clinton for violating statutes that prohibit perjury and false statements to Congress, or any other relevant statutes," the chairmen added.

On July 7, Comey revealed that Clinton, in fact, did exchange e-mails containing classified information via her private server, although she had denied it in her testimony.

When asked last week, in the House Oversight Committee hearing, if it would be possible to undertake an investigation for alleged perjury by the former secretary of state, Comey said that a request from the legislative branch would be necessary and that was presented on Monday with an eye toward opening such a probe.