WASHINGTON - Angry Republicans in the House of Representatives are set to grill FBI Director James Comey on Thursday over his decision not to recommend criminal charges against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server for government business while she served as secretary of state.
Comey has been called to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, while Attorney General Loretta Lynch is scheduled to go before the House Judiciary Committee next week.
Lynch and Comey met Wednesday, ahead of his testimony. Lynch said she will abide by the FBI's recommendations.
"I received and accepted their unanimous recommendation that the thorough, year-long investigation be closed and that no charges be brought against any individuals within the scope of the investigation," Lynch said in a statement released after she met with the FBI director.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said Clinton may have received preferential treatment from the FBI in its investigation of the former top U.S. diplomat. "It looks it to me," he told reporters when asked.
After Comey announced his decision Tuesday, Ryan said the public should know "how and why" Comey reached that conclusion. "What bothers me about this is the Clintons really are living above the law. They're being held by a different set of standards." Ryan added, "And this is why we're going to have hearings, and this is why I think that Comey should give us all the publicly available information."
Ryan has also questioned whether Clinton should receive classified briefings as a presidential candidate, given Comey's rebuke of the way she handled sensitive material.
Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the oversight and reform committee, also has questioned the FBI's decision.
"The FBI's recommendation is surprising and confusing," said Chaffetz. "The fact pattern presented by Director Comey makes clear Secretary Clinton violated the law. Individuals who intentionally skirt the law must be held accountable."
The FBI's recommendation Tuesday lifts a major political and legal hurdle for Clinton's candidacy.
In announcing his decision, Comey sharply reprimanded Clinton, who served as the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, and her colleagues at the State Department for what he said was their "extremely careless" handling of classified material they sent to each other via a private email server she established at her home in New York.
Comey, however, said FBI investigators, in an extensive probe of thousands of Clinton's emails, could not find evidence that she "clearly, willfully" sought to violate U.S. laws and that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case" against her based on the evidence uncovered in the weeks-long investigation.
The FBI's probe of her use of the private server, instead of a government server with tight security controls, culminated last Saturday with investigators and government prosecutors questioning her for 3-1/2 hours at FBI headquarters in Washington.
Comey's statement came a week after a political uproar over an encounter Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, had with the country's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, on an airport tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona. Both Bill Clinton and Lynch said they chatted for half an hour, although not about the email case, but subsequently regretted doing so while Lynch was overseeing the email investigation.
Republicans and Democrats alike criticized Lynch's airport get together with Bill Clinton.
Following Comey's announcement, Hillary Clinton's spokesman said the campaign is pleased the FBI will recommend no charges; but during a rally in North Carolina, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called the FBI's conclusion "disgraceful."
"I don't know about you, but I've always felt that Hillary Clinton would escape criminal charges for her dangerous and illegal behavior because I always knew, and I always see, and it's so sad, that our system is in fact rigged," Trump said. "It's totally rigged. It's corrupt."
When she first acknowledged use of the private email server more than a year ago, Clinton said she did so for "convenience," so that she would not have to carry two phones one to handle government business and one to use for personal matters. She quickly acknowledged that mixing official State Department business with personal emails was "a mistake."