WASHINGTON _ Sen. Marco Rubio and nine other Republican senators sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday saying Hillary Clinton and her aides should have their security clearances suspended.
The letter comes after FBI Director James Comey said Clinton and aides were "extremely careless in their handling of sensitive, highly classified information." But Comey also said "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch said she would not bring charges against Clinton.
The letter, signed by Sens. David Perdue, John Barrasso, Cory Gardner, Johnny Isakson, Jim Risch, Ron Johnson, James Lankford and Tom Cotton, also said the department should remove clearances for advisers Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan, among others.
"Your responsibilities as Secretary of State include maintaining the integrity of the Department and ensuring that classified materials are preserved to prevent unauthorized access," the letter said.
The letter goes on to ask if Clinton and her aides have active security clearance at the State Department, are steps being taken to impose sanctions on them and have other department employees had security or administrative sanctions imposed on them.
"There is simply no excuse for Hillary Clinton's decision to set up a home-cooked email system which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation by America's enemies," the letter said.
Gardner also introduced legislation with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would revoke Clinton's security clearance.
"If the FBI won't recommend action based on its findings, Congress will," Gardner said in a statement. "At the very least, Secretary Clinton should not have access to classified information and our bill makes sure of it."
