Politics

Ted Cruz Wants Prosecutor To Probe Whether Hillary Broke Law

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Tuesday he would like to see a “non-partisan prosecutor” conduct an investigation into whether Hillary Clinton broke the law by using personal email to conduct official business while serving as secretary of state.

“There ought to be a fair and impartial investigation by a non-partisan prosecutor to determine, ‘did she violate federal law,’ or even worse, ‘did she commit a criminal offense?’” the Texas Republican senator said in an interview live-streamed Tuesday by the Texas Tribune.

“I think the relevant question for Hillary Clinton that needs to be investigated is, ‘did she violate the law?’” Cruz said. “Her conduct on its face appears to be directly contrary to federal law and may have even constituted a criminal offense.”

Pressed by Texas Tribune political reporter Jay Root on his own personal email habits, Cruz acknowledged that he uses a private email account, because, unlike Clinton, there is no rule against a member of Congress doing so.

“There are different rules that apply to members of Congress versus members of the executive branch,” Cruz said. “And there’s a reason for that.”

Elaborating, Cruz said: “Members of Congress run for office. So for example, you cannot do political work on an official email. That’s actually against the rules. So members of Congress engage in political work. We’re elected officials. We’re supposed to engage in politics. And so as a result, I use personal email and political email to, quite properly, engage in political work.”

“The Secretary of State is not supposed to be engaging in political work,” Cruz added, “so there’s a reason there are different standards that apply.”

Cruz announced his run for president Monday. Clinton is expected to announce a run for the Democratic nomination sometime next month.

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