Col. Allen West: 'If I Was Extremely Careless With Classified Information I'm Going To Fort Leavenworth'
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Former Florida Congressman and retired Lt. Col. Allen West discussed the Hillary Clinton email controversy on CBSDFW Facebook Live on election night. He said the rule of law should apply to everyone or it doesn't apply at all.
"When you have the former President of the United States meeting on the tarmac with the Attorney General at a time when his wife is under investigation, that just adds to the sense of corruption and distrust that the American people have," said West. "I spent 22 years in the U.S. military. I had one of the highest security clearances you could have, TS/SCI [Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information]."
"If I was extremely careless with classified information, the first thing that happens to me is my clearance is revoked, then they start an investigation... If it's nefarious, I'm going to Fort Leavenworth.... and then I'm going to get a dishonorable discharge... I'm going to have a felony offense and that ends my career."
Former democratic state lawmaker and Dallas attorney and activist Domingo Garcia said he thought the FBI did a disservice to the election process when FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to Congress a week before the election saying the FBI was looking into more emails.
"The FBI getting involved right before an election releasing, 'We're going to start an investigation again.' That's kind of unprecedented. That sounds like a Banana Republic, not the United States of America," said Garcia. "So that rhetoric has just heated up and polarizing (sic) folks," he continued. "But the FBI should have stayed out of it until after the election," he concluded.
According to University of Texas-Dallas Clinical Assistant Professor, Dr. Janet Johnson Comey was in a hard place. "He had to send out that letter or it looks like the other way, like he's hiding it...," said Johnson. "And to give credit to the FBI, they did this really quickly before Tuesday."
West said there is a double-standard. "You have a United States sailor right now sitting in a federal prison because he took six photos in a classified area of a 20-year-old nuclear submarine, just for himself. He admitted that he did it, and he is gone," said West. "The thing we have to understand is the rule of law applies to everyone or it doesn't apply at all."
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