This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Republicans are trying to smear Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her emails and the Benghazi attack. And yet nothing criminal or new had been found, either through her emails or the Benghazi attack.

Let's just set the record straight about the Republicans' record for both "lost" emails and embassy attacks under the Bush-Cheney administration.

There may have been more than 5 million emails lost in that era, which is a possible violation of the Hatch Act and the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

Were any of them classified? Who knows? When Chairman Henry Waxman of the Oversight and Government Reforms Committee asked for those emails, he was told they had been erased and unavailable to congressional investigators.

There were also 13 different attacks on embassies and consulates under the Bush Administration, killing more than 60 people. The first of which was Jan. 22, 2002, in Calcutta, India, where five people were killed. The last was Sept. 17, 2008, in Sana'a, Yemen, where 16 people were killed, including two Americans.

Where were all the inquiries and hearings from Congress for the millions of lost emails and for the killing of more than 60 individuals in 13 different attacks on embassies or consulates under the Bush Administration?

Paula Enquist

Sandy