When Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) suddenly announced that he would not seek reelection in 2018, a lot of folks began to speculate about his motives.
Although Chaffetz himself insisted that he is “healthy” and that he is sure he’d win by “large margins,” his sudden withdrawal from public life raised a lot of eyebrows in Washington.
The powerful head of the House Oversight Committee, Chaffetz has gained a reputation as an aggressive, ambitious politician with plans to reach the Senate or the Governorship. But suddenly Chaffetz is dropping his reelection attempt. In fact, he has said that he might not even finish out his current term.
So what is behind this sudden, shocking drop in ambition?
There is speculation, based in part on an unverified comment by a former Chaffetz aid, that the Representative is being investigated by the FBI. The story is that Chaffetz was paid to leak the letter from FBI Director James Comey on Hillary Clinton’s emails just before the election.
What we know for sure is that Chaffetz did leak the contents of that letter, and that leaking it was completely unethical. We also know that then candidate Donald J. Trump donated $10 million to his own campaign the day after the leak.
We know that Jason Chaffetz has refused to investigate the many conflicts of interest of the current President. And we know that Chaffetz was, at best, a lukewarm supporter of Trump before the election.
So what could have happened? Although proof has not yet been found, it is certainly possible that Trump’s donation to his campaign eventually made it’s way into Chaffetz’ pocket. It’s possible that those millions of dollars originated not with Trump, but with Russia. If that did happen, Russia may very well feel that is in a position to blackmail the man in charge of the House Oversight Committee.
It’s possible, if in fact Trump paid Chaffetz to spread the rumors about Clinton’s emails, that the FBI has been looking into it all. It’s possible, as the Palmer Report speculates, that Chaffetz is running away from Washington in an effort to protect himself from that investigation.
If any of this turns out to be true, it’s safe to say that the political career of one Jason Chaffetz is suddenly at a shameful end. It will be interesting to see how all of this unfolds in the near future.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab.
