(Bloomberg) — U.S. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who investigated Hillary Clinton over the Benghazi attacks and her use of email, said Wednesday he won't seek re-election in 2018, though he isn't ruling out a future run for political office.
A Republican House member since 2009, Chaffetz, of Utah, said in a Facebook posting, "I have long advocated public service should be for a limited time and not a lifetime or full career."
Chaffetz's pursuit of Clinton led to his statement on Twitter less than two weeks before the presidential election revealing that FBI Director James Comey had reopened his probe of her email use. Chaffetz vowed to continue his investigations of Clinton even after Donald Trump won the election.
But after Trump took office, Chaffetz drew criticism for refusing to review potential conflicts in the White House. And during the House build-up to an American Health Care Act bill vote — which was scrapped — he attracted criticism for suggesting that poor people may be forced under the GOP plan to choose between buying health care or "that new iPhone that they just love."
In February, he did ask the White House to explain whether any classified documents were reviewed in the dining room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate during a dinner with the Japanese prime minister.
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