Rep. Jason Chaffetz will not seek re-election
The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, will not seek re-election in 2018, the congressman announced Wednesday, opting instead to work in the private sector.
“For those that would speculate otherwise, let me be clear that I have no ulterior motives,” he said in a post on his Facebook page. “I am healthy. I am confident I would continue to be re-elected by large margins.”
Chaffetz was first elected to represent Utah’s Third Congressional District in 2008 and served as the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Most recently, he commented on President Trump’s unsubstantiated accusation that former president Barack Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“I learned a long time ago, I’m going to keep my eyes wide open,” Chaffetz told CBS This Morning. “You never know when you turn a corner what you may or may not see,” he said despite no apparent evidence for the claims.
Chaffetz was also criticized for continuing his review of over 600,000 of Hillary Clinton’s emails from her time as Secretary of State despite recommendations against further investigation from FBI Director James Comey. Even after Mr. Trump had triumphed over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, Chaffetz had promised to continue investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State.
In the Facebook post, Chaffetz also said that he “may run again for public office, but not in 2018.”