AP/Joe Skipper
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
In a Tuesday radio interview on "The Dana Show," Cruz argued the Democratic presidential front-runner's actions may have even been "criminal."
"It is long past time for a fair and impartial investigation into what occurred here. Based on what she has admitted publicly, it appears that Secretary Clinton's conduct was in violation of federal law and may have even constituted criminal conduct," Cruz said.
Cruz, a former Justice Department lawyer, was reacting to a question from conservative radio host Dana Loesch who said Clinton deleted her emails "after they had been subpoenaed."
Clinton's expected presidential campaign has been under fire since last month, when it was revealed she exclusively used a personal email address as secretary of state, reportedly violating federal guidelines, among other potential problems.
After a week of being battered in the press, Clinton suddenly held a chaotic press conference to defend her conduct. She admitted she should have used a government email but insisted she broke no guidelines. She also revealed she deleted about 30,000 of what she described as her "personal" emails and turned over all of the work-related ones to the State Department.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) said his committee investigating the 2012 attack on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, has subpoenaed Clinton for her emails related to the incident. In a statement released at the end of last week, Gowdy said Clinton had wiped her email server "clean" after October 28 of last year, when the State Department "asked the Secretary to return her public record to the Department."
At the time, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill reacted to Gowdy's statement by touting all of her efforts to settle the email issue in the most transparent way possible.
"Representatives of Secretary Clinton's office have been in touch with the committee and the State Department to make clear that she would like her emails made public as soon as possible and that she's ready and willing to come and appear herself for a hearing open to the American public," Merrill said.
Reached for comment on Cruz's allegations that the deletion of the server may have been criminal, Merrill told Business Insider he would simply stick to his past statements on the matter. Clinton's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For his part, Cruz said Tuesday that he isn't optimistic that the Department of Justice will pursue criminal charges against Clinton because Attorney General Eric Holder is so "politicized."
"Unfortunately, with the Holder Justice Department, we have the most politicized Department of Justice we've ever seen. And there's no meaningful prospect of a fair and impartial investigation," he said. "So it is my hope that [the] House Oversight [committee] will begin to shine a light on this. But what really needs to occur is a careful, sober assessment about whether the conduct that she has admitted to is directly contrary to federal law."
Listen to Cruz's full "Dana Show" interview below: