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Clinton: “Pretty Clear” No Emails Were Classified Despite Contrary Findings Of Inspector General

225px-Hillary_Clinton_official_Secretary_of_State_portrait_cropDespite the determination of investigators at the State Department and intelligence agencies that Hillary Clinton did use her personal email system to handle confirmed classified information (and potentially compromised “hundreds of classified emails”), Clinton dismissed such allegations and assured the public that it is “pretty clear” that there was no classified information on her personal email system — a system that she used rather than the secure State Department system.


Clinton portrayed the recent bombshell report of the allegations of the Inspector General as simply some bureaucratic infighting: “What I think you’re seeing here is a very typical kind of discussion, to some extent disagreement among various parts of the government, over what should or should not be publicly released.” (Notably, the State Department itself confirmed specific classified emails on the system).

I think that it is much more than that, though the Obama Administration has been quick to downplay any suggestion of a criminal investigation and has stressed that the letter from the Inspector General was not technically a criminal referral.

Again, Clinton is stressing that she did not send or receive any material marked classified. I have previously discussed why that explanation is less than compelling, particularly for anyone who has handled sensitive or classified material. As I discussed earlier, virtually anything coming out of the office of the Secretary of State would be considered classified as a matter of course. I have had a TS/SCI clearance since Reagan due to my national security work and have lived under the restrictions imposed on email and other systems. The defense is that this material was not technically classified at the time that it was sent. Thus it was not “classified” information. The problem is that it was not reviewed and classified because it was kept out of the State Department system. Moreover, most high-level communications are treated as classified and only individually marked as classified when there is a request for disclosure. You do not generate material as the Secretary of State and assume that it is unclassified. You are supposed to assume and treat it as presumptively classified. Otherwise, there would be massive exposure of classified material and willful blindness as to the implications of the actions of persons disregarding precautions. For example, there is not a person standing next to the President with a classification stamp in the Oval Office. However, those communications are deemed as presumptively classified and are not disclosed absent review. Under the same logic, the President could use a personal email system because his text messages by definition are not marked as classified. This is the whole reason that Clinton and others were told to use the protected email system run by the State Department. We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to secure such systems.

Clinton portrayed the dispute as entirely removed from her controversial decision to use a personal server — a move that gave her total control of the server and ultimately allowed her staff to delete thousands of emails before turning over emails to the State Department: “They can fight over it or argue over it. That’s up to them. I can tell you what the facts are.”

Clinton continues to struggle with her spin that she wanted to use her own server to avoid multiple devices (which has been widely ridiculed) as well as her insistence that she never received a subpoena. Her repeatedly claim that she was never subject to a subpoena has been described as false by media like CNN after it was disclosed that she had indeed been given a subpoena for the emails.

I would be surprised if the Administration opened a criminal investigation into the matter given the treatment of other high-ranking officials in such cases by the Justice Department in the past. However, to kill any investigation after this letter would be viewed as unusual and biased by many in the intelligence area. First and foremost, Clinton may have to yield to long-standing demands for access to this server. For the moment, she is clearly maintaining the original position that there was no problem so long as her communications were not marked as classified at the time — a rather preposterous suggestion since no one sits next to a Secretary of State and stamps every line as classified in communications. The use of private server obviously placed these communications at greater risk of interception, which is the whole reason we have spent hundreds of millions on the secure system for communications. I do not see how Clinton will be able to maintain her conduct as justified or responsible in the face of the overwhelming view of experts as well as prior internal memoranda on the subject.

130 thoughts on “Clinton: “Pretty Clear” No Emails Were Classified Despite Contrary Findings Of Inspector General”

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  3. ” … viewers are actually sharing nice thoughts.”

    Where’d you say that web site is again?

  4. Squeeky, I still can;t find that 0 was vetted. Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t, but I can’t find proof that he was.

    One site I found has an online book “The Obama You Don’t Know”. Very interesting…

    http://ww2.washingtonexaminer.com/obama#.UFq0ChhF9V8

    I am pretty sure the Washington Examiner isn’t a ‘right wing’ publication.

    Looks like Trump is still going strong.

    Thanks.

    SamFox

  5. Squeeky, start at the beginning w/0. Show us the who, when & where of his vetting process. Show us that 0 was ever vetted in the 1st place. McCain, a CINO-RINO sellout, was vetted. Was 0? Proof please.

    forgotwhoiam July 27 post, EXCELLENT!! Ron Paul would agree. I think at one time or another he said the same things. I betcha Rand agrees as well. Before any knocks on Rand, look up the videos that have been posted for him at YouTube. The more I hear HIM, rather than taking thread comments or lame stream fringe media assessments, the better he sounds.

    Knock Trump all ya want. Then take a look at his numbers & stick a sock in it. DT is correct on the issues, McManchurian included. MAYBE McLame WAS a hero THEN, but this is now. McC & a Dem pal slid Indefinite Detention into a NDAA bill. Now ALL of US are in danger of just being labeled a terrorist. All the govt has to do is SAY “YOU are a terrorist! We can lock YOU up forever if we want. NO due process & YOU have NO rights!!”

    Gee, thanks John.

    Donald does need to moderate his comments somewhat, but he IS getting the numbers. If he starts talking “Constitution”, most likely it’s game over. In his favor.

    Bill’s Husband is as corrupt as they come. She is every bit as corrupt, duplicitous, self seeking, full of lust for power, fame & $$ as 0bama. That’s just the short list. Defenders of those piles of scum are sooo foolish!!

    Single payer HC? How STUPID can you get ??? We need an all powerful all consuming centrally planned fed govt like we need to burn the Constitution, Bill of Rights, the Preamble…because that IS EXACTLY what a central govt does. Thank you very much, but I can live quit well without a burrocrat breathing down my neck. Our national debt & UNfunded as of yet liabilities not big enough for ya???

    That the govt gains MORE power over US is some how ‘left’ out of the SP HC talk by it’s supporters.

    NDA spying. You actually like that? It comes with big bro govt. Having nothing to hide does NOT mean we should ALL have to live in a fish bowl.

    If you think we can trust the fed govt, at least NOW, I have some awesome bridges that I got from C Christie for sale…

    SamFox

  6. Have been reading Professor Turley’s articles for quite some time. I am most impressed that he follows the Constitution in his response to various news events. Also find the comments posted by individuals to be interesting. Have not posted until today when I read comments by forgotwhoiam. Whoever you are, you address current problems and what we need to do most appropriately. I agree that elected officials should govern based on the Constitution. However, I doubt that many of them have even read it. I do not think any current presidential candidates on either side have even mentioned the Constitution. Could continue on this subject, but the post would be the length of a dissertation. Not sure if Professor Turley reads these posts, but I would be most interested in reading what he means when he says “we are at a tipping point” with government. Another person asked him to respond to this too. My hope is that our elected officials would govern based on the Constitution, but I do not see this happening. I think we will more likely face what is termed the “Balkanization of America.”

  8. Pingback: Dear Hillary: What your husband can’t tell you | Not Housebroken

  9. BTW, The MERLIN Project “Timetraks” shows no unusual activity for Hillary circa 2016.

  10. “What this country needs is a French revolution.”

    ———-

    That is absolutely wrong.

    Ben Franklin, 1789, we gave you “…a republic, if you can keep it.”

    Ben Franklin, 2015, we gave you “…a republic, if you can take it back.”

    This country needs to REPEAL back to the Preamble, Constitution and Bill of Rights.

    America needs to rebuild the foundation constructed in 1789.

    The American Founders had it right.

    Freedom and Self-Reliance.

    Government limited to Justice, Tranquility, Common Defence, Promote General Welfare (roads, utitlties).

    The “blessing of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” are citizens endeavoring in freedom and free enterprise without interference by government.

    People have to adapt to and live with the consequences of freedom.

    Stop “immigration” that is destructive to the American culture and thesis.
    Apply criteria to the vote – stop corruption of “representative government” by voter fraud.

    No Social Engineering.
    No Central Planning.
    No Control of the Means of Production.
    No Redistribution of Wealth.

    All of these Marxist principles in the Communist Manifesto are unpreambular and unconstitutional.

    (The American Preamble IS binding as the essential American context – the Constitution provides for governance within the parameters of the Preamble).

  11. What this country needs is a French revloution

    Right. You mean like this?

  12. From my outsiders perspective I see that the Trump guy is the only one so far who attacks the issues head on. Alien problem? Da yeah. I happen to be an alien from Planet Remulak and no one has ever asked for my papers. I show a fake drivers license when I get on a plane and that is all I need.

  15. Patriot: The birther thing is old apCray. No one is a Communist anymore. Not even Communists. In China all the Communists are making money off of all the tea in China. We do not have Lords in this country like the Brits do. We have some monkeys but not monckton. A monckton is a snake in Ireland that hangs out in the Catholic Churches. The name Lord Monckton is a joke name in Ireland. There are people alive in Hawaii who were there when Obama was born. Now, some will argue that Hawaii should not ever have been made a state. But that goes back to the fifties. As to the topic at hand on Clinton emails being classified or should have been classified but were sent on her own darn email machine we have some pretty damaging emails coming out. She seems to always bitch about dirty bathrooms in various embassy’s around the world.

  20. Do not count Trump out as the final GOP winner and nominee. He is not a weeny like the other sweet sixteen. He is kicking arse every day. We need a Wall on the southern border by the way. We need infrastructure like bridges and roads. We need to run the government like a business and not like a RepubliCon cartel for the Koch Brothers. Trump does not need lobbyists, contributors, Koch Brothers, or pie in the sky types giving small donations. He needs your vote in Iowa and New Hampshire. Coming to a theatre near you soon.

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