The Clinton email scandal continues to get worse by the day with State Department officials directly contradicting the long-standing account given by Hillary Clinton. Clinton has long maintained that she turned over a portion of her emails (those not deleted as “personal”) after receiving a letter that went to her and three of her predecessors: Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice as a routine inquiry. The gist is that there was nothing alarming about her exclusive use of a server under her control rather than the secured State Department system. State Department officials now confirm that the request was specifically related to the discovery that Clinton was using a personal email system as her exclusive means of communication. This revelation occurs the same week that the FBI has announced that it has already retrieved some of the emails and that the Clinton staffers who “wiped” the system did a poor job that left the material easily accessible — deepening the earlier concerns over the presence of what is now confirmed to be classified material on Clinton’s unsecured server. The FBI sources described Clinton’s IT person as “not very good.”
The Washington Post also reported this week that the State Department first contacted Clinton about turning over the emails at least three months before the letter referenced by Clinton. The suggestion is that Clinton latched on the later letter to reinforce her insistence that there was nothing improper or irregular in her use of a personal server under her control as her exclusive means of email communications. Clinton has repeatedly stated that “When we were asked to help the State Department make sure they had everything from other secretaries of state, not just me, I’m the one who said, ‘Okay, great, I will go through them again.'”
However, State Department spokesman John Kirby told the Post that officials first asked Clinton to provide her emails in the summer of 2014 in response to document requests from the House select committee investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Kirby also noted that the later letter was actually prompted by the disclosure after the State Department was surprised to learn that it “did not have extensive email records from prior Secretaries of State and therefore included them when we requested their records in October 2014.”
Clinton was asked this week about the latest contradiction in her account but responded that “I don’t know that. I can’t answer that. All I know is that they sent the same letter to everybody. That’s my understanding.” The Des Moines Register said that Clinton repeatedly said “You’re telling me something I don’t know. All I know is what I have said. What I have said is it was allowed. The State Department has confirmed that. The same letter went to, as far as I know, my predecessors, and I’m the one who said, ‘Hey, I’ll be glad to help.'”
The bigger legal and political threat may be those retrieved emails. Clinton has insisted that none of the emails were “marked” classified — a fine distinction that I have previously questioned. As a federal court recently reaffirmed, she was clearly not in compliance with the standards set by the State Department. More importantly, much of her communications are considered presumptively classified and there is no one in her office actively stamping every email as classified in the discussion of State Department business. The retrieval of the emails raises the original question of the criteria used by Clinton’s aides in deleting thousands of emails. Clinton refused (until recently) to turn over the servers and insisted that it was left to her to unilaterally filter the emails. If some of those emails are found to be related to her office, it will magnify the controversy over the effort to first control her communications and then delete so many of the emails.
There is also a lingering danger of criminal charges both in the mishandling of classified information as well as potential violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001 for false statements for people involved in this controversy. These contradictions certainly do not help politically but they can also complicate an already precarious legal position.
The Pope is not a charlatan knave…and he is more liberal and progressive than his predecessor…PB XVI…you sound like an anti-Catholic bigot senor…
Wait, this thread is about Clinton’s abject stupidity. Apologies for the often inevitable digression.
The Poop’s a modernist? His policy is identical with the poops of old. Charlatan-in-the-grandest-dress is the term you’re looking for.
I think this current Pope is a bit of a “modernist”…wish he were more “traditional”…still he is the Pope…being a “religious” priest prior to becoming a member of the college of cardinals and Pope, he may have been shaped by elements of “liberation theology” whilst in South America…liberation theology has been condemned as heresy…still, it formed some clerics, by shaping their theology and religious outlook on matters of “social justice”…I personally would not have championed the likes of socialist Dorothy Day…
Exemptions undermine that whole Law thing.
Dave, precisely.
“It is America’s shame that we have royalty like Hillary Clinton to whom the laws do not apply in the same way that they do to the common folk.”
What, like Hobby Lobby, Kim Davis, et al.?
Dave – Hobby Lobby is the law and Kim Davis is trying to solve a conflict between state and federal law. She is required to follow state law, not federal law in his job.
Nonsense. Everyone is (in theory, at least,) required to follow federal law, including Davis.
LawyerChuck – Kim Davis’ job is ministerial. If she follows federal court proceedings, she breaks state law. However, she took an oath to uphold the state law. That is her challenge.
Just watched the Pope address congress…he did quite well…we have a new saint San Junipero Serra…the Apostle of California…created 9 missions in the California mission system, which consists of 21. I was hoping the pope would come to California and canonize Fray Junipero Serra, at the proto-mission San Diego de Alacala…Viva il Papa!
Dr. Bart Keppel – I am not a fan of the new Pope, however I did think he should have gone to CA to make Serra a saint.
She could take some counsel from “The Cowboy Bible:” First thing you do when you find yourself in a hole, is quit diggin’.
The judge seems to be getting more and more miffed. The FBI seems to be uncooperative and he is going to have to include them in the case. They may want this for cover. It appears Hillary did wipe them with a cloth.
doglover wrote: “Many believe that 99% +/-of State department communications should be public information anyway.”
But that is exactly the problem with having a personal email server. The government related emails are not available either to the government or the public. They are maintained privately. It is a violation of federal law for her to do what she did, because the government is unable to respond to FOIA requests. Not even the President would have access to her official emails.
It is America’s shame that we have royalty like Hillary Clinton to whom the laws do not apply in the same way that they do to the common folk. America’s royalty is not based on heredity, but on connections and cronyism in the political arena. This issue should matter to everybody, including Democrats, but watch how little that section of America cares about this issue. To them, everybody does it, and political affiliation is more important than integrity these days.
Hillary supporter and others couldn’t care less about the emails. Many believe that 99% +/-of State department communications should be public information anyway.
The concern about Hillary is that she has facilitated so much pointless carnage around the world, the same as other past US SOS’s and Presidents.
Investigative reporter Michael Piper makes a good case for the story that Bill, Hillary, and John Kerry were all recruited to work for the CIA while the three attended university. They were recruited for the purpose of keeping tabs on the persons they associated with: so-called college radicals and anti-war types, civil disturbers, etc, etc.
Bill of course worked out a highly lucrative deal transporting drugs later for the CIA while he and Hillary occupied the Arkansas governor’s mansion. Check the circumstances and causes of death for just about every single high ranking Arkansas government employee associated with Bill back in the day. My favorite is one particular guy, a shotgun blast to the back of the head deemed a “suicide.” And three others shot execution style in a Starbucks “robbery” with nothing stolen.
Besides having her own personal server which no other SOS has ever done, shows her attempt to keep the nations business secret from the nation, is illegal.
The fact that they attempted to delete the highly classified email, is also illegal. Then to say these emails were personal is beyond deceitful.
This woman should have been charged already. I witnessed people fired from their federal jobs because of having financial problems for fear they would be susceptible of being bribed by foreign enemies to pay them off for highly classified information.
Why does Clinton get a break, when others would be arrested and charged for doing the same thing. Whatever her husband, the president, left as a legacy is being ruined by his wife. I really liked President Clinton and thought he did a pretty good job but his wife has hijacked his legacy and associated it with her illegal activities. Shame on her.
Bill H, The fact that Obama assigned an ‘A’ team FBI unit does not bode well for her. They HATE each other. If Biden enters then expect the AG to appoint a special prosecutor, compliments of Obama. Then, you can stick a fork in her fat ass, because she’ll be done. There is also talk of her having some serious health issues she’s covering up. Maybe MS.
LOL! Or should her moniker start w/ ‘B.’ All reports from people who know her say so. Being assigned to Hillary’s Secret Service duty is considered punishment.
“The Clinton email scandal continues to get worse by the day…” Well, you and I think it does, But it will be glossed over, slicked down, explained away, and blamed on political adversaries engaged in scandel mongering. It will wind up as a tempest in a teapot and will not affect her in the least.
but somehow it isn’t. in contact to Holder, whose investigations disappeared, Clinton’s remains. I’m thinking someone’s got their eye on Sanders.
A Witch!
http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsB/1801-12885.jpg
There’s a reason the first thoughts that come to people’s minds when you say “Hillary” are UNTRUSTWORTHY and LIAR.