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.
I thought it was the job of the New York Times to bash Hillary………..
I had some respect for the truthfulness of this blog, until I saw that the article referenced Fox News as a valid source. Thus this is nothing but fabricated lies and innuendo.
Dear Hillary,
If you had nothing to hide, why erase the e-mails?
Dr. Bart Keppel,
“One more thing… the Church is “not” a corporation.”
You’re correct that the RCC is not a corporation — it is a state; as you so elucidate with these words:
“The Pope is the head of a nation and has the right to address Congress, at the behest of the President.”
Then you blather on with:
“The Catholic Church he [forgotwhoiam] contends, primary motivation, is to make money and profit from the ignorance and foolishness of it’s followers.”
This is one of the few statements uttered by ‘forgot’ that has any historical and current veracity.
Where is Benedict XVI now? Can we refer to him by his temporal name of Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger? After all, he was only the eleventh pope to resign — amidst many claims of corruption and pedophilia.
One more thing… the Church is “not” a corporation. it is the “true” Church, started in the year 33 in Jerusalem, by Jesus Christ.
“forgot”, has again provided a hodgepodge of verbal mumbo-jumbo for all to snicker at ( no basis in physics?…huh). The Catholic Church he contends, primary motivation, is to make money and profit from the ignorance and foolishness of it’s followers. He even likens the Church to “Dreamworks”, more convoluted lunacy, a.k.a. “conspiracy theory” nonsense. The Catholic Church does not advocate or endorse pederasty or homosexuality…sadly, the priests who brought such grave scandal to the Church are admitted homosexual’s, who molested males at a ratio of almost 9-1 over females. The Catholic Church is not a democracy, never was, nor will it be. If you don’t approve of it’s teaching’s leave it, or don’t join it…The Catholic Church is the largest Church in this nation and the largest portion of Christianity worldwide, with 1.25 billion members. The Pope is the head of a nation and has the right to address Congress, at the behest of the President. Your response borders on the laughable if not the lunatic fringe “forgot”. Mercifully, no one who reads your drivel will remember it or assign any of it to memory, as it is so forgettable and debunkable. The worldwide population of Islam is around 2 billion…so what…if the world had 2 billion satanists, would that prove the validity or value in satanism?…your argument is a joke, easily smashed and your hatred and bigotry toward the Catholic Church only shows your frustration and bitterness as you know it is the true Church and influences the world like no other faith…even the protestant members of congress extol and robustly cheered the Popes speech…epic fail forgotwhoiam…LOL!
Jeso. Stop all the infighting. We have Hillary to bitch about.
Forgotwhoiam should be forgotten.
The rants of authorship presented by forgot over quite some time now — all much the same — exhibit a zealotry of basic concepts learned by many in more elementary years of life without the tempering of life experience.
Zealots — of any stripe — should always be ignored.
Dr. Bart, ask the censor for my post at approximately 5:30.
If I can avoid the censor, I’ll review briefly. The Catholic church is one of the richest corporations on the planet. It profiteers enormously from its product which is similar to that of DreamWorks in Hollywood, in that it is anthropogenic with no basis in physics. It has an enormous basis in money. It’s primary and sustaining goal is to obtain wealth at the end of the day. And it does precisely that.
The Catholic church has been sued by the survivors of pervasive child molestation and abuse, in many cases into bankruptcy. They will tell you of the defense of the perpetrators and the enabling done by the church.
America is not a theocracy and the Pope and other religious leaders have no standing or business in the halls of Congress unless equal time is given to every religious sect. Three Founding Fathers were Catholic.
6 billion+ Muslims and believers in other religions disagree with the Catholic church.
These are the facts. Your hysteria is typical of one who loses the debate – ad hominem attacks.
Presumably the moderator who censored my post favors you and your attack dog. It is no know why the moderator hasn’t imposed the site’s civility rule and restriction on your “tit for tat’ attacks.
By the way, which kind of doctor are you?
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/09/24/pope-francis-just-echoed-obamas-offensive-prayer-breakfast-remarks
“Our world is increasingly a place of violent conflict, hatred and brutal atrocities, committed even in the name of God and of religion. We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms.”
************************
I so agree!
forgotwhoiam has never responded to any of my statements…all he provides is a hate filled rant…decrying the Catholic Church and the Pope…so sad…the Pope is listened to by millions the world over…no one really cares about your anti-catholic bigotry “forgotwhoiam”, most people who read it would rather quickly forget who you are…much to your considerable dismay…
I know there are some folks here who expressed having a man crush on Boehner when he decided to sue the Obama administration.
Boehner’s liberalism? LOL! I know of no liberals who support Boehner. Is it backa$$wards day?
Wait a minute. You make fun of Boehner and then you support Boehner’s liberalism.
You’re criticizing Boehner and supporting Boehner.
If that were Bill Clinton crying for the Pope, you would be declaring Bill a saint.
Boehner’s only support is from liberals. Then the liberals make fun of him.
This place is getting really weird.
Thank God for the 19th Amendment.
Dr. Bart Keppel
I apologize. I issued a response around 5:30 but it was too strong for the censor.
Apparently he thinks you weren’t man enough to bear it.
The censor is always right.
Ingannie would have enjoyed it also.
C’est la vie.
There was a piece in the New Yorker yesterday. The gist was all of this Hillary stuff is just sexism. She and Bill have all hands on deck w/ butt kissing reporters trying to make her look like a victim. The only time some people find her likable is when she’s a victim. I think she should come out of the closet and reveal she has MS. That might be her only chance. A Hail Mary pass.
Bdog, Why doesn’t Lincoln Chafee get any love? LOL!
http://youtu.be/ybwAuDwuay0
Sorry, I couldn’t help myself, lol.
The Pope should have declared abortion “murder”, a sin so horrific that it “cries to heaven for Vengeance”!
Bdog,
Good advice!