As discussed this week by the TechDirt, new evidence is further contradicting the account of Hillary Clinton as her former aides have increasingly refused to answer questions in depositions or, in one case, invoked the Fifth Amendment over 125 times. New evidence shows that the State Department was faced with an incompatible use of an unsecured server in sending emails to State Department staff. Efforts to convince Clinton to use the secure State Department system were rejected. Instead, the State Department “solved” the problem by removing security protections — essentially lowering the communications to the security level of the the private server. Moreover, as reported by CBS, it is now clear that Clinton did not turn over a critical email expressing her desire to deny access to “personal” emails despite assuring the country that anything remotely connected to the State Department or email system was turned over before her aides deleted tens of thousands of emails.
The recently released emails show that Clinton staff were aware of hacking efforts and that, in order to allow the unsecure email system to send emails to State Department employees, as reported by the Associated Press, “State Department technical staff disabled software on their systems intended to block phishing emails that could deliver dangerous viruses.”
One email warns that “You should be aware that any email would go through the Department’s infrastructure and subject to FOIA searches.”
The State Department Inspector General directly contradicted the continuing claim from Clinton that her use of an unsecure system was “allowed” and that it did not violate any rules. The IG found that Clinton and her staff ignored rules that clearly showed that her server violated federal standards and put classified information at risk: “Her aides twice brushed aside concerns, in one case telling technical staff “the matter was not to be discussed further.“
It has also been disclosed that both Clinton and her aides refused to speak with the IG despite the view of the State Department that such interviews were important for its investigation. Now Clinton aides are refusing to answer questions in deposition and in the case of Bryan Pagliano, a Clinton IT aide, he has invoked the Fifth Amendment 125 times to refuse to answer questions.
That raises the possibility that, by giving Pagliano immunity, the Administration may have protected the aide most likely to have been charged criminally (and thus most likely to incriminate others following an indictment). Right now, Pagliano is refusing to answer questions in the civil litigation while Clinton aides are refusing to answer critical questions related to the motivation and maintenance of the private server (as well as the criteria and decisions made in the deletion of tens of thousands of emails).
I have said before that this may be a building confrontation between the FBI and the Justice Department on criminal charges. The lack of cooperation shown by critical parties and false public comments about the investigation and underlying legal standards would normally push investigators toward charges. On the other hand, as discussed earlier, the sweetheart deals given former Clinton aide Sandy Berger and most recently General Petraeus. These past cases still give Hillary Clinton the edge on potential criminal charges. However, the greatest threat has always been the vulnerability of her aides. That risk was reduced with Pagliano’s immunity deal and the decision for all of the key aides to be represented by the same lawyer. Unlike the State Department, a decision not to indict would not ordinarily result in a public report of the findings of the investigators on issues like hacking or compromised systems.. By the time that the Congress gets access to such material, it could well be after the election. Only an indictment will bring a public record of such evidence (though even that can be sealed in some cases).
Of course she was hacked. She backed up her server to the Cloud. Why would anyone think that they would be aware of any and all hacking attempts?
If anyone else had done this we’d be rotting in some Federal oubliette somewhere that would take a stream of ignored FOIAs to find us.
She’s a self dealer.
Platos Cave – Trump has had a long history in the public eye. As a wealthy owners of myriad businesses, he has come into contact with a great many people. I have never heard him accused of being a racist before he ran as a Republican nominee for president. In fact, I have heard multiple interviews from women who said that their best chance of advancement and breaking the glass ceiling, decades ago, was working for Trump. Women actually had the chance to hold top positions in his companies.
I think he becomes inarticulate when he gets frustrated, and is a bit of an a&*(. When he gets mad, he goes straight for women’s looks, calling them dogs, fat, etc. HOW he got to be his age and not learn that you attack a woman for the legitimate reasons of how she’s wronged you – behavior, character failings, untrustworthiness, or whatever he feels was wrong. But you don’t go for weight, looks, age, etc. He has a daughter and should know better. I’ve been quite vocal about my issues with Trump. But if he was a racist, it would have been all over the news long before he ran for President. Racists don’t suddenly get into trouble. Since it is part of their character, they would leave a long line littered with incidents, and everyone would know they are racist. Since these charges only came up when he ran for President, I have not been convinced of that particular failing.
So, on the one hand, you have a guy who is kind of an a^*&, who gave women their first big chance to break through the glass ceiling and become powerful executives, and on the other you have a woman who is under criminal investigation, and has a long and well documented history of corruption and lies. Remember how I said that people in the public tend to leave a line littered with incidents of character failure? She’s got a very long, well documented line.
I clearly recall watching an interview in which she was asked what she accomplished at State. She could not come up with anything and just talked in circles.
Hillary Clinton is a Zionist, War Criminal Traitor to our Country
The Local and National Media are Liars
According to U.S. and International Law all the U.S. / Israeli invasions are Wars of Aggression, War Crimes
These are the same crimes the Nazis committed
Millions have been murdered & maimed due to these invasions
Washington, DC = Nazi Berlin
Anyone who supports the Republicans, Democrats & Israel are accomplices to murder
http://buenavistamall.com/AIPAC2.jpg
AMERICA IS OCCUPIED BY ZIONIST TERRORISTS
http://www.thelibertybeacon.com/66776-2/
There are many contenders by Hilary Clinton. This evidence was just another moment, which showed defiance to her group. I don’t know, but I hope that the State Department was faced with an incompatible use of an unsecured server in sending emails to State Department staff. And this problem was solved.
Turley, why so despondent concerning the rule of law in this country?
It’s obvious to anyone who has not been lobotomized that Hillary Clinton has committed TREASON! This goes way beyond just breaking the law. This ventures into the territory of an as-yet unindicted FELON running for POTUS.
This is highly objectionable to any clear thinking, non-lobotomized human. She is a criminal. She has broken more laws than Chelsea Manning ever did. Clinton has demonstrated CONTEMPT for the American people, the American security protocols.
Her hubris is unmatched. She makes Trump look saintly.
This woman should not be allowed to seek the Democratic nomination. If the FBI chooses NOT to release the evidence then Guccifer will, or the Russians will, or Wikileaks will. And she will be judged in the court of public opinion. CLEXIT might arise in the good ole USA if the Democrats are DUMB ENOUGH to run such spoiled goods as nominee against Trump. He’ll have MULTIPLE field days.
The media sellouts who choose to pretend that this is just a teeny tiny thing – selling state secrets to fund her “foundation,” the intermingling of private and govt documents on a server that did not have military-grade security, the lies, the posturing of having already “won” the nomination despite not having reached the 2300 threshold, the fact the DNC docs show clearly that Clinton was the “done deal” nominee BEFORE any primaries were run – this approaches the worst excesses of Roman Emperors. She’s a Caligula/Nero blend.
SHE’S BAD NEWS, FOLK – WAKE UP!
Michael, NSA, CIA & others want Hillary to go away.
Jim22, I will admit it is hard to say if Trump is really a racist, because like Clinton he contradicts himself constantly in his efforts to say anything to get votes. However he clearly is pandering to racists, painting Mexicans and Muslims with a broad brush to exploit Xenophobia. It’s sad, because I and many others would actually vote for him if he just stuck to CORRECTLY blaming Clintons for destroying the middle class with fake freetrade and bank de-regulation, and warmongering for the profit of her arms-dealer/dictator donors.
His mouth?
Platos Cave (@EscapePlatoCave) – “This is like a bad dream: hypocrite “we must get the money out of politics” Clinton Democrats handing the election to racist buffoon Trump.”
What evidence do you have that makes Trump a racist?
lobot, JT has never pretended anything but derision for the incompetent and corrupt Hillary.
Judges, Law Enforcement officials and politicians are just well educated children making laws for themselves and their job security out of legal Play-doh.The only thing that makes them think twice is the citizenry’s support for the Second Amendment and how messy it would be to really challenge gun owners. Any other amendment they just mold it into what ever is expedient for themselves.
Has the FBI and DOJ completed their indictments of Bush officials that openly admitted to violating federal law, including confessing to felony crimes?
There is no wartime exception to the felony crimes of torture, warrantless wiretapping and false imprisonment outside of a battlefield. Bush officials admitted to all of this.
Let’s issue the criminal indictments for the Bush folks before the statute of limitations run out on some of their crimes.
Reblogged this on Truth Troubles: Why people hate the truths' of the real world.
Ms. Hillary should have been in prison a long time ago for treason as this private server put many Americans who were in harms way at risk and this should have never happened. Just like in Benghazi where we did ” leave 4 of our people behind.” Concerning Benghazi she is guilty of murder of these four men.
Judge Napolitano: Fifth-Pleading IT Specialist Is Clinton’s ‘Beast in the Night’ in Email Scandal
The judge added that Clinton “is in more hot water than you can imagine today because another federal agency of the federal government is unhappy with the slow pace at which the FBI has been moving and they are beginning to leak.”
When asked who that other agency is, Napolitano answered: “The NSA.”
I was really hoping Mr. Turley would be the one to actually say: THE EVIDENCE ALREADY CLEARLY SHOWS THAT HILLARY CLINTON COMMITTED FELONIES.
FELONY unlawful retention and exposure of National Defense information. “Not classified at the time” is a laughable lie, that is not how it works and she knew it, she was briefed. Who on earth believes she didn’t know that Secretaries of State ALWAYS deal with beyond Top-Secret Intel?! She exposed the intel for the BinLaden Raid, Libya, Syria, Embassy Security, ISIS and all the rest. The way the Media has spun this in Clinton’s favor is terrifying evidence of how corrupt it is. It wasn’t just her server, her Blackberry was insecure and she was warned about it repeatedly from her first day in office. She took a completely insecure device that was an open doorway to her server to OVER 100 COUNTRIES.
A sailor is currently about to get 6-30 years in JAIL for taking pictures of the submarine he works on despite no evidence any important intel was ever exposed.
FELONY Obstruction of Justice. Clinton destroyed evidence that had been subpoenaed when she wiped her server and deleted emails with no oversight.
FELONY Violation of FRA and FOIA. We now know she hid documents with her private server, did not turn over records as required by law, and even when the records were demanded did not turn over all of them. We also know the motivation was secrecy not her lie of “convenience”.
The only thing we don’t know and that the FBI seems to be investigating is WHAT SHE WAS HIDING. The deals made for the “unrated” Clinton Foundation’s controversial donations and her husband’s speaking fees that TRIPLED when she was in office are the likely subject.
I was also hoping Mr. Turley would speak to the common idea that the FBI would be going through all this and not ask for indictment. They would be exposing themselves to criminal prosecution for a cover-up, are they really going to risk jail themselves if Trump wins?
It’s no coincidence the Comey, a hardcore Republican has made it clear all along that he will not drop any bombs until after the convention. The Democrats have been shamefully foolish in supporting their “celebrity”. I’m 61, up until Hillary Clinton, people would have thought you were making a bad joke if you suggested an FBI Suspect would be a candidate for President. This is like a bad dream: hypocrite “we must get the money out of politics” Clinton Democrats handing the election to racist buffoon Trump.
So Abedin Huma is a IT cyber security expert. While husband, congressman Anthony Weiner was involved in sexting scandal with chicky poos? Don’t be surprised if FBI indicts Hillary around Labor Day.
Just to say thank you for your work in exposing some of the corruption in our government, I thank you also for putting on line your speech you were to give to Congress on Wednesday, I am curious as to how they reacted, maybe you have and I haven’t gotten to it yet. Thank You Sir.
Hillary Clinton is now involved in a cover-up. Same as Nixon. He went down, so should she.
Lobotomy is a perfect name you.
Are you planning to retire from your professorship and go work for Dick Morris? Your personal dislike for the Clintons is ill-disguised, if at all. And that is your prerogative, of course. But it is equally evident that your personal revulsion colors your opinion about a great number of issues you address, which indicates that a bit of self-reflection is warranted, lest your reputation as a constitution-focused thinker be tarnished further.