We have been discussing the controversy surrounding the decision of the Justice Department to give immunity to former State Department staffer, Bryan Pagliano and tech specialist Paul Combetta — thereby removing much of the pressure that could have been brought to bear with the threat of criminal charges. That immunity deal became even more questionable when it was disclosed that Combetta used Bleachbit to destroy email records despite his knowledge that those records were being sought by Congress. Now, there is an allegation that Combetta sought advice on the website for how to hide a “VIP’s (VERY VIP) email address.” If true, that would show a conscious effort to conceal the identity of the VIP and illegally alter federal records. Either Combetta did not disclose this effort in violation of his immunity deal or the Justice Department effectively removed a serious threat of indictment though the agreement. Update: the House Committee has ordered Reddit to preserve all messages concerning “Stonetear.”
The new information was disclosed by Reddit users who found a series of questions from what they say is Combetta who worked under user name of “stonetear.” Here is one of the queries on July 24, 2014 during the period when the State Department first asked Clinton aide Cheryl Mills to turn over the former secretary of state’s work-related emails from her personal server:
“Hello all- I may be facing a very interesting situation where I need to strip out a VIP’s (VERY VIP) email address from a bunch of archived email… Does anyone have experience with something like this, and/or suggestions on how this might be accomplished?”
Various people told Stonetear that it was not possible and one warned “[If Microsoft Exchange] allowed this, it could result in major legal issues. There may be ways to hack a solution, but I am not aware of any.”
The response (if from Combetta) would show a clear effort to conceal evidence:
“The issue is that these emails involve the private email address of someone you’d recognize, and we’re trying to replace it with a placeholder address as to not expose it.”
It is such an amazing admission that I would like confirmation that this was not a set up. It is hard for me to believe that the FBI would give immunity to a guy who openly solicited advice on hiding information being sought as federal records — the same guy who would later destroy evidence being sought under congressional subpoena. Such a person would be at serious risk of indictment and many prosecutors would go ahead and charge while leaving open a plea bargain with cooperation. Instead, Combetta got immunity and has now refused to testify before Congress.
The profile “stonetear” was created in 2011 and registered to Paul Combetta. The email address stonetear@gmail.com is also linked to Combetta’s name, and the domain name combetta.com is registered under that email.
Later, when the questions were found, Stonetear began deleting his comments and Reddit readers made videos and screen shots of the deletions as they were occurring.
The allegation could prove particularly embarrassing for FBI Director James Comey who has been criticized for opting not to seek charges despite conflicts in testimony, the deletions of email, and mishandling of classified information. If this is indeed Combetta, it is hard to believe that a contractor would come up unilaterally with the idea of changing federal records to remove the identifying information.
Immunity deals do include provisions for rescinding the agreements if a witness fails to disclose information or misrepresents facts or fails to cooperate. The Reddit material represents an extremely serious development, if true. Congress would have ample reason to investigate such an effort and enforce its subpoena authority.
First of all, the person wanted to delete the email address in the meta data. This would have had no impact on the contents of the email.
This had absolutely no impact on the Clinton emails. They were turned over with her email address intact. State subsequently removed other non-State email addresses during the redaction process (i.e. the information is private and not covered by FOIA).
In addition, there’s no proven link to Combetta. It doesn’t matter, but once upon a time, you never used to be this sloppy.
Why did they go through the trouble to BleachBit the source files?
Shhh, that’s just logicsplaining.
Oh yeah… sorry…
My computer-geek friends assure me that it is a simple matter to print a .PST file to a text file, perform a mass edit on that file, and then print it out. This would explain the 55,000 pieces of paper Clinton turned over to the House Oversight Committee. It would also explain why Combetta would go to such extreme lengths to delete the original .PST file and then pour “BleachBit” on it.
Your reply indicates that you completely miss my point. Frankly, I don’t want to see the “how to make an A-Bomb” on a silver platter, given out to anyone. I know it’s there. But I don’t have to have it fed by Intravenous.
The problem in the long view is, IMO, how now brown cow, can we once again become a country and population that believes in the RULE of LAW?
By being the bosses of our elected officials and holding their feet to the fire to actually uphold the rule of law. To have those who break the law in our government be charged, tried, and if found guilty, suffer the consequences. We should not back down when something stinks but is brushed off as ‘nothing to see’. To not allow them to divide us into warring tribes against each other. They have been entrusted to uphold and defend the Constitution and to fulfill their duties, but for too long they have also gotten blind trust from us, the electorate, to do what is right. They have not been held accountable because of our ignorance, our apathy, our tribal attitudes of libs vs cons, and our over-full, distracted lives. The first thing to do is change ourselves, to ask questions, and demand answers. I want the government to remain ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.’ I can hope, so shall the people rise and protest this charade of an election, to prevent miscarriages of justice, and to reassert that, yes, all men are created equal, and, yes, our inalienable rights matter and shall not be trampled upon.
Rose,
I like that. What I don’t have any faith in is how to get that done. It is naive of us to think that elected officials are accountable to the people who elect them. Just take Harry Reid for example. He lies. Gets caught. Says ‘well it worked, didn’t it?’
He is clearly above the law. He is just another clinton. Different name, same garbage.
Bob,
I get the cynicism and the concern. I vascilate between optimism and cynicism quite regularly.
Yet, I see the increased (mostly) civil discussion here heartening. I had a delightful, civil discussion with a complete stranger the other day at a restaurant. We had opposing views, but we asked questions and attempted to understand one another’s perspectives and aimed to support these views with facts.
We used reason, were fair-minded, and refrained from attacking one another’s principles.
Multiply these encounters, where hands reach across the aisle to “not so much seek to be understood, but to understand”. When we can see that we the people, liberals and conservatives, want our elected leaders (and others) to be beholden to the law, as equals, we can move together to effect change. This is more important than petty policy differences meant to keep us in our warring factions.
Though I want to avoid the context in which the following quote is set, I agree with the sentiments:
“What matters is justice. ‘This why I’m here. I’ll be treated as I deserve, not as my father deserved. I’m Kilrain, and I G*d d*** all gentlemen.” (Shaara, 178)
No one should be above the law or too big to fail.
“protection for absolutely nothing in return”
They got his silence.
Well, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Why would the FBI grant immunity without being contingent on cooperation to someone who destroyed evidence being sought by the feds and Congress.
They gave him protection for absolutely nothing in return.
Karen S.
I think the legal term for immunity deals like this is “quid pro zilch”.
the fix is in – get used to it – no errors – just a fix for the get out of jail free card for clinton and her folks – all in the grand plan – the average person faces a larger penalty for J Walking than clinton & company for their deeds
Democrats want the sick, falling, cross-eyed, pathological liar to be President Frail Stumbly Strabismus McLiar to fulfill their wildest dreams.
Just like how Obama turned out.
At least he could make it up a flight of stairs.
OH, KC, it’s much worse than that.
Dr. Stein spoke about Trump having cognitive problems.
Oh, isn’t she the goofball who wants to be president so she spray-painted a bulldozer?
She must be a sooper-genius.
Harvard educated internal medicine doc
I know.
What Taleb calls “IYI”:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cl1yT63XIAALq8i.jpg:large
That’s right, an internist who has never met him and, unlike the anaesthesiologist who thinks HRC has Parkinson’s, does not even offer a decent argument.
Any port in a storm with you guys.
She actually retired a decade ago. Nowadays internist’s only meet their patients in the narrow sense that the patient is in the room while the doctor is typing in the electronic medical record.
One aspect of the neurologists I have seen is they they seem to have more time for the patient than family doctors are able to afford.
Dr. Terry Wahl’s would probably disagree with you. That said, she is also a Functional Medicine doctor, and they their goal is to get to know their patients and to figure out the root of one’s ailments.
She hasn’t offered an opinion of Trump.
TSpaz, I was addressing this comment:
“Nowadays internist’s only meet their patients in the narrow sense that the patient is in the room while the doctor is typing in the electronic medical record.”
KCFleming:
Jill Stein is so, so untidy, protesting as if she’s from the same race as those savages. Just who does she think she is? Spray-painting when she could have simply donated to her favorite PAC had she lived in Pleasantville.
1. Yes, the spray-painting was so very effective, wasn’t it?
Only a Harvard-trained internist would be smart enough to come up with that approach.
I’m sure it secured that sought-after college sophomore hipster anarchist vote.
2. Why do you call Indians savages?
Because they need the Great White Harvard Lady to save them?
That’s disgusting and racist.
2. Could it have been because it was sarcasm and that Steve was in fact mimicking you?
Steve called Native Americans “savages” and you are blaming me for it?
SJWs always project.
This means that they accuse you of the evils they do themselves (also a characteristic of malignant narcissism, a pathology that cannot bear to suffer any negative judgments), so when a particularly negative thought is hovering around the edge of their consciousness, they naturally try to fob it off on their enemies instead.
In short, Steve does in fact think of Indians as “savages.”
It is what instantly popped into his head when he thought of Jill Stein and Native Americans and the bulldozer event.
But he knew it was wrong, so he ascribed his thought to me, just as are you so doing.
You’re both being vile and racist here, so I suggest you stop digging.
KCFleming writes, “In short, Steve does in fact think of Indians as ‘savages.’ It is what instantly popped into his head when he thought of Jill Stein and Native Americans and the bulldozer event. But he knew it was wrong, so he ascribed his thought to me, just as are you so doing. You’re both being vile and racist here, so I suggest you stop digging.”
You know, you’re gonna to have an aneurysm with all of that reverse psychology along with your diagnostic features. Devil’s Breath (scopolamine) is indicated.
As a registered Green, all I can say in response to your genius-level projection of blame is that it’s so pleasant to be pleasant to the pleasant.
1. Steve calls Indians “savages”
2. nwwoods and Steve blame me for it
3. I point out that they are projecting (SJWs always project.).
4. Steve says, “no you’re projecting.”
5. SJWs always double down.
Right on cue.
Might want to get your offending posts here deleted, Steve.
One of them accurately records your calling Native Americans “savages”, and that I called you racist for it.
Being a “registered Green” won’t exculpate you.
You’re just another white guy seeking privilege on the backs of the indigenous.
“You’re both being vile and racist here, so I suggest you stop digging.”
Sounding more and more like projection by the minute. And I couldn’t care less if you proclaimed yourself green, pink or plaid.
1. Your reading comprehension needs work. Steve called himself “a Green.”
2. I’m surprised you support calling Indians ‘savages,’ but go ahead.
I was a computer programmer before I went to Harvard Law School, so I find all this VERY interesting. Here’s a scenario to consider. The specific “stonetear” request is for a way to replace one email address with another. There is no way that I know how to do that with a Microsoft PST file, and nobody on reddit could come up with one, either. If somebody asked me to do that, I would say, “It can’t be done, sorry.” If someone said, “Don’t give me excuses, give me results!” I might have come up with THIS workaround:
1) Move the files to a Unix server
2) Pipe the print output to a text file
3) Mass replace one email address with another
4) Print the resulting text
5) Hand over 55,000 pages of printed emails to the House Oversight Committee.
The problem with this approach is that if anybody ever got the original archive files, it would reveal this criminal action. Unless, of course… somebody deleted the file and poured “BleachBit” on it.
Well thank you for showing the way on how to ‘build a better bomb’. The criminals needed this missing link.
Criminal action? Why would this be criminal action?
Seriously why?
So you went to Harvard. I would assume you know something about the law. So what criminal act?
If these were Clinton’s emails, they had no impact on what was delivered to State (the Clinton email address was included as part of the meta data). And meta data is typically not covered by FOIA. We know from another court case that Judicial Watch is currently involved in. I should say yet another court case…the organization has about 100 lawsuits related to FOIA at the moment.
How about deleting emails that were the subject of a subpoena?
That is a felony.
In addition to Combetta trying to obstruct justice, it’s no surprise the State Department was also not forthcoming in the investigations. A huge proportion of them were in Clinton’s handbag:
“Hillary Clinton placed dozens of her donors on State Department advisory boards between 2009 and 2012, federal records show.
The former secretary of state’s agency appointed 194 donors who had given either to her family’s foundation, her political campaigns, or both, or were affiliated with groups that had.
Those donors represented nearly 40 percent of the 511 advisory appointments the State Department made during Clinton’s tenure.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/clinton-gave-state-department-appointments-to-194-donors/article/2602272
Yes Bailers, that rule of law thing is about our belief that our legal issues will be dealt with fairly and honestly. Some of our elected and appointed officials treat this idea as some quaint old thing.
Let’s hope Wikileaks drops some more emails soon.
A Special Prosecutor, someone like JT, should have been appointed some time ago. The duopoly is rotten and people are fed up. But don’t fret, when Trump is prez the system will work w/ hyper vigilance to keep him in line.
That is beyond lame, out of the realm of common sense, beyond reality, and just what to expect from Trump supporters/Clinton haters. Take your pick, Clinton-corrupt but intelligent IQ 152 or Trump-corrupt but stupid IQ 102. Just listen to his kids if you need further proof of how off the beam that pack is. The little Trump is planning on running for office. W, Palin, Trump, Trump Jr. C’mon, you can’t be serious. How many times does America have to be dragged backwards before it sinks in, progressive=progress=evolution=catching up with the ideals that have been lost. We don’t need to go back to McCarthy and all that, a communist under every desk, a terrorist in every neighborhood.
Isaac- Do you have a source for the 152/102 IQs you claim the candidates have?
tnash, He’s a Clintonista. His source is Sidney Blumenthal.
It’s the same lame Dem attack. Dem are smart and Rep are stupid. If the b!tch is so smart, why did she flunk the DC bar? They both graduated from Ivy League schools. They’re both smart.
Nick,
The first time I asked Isaac for a source for one of “his facts” was in early 2015.
To date, I have not received a response.
That may be because he’s still working on it, or it could mean something else.
tnash, He’s a Clintonista propagandist. I’m not kidding. His source is Blumenthal, Brock, or someone of that ilk.
Or he *is* Sid Blumenthal
My professional estimate:
Clinton IQ = 135
Trump IQ = 120
“What is Aleppo?”
Autumn – we are all ignorant of somethings. I am proudly ignorant of the workings of the gas combustion engine. That does not make me stupid. I know the name Aleppo, but if you gave me a blank map of the world, I could do no better than put it in the Middle East.
I am currently reading a book on the sinking of the Lusitainia. There are a lot of German words and locations being used that I have to look up. I did not take either geography or German in college. When I finish the book I will be less ignorant. 🙂 Still not stupid.
@Isaac
Go ahead – cling to the myth that Trump supporters are ignorant. That’s all you have to offer. The really ignorant, or maybe I should say WILLFULLY ignorant, are those who support Crooked Hillary. They ignore all facts and bury their heads ever deeper in the sand.
Autumn, That “ignorant” claim is what the elitists tried w/ Brexit. The elitists are stupid to think this globalism is going to work. We huddled masses have had enough. There is a revolution afoot. And as history shows, the ones in power are the last to realize it. The pawns like the Clintonistas are the truly ignorant.
Nick, we can only hope that we block HRC and the ueber-class who support her. Right now in Olde Europe the unwashed masses are becoming increasingly unruly – state’s right undermined by the corporados in Brussels. I predict an attempt by both France and Austria to exit the EU – they are sick of all the restrictions, increased costs due to a common currency as well as the whole immigration issue. Brexit, btw, is still not a done deal – the elites are actively trying to undo it. I just hope the leavers prevail.
Shish, I don’t know where to begin. So much BS, so little time.
Here you go again. Reality is what you say it is. But denial of wrongdoing with emails is not a reality. Why? Because Comey would not go down in history as the only person to eliminate a political candidate. Ha, he did this after confirming what she said about what happened to her emails was either a lie, or a dodge.
Just because you’re not indicted doesn’t mean you are innocent, now does it? It just means you’re an unindicted conspirator. And look at the very long list of the co-conspirators. WOW. I can’t give out the names. There is not enough room here to show them all.
Back to McCarthy? Only you have brought up that. What in the world would you say that for? Is that code for your bigotry?
And oh, would you be able to list the ideals that have been lost? Seems to me that the Republican ideal of truth was a high point when REPUBLICAN Howard Baker asked in a televised hearing “What did the President know and when did he know it?”
The low point in ideals are the clinton’s, the comey’s, the de blasio’s, the Lynch’s, oh, is this list looooong.
Hillary’s so super-intelligent, she failed the DC bar exam.
Imagine how it would have turned out if DC had state law
Your 152 IQ top 0.1% of the distribution attorney flunked the DC Bar exam. She was fired from her first law job for misconduct (and the supervisor who dismissed her has said that in 14 years in that position, there were 3 lawyers he’d employed he’d never give a reference for, and she was one). The next law job she had (at a small city firm with 30-odd attorneys) she managed to land 3 years later, after her husband was elected Attorney-General of Arkansas. It included, among other things, arguing in front of state commissions appointed by…her husband. Did I mention her adventures in commodity trading?
Isaac, are you afraid the proletariat socialists will rise up and seize your assets in a blur of red? Or, is it that you like the way Wall Street, the central European banking powers, and Clinton on their behalf have been doing it?
Enquiring minds.
I’m sure she’ll be a great president since George HW Bush supports her.
Take a look this short clip from a debate between a Stein voter and a Clinton voter:
issac – there is no way Hillary has an IQ of 152, mine is 153 and she is not even close. She failed her bar exam. No one with an IQ that high would have failed their bar exam, they would have finished early. Trump is probably in the 120s, above average.
Paul C. Schulte-
I have yet to see the IQs of either candidate from “an official” source-e.g., school transcripts, validated IQ test scores, etc.
I’ve only seen a range of estimates given for the candidates.
We had more precise scores presented earlier today from The Resident Expert on IQs and Everything Else, but he refuses to provide a source.
tnash – for some of the male Presidents their IQ score would be available from their Selective Service tests. However, this would not count for the women.
There are some articles out supposedly listing the IQs of the Presidents. Not sure how accurate they are. Trump would not have taken an IQ test that was available to the public nor would have Hillary.
They administered psychological tests to people examined for conscription. No one’s been examined for conscription since 1973, so there’s no one under the age of 63 for whom such test results are extant. I believe tests of various sorts are given to recruits, but military recruits make up maybe 10% or 12% of a typical age cohort nowadays.
Paul C. Shulte
– Many of the articles I’ve read about presidents’ IQs include ALL past presidents, back to George Washington.
I don’t think there were any IQ tests in those days, and some of those articles label their findings as “estimated IQs”.
But they don’t explain who’s making those estimates, or how they came out with the estimates.
I think Louis Terman developed the “Americanized version” of the IQ test, c.100 years ago.
He launched a long term study in the 1920s designed to track the “life biographies” of 1,000 children with exceptionally high IQs.
I knew one of the subjects in the Terman group; by the time I met him, he was in his mid-80s, and suffering from early-to-midstage Alsheimers.
His family a few older records of his participation in Terman’s study.
I did some research trying to see if the study achieved its objective of tracking these people over the course of their entire lifetime.
A couple of psycologists I knew were not able to find information about the ultimate fate of that study.
My best guess is that, somewhere along the line, the study “died on the vine” long before the end of the subjects’ lifetimes.
tnash – as a teacher you get a feel for how smart a particular student is by what questions they ask or how they answer a particular question. About 6 weeks into school you know who your top students are. This has nothing to do with taking tests, doing papers, making dioramas, etc. The cream rises to the top. The key is trying to keep the top students happy while you teach the rest. 😉
As far as guestimating IQ scores, there is no way any of that is accurate. That is just bias in action. I like a president so I give him a high IQ. I don’t like a president so I give him a low IQ. Then I line them all up and adjust the IQs in the order that I like them, highest to lowest. Regardless, Hillary does not have an IQ of 153.
Paul Schulte: I always knew you had a high IQ. You were just hidin’ it with all of those conclusionary arguments. You are tricky enough to be dangerous.
You guys are gonna win “so big. So big.”
Steve – I am an Independent. Not sure what I am going to win. 😉 Maybe free tickets to a acid rock concert?
When did the FBI become so amateur hour? This case doesn’t look good for them. Their big playpen case where they ran a child porn server just got another case tossed for an invalid warrant. Because they went to a magistrate instead of district judge. And they ran A CHILD PORN SERVER. Allowing thousands to download that crap. The Apple writ case, and there’s so many other instances recently as well. The FBI seems to have given up on competent agents and sound training and gone straight for muscle and public strong arming to get what they want.
The FBI is on par with ATF lately. Not a good sign for them or the rule of law. I hope they aren’t falling for the same problem local law enforcement so often is with poor leadership.
It likely is not the FBI. It’s the Attorney-General, the division chiefs, and the lawyers they employ.
“When did the FBI become so amateur hour?”
At some point prior to the Amerithrax investigation.
Could you provide a link to the government child porn server story?
I would like to reblog that point to some people who say that the government can do no wrong.
It is truly fukt up to think the government actually distributed child porn that can never be erased now.
Nothing like living in a big banana republic.
Comey belongs in prison beside Hillary
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/09/10/exposed-fbi-director-james-comeys-clinton-foundation-connection/
Exposed: FBI Director James Comey’s Clinton Foundation Connection
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A review of FBI Director James Comey’s professional history and relationships shows that the Obama cabinet leader — now under fire for his handling of the investigation of Hillary Clinton — is deeply entrenched in the big-money cronyism culture of Washington, D.C. His personal and professional relationships — all undisclosed as he announced the Bureau would not prosecute Clinton — reinforce bipartisan concerns that he may have politicized the criminal probe.
These concerns focus on millions of dollars that Comey accepted from a Clinton Foundation defense contractor, Comey’s former membership on a Clinton Foundation corporate partner’s board, and his surprising financial relationship with his brother Peter Comey, who works at the law firm that does the Clinton Foundation’s taxes.
Lockheed Martin
When President Obama nominated Comey to become FBI director in 2013, Comey promised the United States Senate that he would recuse himself on all cases involving former employers.
But Comey earned $6 million in one year alone from Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin became a Clinton Foundation donor that very year.
Comey served as deputy attorney general under John Ashcroft for…..
Reblogged this on Matthews' Blog.
HRC could eat live babies on prime-time TV and the Obama/Lynch/Comey troika would still exonerate her ! Deplorable DMD
In 1971, Henry Peterson, then head of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department told John Dean that never in his tenure (then 20 years) had an investigation been stopped at the instruction of the White House and if that happened, “the lawyers in this division would walk out”. Robert Bork also said it was a concern of Elliot Richardson that if a White House lawyer were appointed acting Attorney-General (as would happen if all 3 department-wide officials resigned en bloc), there would be a mass walkout of personnel. In this administration, the Criminal Division and the Attorney-General are blatant participants in a cover-up. Here’s a suggestion: abolish the Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s offices. Instead, issue grants to local DA’s and state Attorney’s general and enfranchise them to prosecute violations of federal law.
As a group, federal prosecutors are far better attorneys and much less likely to be political hacks than their state counterparts. Your suggestion is like suggesting that we abolish IRS and have the state taxing authorities take over audits and collection of taxes. Anyone who makes that suggestion obviously has never had to deal with a California state tax agency.
As a group, federal prosecutors are far better attorneys and much less likely to be political hacks than their state counterparts. Y
I’ll let Conrad Black know.
Or any other state tax agency.
Not a bad idea, but likely very difficult to implement.
What has happened is that under democratic administrations, the rule of law has been eroded. They don’t have a moral compass. They don’t know right from wrong. They only know how to tamp down opposition. They only know that a government by them is a government we all SHOULD live with.
Today, could you ever hear a democrat mutter the words in a televised hearing WHAT DID HILLARY CLINTON, AND WHEN DID SHE KNOW IT?
But you do hear denials of every kind, every hour of every day. And that is the what happens when it is OK to lie, steal, deny truth, ignore any wrong, or wrong doing, so long as my side ends up on top. It’s like “I AM A US SENATOR AND THE TRUTH IS WHAT I SAY IT IS”.
Have you ever wondered why we need an ID to drive a car, but not to vote? How ’bout an ID to use a credit card, but not to vote? Can’t you hear them in court testifying against a state outreach program for free ID’s? they would holler until the cows come home. So, there you have it.
And that is the country we live in.