Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Chairman of Select Benghazi Committee, Congressman Trey Gowdy, Issues a Direct “OR ELSE” Threat to Top Democrat for President in 2016, Hillary Clinton — And, at last, Hillary looks like she’s ready to talk about E-mails


Trey Gowdy says if former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to turn over her server to an independent party, the House Select Committee on Benghazi will have her to testify about it  —  Gowdy promises two separate inquiries about Mrs. Clinton: one about her E-mails; then, after that’s done, one about Benghazi

Gowdy also says Hillary’s E-mails are public records and not hers to control

Meanwhile, it looks like Hillary is ready to do some kind of personal event related to her E-mail issues within a few days



Appearing Monday evening on Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File," Congressman Trey Gowdy said that he plans to give Hillary Clinton an opportunity to turn her personal email server over to a neutral independent arbiter, such as a federal judge, an archivist, or an inspector general; but he also said that, if she doesn't turn over the server, then Mrs. Clinton will have to “...  come see the committee twice and not once. And the first the first time will be to discuss her email arrangement....” ( See “Trey Gowdy: Hillary Will Have to Answer If Server Not Turned Over”
by Greg Richter, 3/9/15, Newsmax [http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/trey-gowdy-hillary-clinton-private-email/2015/03/09/id/629182/]).

GOWDY SAYS HILLARY’S E-MAILS ARE PUBLIC RECORDS

Congressman Gowdy also said this:  "It's not just my committee. It's House Armed Services, it's Foreign Affairs, it's FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests....  These are public records, and if they're not personal, if they're public, then she's not entitled to be the sole arbiter of who gets what when."

GOWDY RIPS HILLARY CLINTON’S LAWYER AND THE STATE DEPARTMENT OVER STONEWALLING HIS COMMITTEE’S E-MAIL REQUESTS FOR OVER SIX MONTHS 

In the same interview with Megyn Kelly, Representative  Gowdy said that when he wrote to Hillary Clinton’s lawyer asking for her e-mails, her lawyer referred him back to the State Department.  Gowdy then said that when he went to the State Department, they  “... missed every single opportunity over the past six months to tell us that, not only did [Secretary of State Hillary Clinton] not have an official e-mail account, [the State Department] didn’t even have her records. You would think that [it] would come up in all the conversations that we had with the State Department which is precisely why they are not the neutral third party arbiter I would recommend the Secretary turn her server over to so you can analyze it for forensics to see whether or not there’s been any hacking or tampering....”  (See “Gowdy: Hillary’s Lawyer Referred Us to State Department for Emails” by Ian Hanchett, 3/9/15, Breitbart News [http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/03/09/gowdy-hillarys-lawyer-referred-us-to-state-dept-for-e-mails/]).

HILLARY PREPARING TO PERSONALLY ADDRESS HER E-MAIL PROBLEMS IN THE COMING DAYS

Meanwhile there have been reports that, according to people familiar with her plans, Hillary Clinton will speak publicly for the first time this week about her using only a private E-mail account during her tenure as Secretary of State. Clearly the Clinton camp is  hoping to defuse an issue that some Democrats say she needed to address days ago (See “Hillary Clinton to Discuss Email Flap Publicly” by Peter Nicholas & Laura Meckler, 3/9/15, The Wall Street Journal [http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-to-discuss-email-flap-publicly-1425944959]; see also “Hillary Clinton to address email controversy –  Press conference likely, three sources close to the former secretary of state confirm” by Glenn Thrush & Josh Gerstein, 3/9/15, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/hillary-clinton-address-email-controversy-115903.html

Here’s what the New York Times had to say about Hillary’s planned address about the use of her private E-mails while she was  Secretary of State: “Hillary Rodham Clinton is preparing in coming days to address her use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state, according to people close to Mrs. Clinton, even as she continued to avoid questions about the matter on Monday after speaking at a Clinton Foundation event in New York. ***   Though Mrs. Clinton has spoken at a handful of events since The New York Times reported that she exclusively used a private email account at the State Department, her lone public utterance has been a Twitter post in which she said she wanted Americans to see her emails. ***  One of the options Mrs. Clinton is considering is a news conference, something she has not held in more than two years. A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton did not respond to requests for comment....” (See  “Hillary Clinton Prepares to Address Her Use of Private Email as Secretary of State” by Nick Corasaniti, 3/9/15, The New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/us/politics/hillary-clinton-prepares-to-address-her-use-of-private-email-as-secretary-of-state.html?_r=0]).

According to the report in Politico, cited above in this post, “... [t]he decision to address the issue comes amid mounting criticism of her use of a personal email account, which did not comply with State Department regulations issued in 2005 governing email used for official business. Reports in the New York Times and the Associated Press detailed how Clinton used a private server, housed in her suburban New York residence, to channel her emails, which are supposed to be maintained as part of a federal agency’s historic record....”  And Politico said  this in its ultimate paragraph: “Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton attended a Clinton Foundation event in New York Monday, but did not respond to reporters’ questions about the emails. A spokesman for Hillary Clinton did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment for this story.”

9 comments:

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “HILLARY IS READY TO TALK — WHEN TALKING ISN’T ENOUGH” EDITION

HILLARY SCHEDULES AN E-MAILS NEWS CONFERENCE TUESDAY AFTERNOON — MORE THAN A DAY LATE — LET’S SEE IF IT’S MORE THAN A POUND SHORT

THE NATION’S NUMBER TWO DEMOCRAT AND PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE, HILLARY CLINTON, CAN’T SOLVE THIS E-MAIL PROBLEM WITH WORDS — SHE MUST RELEASE THE SERVER

THE NATIONAL JOURNAL’S RON FOURNIER, AND MSNBC’S MIKA BRZEZINZKI AND JOE SCARBOROUGH AGREE — IT’S “OUR” SERVER AND SHE HAS TO TURN IT OVER TO BE SEARCHED

According to a report from NBC News, “... Hillary Rodham Clinton will hold a news conference Tuesday to address the furor over her exclusive use of a private email account while she was secretary of state, sources confirmed to MSNBC. *** The timing was not immediately clear. Clinton is scheduled to speak Tuesday at a United Nations conference on women....” (See “Hillary Clinton Email: Former Secretary to Hold News Conference, Sources Say” by NBC News Staff, 3/10/15 [http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/hillary-clinton-email-former-secretary-hold-news-conference-sources-say-n320631]).

On yersterday’s MSNBC “Morning Joe” program, Ron Fournier, Editorial Director of the “National Journal,” said the only way Hillary Clinton could end the scandal over reports that while she served as Secretary of State, she had exclusively emailed all official State Department business using her private email account on a server stored at her residence, would be to release that server so all emails can be independently reviewed. The co-hosts of that MSNBC program agreed with Fournier and echoed his idea.

According to Breitbart News, “Fournier said, ‘She can’t solve this by words. You can’t spin you way out of this, intimidate your way out of this or blame the Republicans out of this. This is a problem she created, and I have a lot of respect for the secretary, it’s a problem she can solve.’ *** Fournier continued, ‘She can release the server with all the emails on it. That’s our server, not hers and she can have the foundation return all foreign donations.’ *** Co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed saying ‘I do think it’s our server.’ Joe Scarborough added ‘No doubt about it. It is, period.’ (See “Fournier: Hillary Can’t Solve This With Words, Must Release Server” by Pam Key, 3/9/15, Breitbart News [http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/03/09/fournier-hillary-cant-solve-this-with-words-must-release-server/]).

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE “WELL, SHE SHOWED UP” EDITION

HILLARY SAYS SHE DID IT FOR CONVENIENCE — ALSO THAT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF SHE DIDN’T DO IT THAT WAY — IN OTHER WORDS — "OOPSIE DAISY – OOPSIE DAISY"

MEANWHILE HILLARY SLIPPED INTO HER TALK THE FACT THAT SHE DELETED 30,000 E-MAILS FROM HER SERVER

Woody Allen thinks that “showing up” counts for a lot — so if he’s doing the scoring of Hillary’s performance today, she should do OK.

Hillary would also do OK if another New York City-centric director, Martin Scorsese were doing the scoring, because Hillary obviously was channeling her own internal “Bill the Butcher”; you know the part when he says in Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” “Oopsie Daisy – Oopsie Daisy !” You see her big splash presentation was little more than a wordy version of — “OOPSIE DAISY... ! ! ! !”

According to CNN’s report of Hillary’s talk (It wasn’t really either a speech or a news conference), “Former secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she used a private domain for her official work during her time at the State Department out of "convenience," but admitted in retrospect "it would have been better" to use multiple emails. *** ‘I opted for convenience to use my personal email account, which was allowed by the State Department, because I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two,’ she said during a press conference after her speech at the United Nations Tuesday. "Looking back, it would have been better if I'd simply used a second email account and carried a second phone.’..." (See “Hillary Clinton says she used one email 'for convenience' ” by Alexandra Jaffe & Dan Merica, CNN [http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-press-conference/]).

Unfortunately, this particular CNN report did not mention perhaps the most important aspect of Hillary Clinton’s afternoon talk — Hillary made an ADMISSION that she deleted 30,000 of her E-mails while she was Secretary of State. According to other reports, “Hillary Rodham Clinton directed aides to delete some 30,000 emails from her personal server after determining that they were not related to work, the former secretary of State disclosed at a news conference Tuesday.( See e.g. “Clinton reveals she deleted 30,000 emails” by Paul Richter & David Lauter, 3/10/15, LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-hillary-clinton-email-un-20150310-story.html]).

HILLARY ADMITTED THAT CERTAIN E-MAILS HAVE BEEN DELETED FROM THE SERVER THAT SHE USED FOR ALL HER SECRETARY OF STATE E-MAILS....

According to the report about the deletions in the “Weekly Standard” by Michael Warren, “Hillary Clinton said she deleted emails stored on her private server during her time at the State Department because she ‘didn't see any reason to keep them.’ *** The likely Democratic presidential candidate took questions from members of the media at the United Nations headquarters in New York Tuesday afternoon.... Throughout the press conference, Clinton argued she had "fully complied" with the regulations and rules for turning over "work-related" emails. She also added that it was at her discretion to determine what were personal and what were work-related emails.” When asked why she deleted the personal emails, Hillary answered ‘Because they were personal and private about matters that I believed were in the scope of my personal privacy and that particularly of other people.... They had nothing to do with work, but I didn't see any reason to keep them.’..." ( See “Hillary Deleted Personal Emails Because She 'Didn't See Any Reason to Keep Them' ” by Michael Warren, 3/10/15, Weekly Standard [http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/hillary-deleted-personal-emails-because-she-didnt-see-any-reason-keep-them_882193.html]).

At this stage, what more needs to be said.

Anonymous said...

Hillary was excellent - on point, transparent, assertive, presidential. She makes me proud to be an American for a change.

So who is Hillary's challenger on the GOP side? We'll take Jeb - we'll rake him over the coals during the campaign.

In other news, your GOP 47 traitors are despicable. The Daily News front page today is rivaled in its brilliance only by that Ford to City Drop Dead one from another time.

Hillary Forever

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE “TREY GOWDY WAS NOT AMUSED” EDITION

HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI CHAIRMAN TREY GOWDY ISSUED THIS STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE TUESDAY AFTERNOON PRESS CONFERENCE BY FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON:

“Having finally heard from Secretary Clinton about her exclusive use of personal email with which to conduct official business while serving as Secretary of State, regrettably we are left with more questions than answers. For instance, there remain serious questions about the security of the system she employed from a national security standpoint, who authorized this exclusive use of personal email despite guidance to the contrary from both her State Department and the White House, who had access to the server from the time Secretary Clinton left office until the time—almost two years later—the State Department asked for these public records back, and who culled through the records to determine which were personal and which were public.

“Without access to Secretary Clinton’s personal server, there is no way for the State Department to know it has acquired all documents that should be made public, and given State’s delay in disclosing the fact Secretary Clinton exclusively used personal email to conduct State business, there is no way to accept State’s or Secretary Clinton’s certification she has turned over all documents that rightfully belong to the American people. That is why I see no choice but for Secretary Clinton to turn her server over to a neutral, detached third-party arbiter who can determine which documents should be public and which should remain private. Secretary Clinton alone created this predicament, but she alone does not get to determine its outcome. These public records at issue are broader than Libya and broader than Benghazi. The Secretary of State has enormous responsibility and jurisdiction and the public, the media and Congress have a legal right to access these public records without impediment.

“Because Secretary Clinton has created more questions than answers, the Select Committee is left with no choice but to call her to appear at least twice. The first appearance will be to clear up her role and resolve issues surrounding her exclusive use of personal email to conduct official business. This is necessary to establish our Committee has a complete record with respect to Secretary Clinton’s time in office. Our committee will then call her to appear before the Committee in a public hearing to answer questions specifically regarding Libya and the Benghazi terrorist attacks that took the lives of our four brave fellow citizens.” (See “Gowdy Statement on Clinton Press Conference” by Trey Gowdy, 3/10/15, Press Release
[http://benghazi.house.gov/news/press-releases/gowdy-statement-on-clinton-press-conference]).

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said at 4:50 PM is one of those kinds of people that aren't proud to be American in normal times, but only when some particular interest group's sacred cow is being worshiped. In this instance, the cow is Hillary Clinton.

Other times, like say when Michelle Obama said for the first time she was proud to be an American, the sacred cow would have been her husband.

As far as sacred cows go, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are about as run of the mill in presidential talent as any of the sacred cow types available for the office. Witness the fact that the Democrats couldn't find anybody better.

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE “AFTER HER ‘BRIEF PRESS CONFERENCE’ DOES HILLARY STILL HAVE AN MSNBC PROBLEM ?” EDITION

FOR SURE HILLARY DOESN’T SEND ANY QUIVERS UP AND DOWN CHRIS MATTHEWS’ LEG THE WAY THAT OBAMA DID — MSNBC HOST THOMAS ROBERTS SOUNDED SKEPTICAL, AS WELL

AFTER HILLARY’S BRIEF PRESS CONFERENCE AT THE U.N. ON TUESDAY, CHRIS MATTHEWS COMPARED HILLARY CLINTON’S REFUSAL TO TURN OVER HER SERVER TO THE EIGHTEEN MINUTE GAP IN THE WATERGATE SCANDAL

Prior to Hillary’s “brief press conference,” the host of "Hardball" on MSNBC joined with Thomas Roberts to discuss what Hillary Clinton needed to prove to the public in order to clear up any controversy surrounding her maintaining a personal email server and getting plenty of funding for the Clinton Global Initiative Foundation from foreign governments while she was Secretary of State (See “Chris Matthews on Hillary Clinton Email Controversy” by Thomas Roberts & Chris Matthews [with video clip of Thomas-Matthews pre-press conference interview], 3/10/15, MSNBC [http://www.msnbc.com/thomas-roberts/watch/chris-matthews-on-hillary-clinton-email-controversy-411223107578]). He specifically asked, “Are we going to get to the bottom of this.... Will she release the server; will she return the foreign money ?”

After the Clinton press conference on Tuesday on his MSNBC “Hardball” program, while Matthews was discussing Hillary Clinton’s refusal to turn over her email server to a neutral third party to end the controversy over her use of a private system while serving as Secretary of State, host Chris Matthews proposed that in this scenario, has Clinton cast herself in the role of Rose Mary Woods, the Nixon secretary who erased the 18 minute gap in the infamous Watergate tapes. This is what Chris Matthews said, “She worked on the Nixon impeachment committee. She knows all about how the stories develop. It starts with ‘What do you know? When did you know it?’ It always ends up once the public finds out there’s some source of fact that you’re holding back, and they ask for it. And eventually some judge says you have to give it up. Now maybe there won’t be a judge in this case and it will always be hanging on her, ‘How come you didn’t release the server?’...” (See “Hillary Clinton addresses elephant in the room” [Video of Chris Matthews’ post-press conference segment], 3/10/15, MSNBC/ Hard Ball
[http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/hillary-clinton-addresses-elephant-in-the-room-411304515762]).

ELSEWHERE MSNBC SAYS THERE WERE PLENTY OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS AFTER HILLARY’S TUESDAY AFTERNOON PERFORMANCE FOR "WOMEN" BEYOND THE PRESS

Another MSNBC article said this: “Hillary Clinton faced reporters Tuesday to answer questions about her exclusive use of a private email account while she served as secretary of state. But she didn’t answer all the questions out there about her electronic correspondence – and she may have even created a few new ones. *** Clinton carefully explained that she used only a personal email address out of convenience, though she now acknowledges that it probably would have been “smarter” to do things differently. Clinton she did not preserve half of the 60,000 emails she sent during her tenure because they were personal and dealt with things like planning her daughter’s wedding and her mother’s funeral, and contain personal correspondence with her husband and friends. And, she said, she won’t turn over her private email server....” ( See “Nine unanswered questioned about Hillary Clinton’s emails” by Alex Seitz-Wald, 3/10/15, MSNBC [http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/unanswered-questioned-hillary-clinton-emails]).

Anonymous said...

Forty-seven REPUBLICAN members of Congress sent a letter to our Nation's enemy offering to help it undermine the President of the United States. That action on the part of these GOP elected officials is disgusting and evinces nothing but hatred toward America. That is what you should be concerned about Gale, not Hillary's emails on how she planned her daughter's wedding. Give me a break.

The media bashing of Hillary along with the right wing hate blogs will only benefit her candidacy in the end. People get tired of nonsense very quickly and see it for what it is.

So again, I've asked you here at this blog: Who is your GOP candidate? Whom are you rallying around? You got nothing . . .

Btw, did you get to the Egan viewing over the last two days?

Galewyn Massey said...

RESPONSE: THE "THOUGHTFUL OPPOSITION TO A TYRANT AND HIS TREACHERY BESPEAKS PATRIOTISM AND LOVE OF YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS" EDITION

THAT THERE IS NOT A SINGLE DEMOCRAT IN >>> THE U.S. SENATE <<< WITH PATRIOTISM, WISDOM AND COURAGE TO JOIN WITH THE PATRIOTIC 47 --- NOW THAT'S THE REAL SHAME

One can only pray that one letter from 47 GOP >>> SENATORS <<< sent to any friend, enemy or neutral can truly and effectively undermine and humiliate this so-called "President of the United States," Barack Hussein Obama, who has promised to govern outside the boundaries and restraints of our godly constitutional republic.

It is the Obama Regime's NEGOTIATIONS with our enemy, Iran, that are disgusting and evidence of a hatred of America and its people.

The 47 Republican Senators are speaking within their inherent constitutional role of overseeing, advising and consenting on the foreign policies of this most God-blessed nation. --- In doing so, it is they, not the so-called "President," that is acting with the manifest "authority of the United States."

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE “AFTER HER ‘PRESS CONFERENCE’ DOES HILLARY HAVE A CNN PROBLEM TOO ?” EDITION

“HILLARY CLINTON’S E-MAIL SCANDAL IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM HER...” — CNN’S CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT JOHN KING

CNN REPORTER REFERRED TO THE ODDNESS FACTOR IN HILLARY’S PRESS CONFERENCE AND HER ANSWERS

HILLARY’S E-MAIL PROBLEM PERCOLATING: CNN FIRST TO REPORT ON BENGHAZI COMMITTEE’S SUBPOENA OF HILLARY’S PERSONAL & STATE DEPARTMENT AIDES


For CNN’s John King it comes down to this: “Secrecy. Shielding documents. Accusations of arrogance and hypocrisy. Debates about the letter and the spirit of the rules. A public defense -- but also jitters and disbelief -- from fellow Democrats. Legitimate criticism along with some eye-rolling conspiracy theories from Republicans. *** We have seen this movie before....”
“Hillary Clinton's email scandal is exactly what you can expect from her presidential campaign”
by John King, CNN Chief National Correspondent, 3/10/15 [http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-flashback/index.html]).

Yesterday, a CNN reporter pointed out how odd the whole press conference and Hillary’s answers were: “...First, the takeaways that mean this email story will likely continue, at least among Clinton opponents. Second, she said she deleted a large number of personal emails.... We'll have to take her word for it since those were deleted off the private server...” (See “8 oddities of Hillary Clinton's email presser” by Z. Byron Wolf, 3/10/15, CNN [http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/hillary-clinton-press-conference-will-satisfy-few/]). The seven reaming “oddities” were certainly not better for Hillary; and there was a repetition of the theme “...[w]e'll have to take her word for it.”

And now, CNN is reporting that “...[t]he House Select Committee on Benghazi is going to seek private emails from as many as 10 of Hillary Clinton's top lieutenants at the State Department.... During her press conference on Tuesday, the former secretary of state said she was turning over emails that had to do with official business, but House Republican investigators contend some of that business may have been conducted on private-to-private email accounts and therefore not captured elsewhere.... [Benghazi Committee Chairman] Gowdy said [the committee wants] to see private emails as they relate to official business from people like Cheryl Mills, Clinton's chief of staff at the state department, longtime aide Huma Abedin, and Jake Sullivan, then-deputy chief of staff.... ( See “First on CNN: Benghazi committee seeks emails from top Clinton aides” by Dana Bash, CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent, 3/11/15, CNN [http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/10/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-benghazi-aides/]).

Dana Bash’s article also reported on how “... Clinton's office issued a statement on Tuesday explaining how it searched through the secretary¹s private server for relevant emails to hand over to the State Department for archiving including searching for specific terms like ‘Benghazi’ and ‘Libya’....”

This approach and methodology clearly demonstrates how relevant E-mails could easily fall through the cracks. --- But, then again, what was the real purpose of the exercise ?