Monday, July 27, 2015

Just how much trouble is Hillary Clinton facing with this E-mail referral to the Justice Department ? ? ?


"...  [Hillary] Clinton's blanket assertions that she faithfully followed all laws and regulations related to both federal records and classified information [are becoming] increasingly untenable."   ---  CNN 


---  Donald Trump called Hillary Clinton a "Criminal," unfit to run for President of the United States --  all because of her mishandling of classified material on her private E-mail system

---  Hillary's response (delivered in "prison stripes") was  "I am confident that I never sent or received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received. What I think you're seeing here is a very typical kind of discussion, to some extent disagreement among various parts of the government, over what should or should not be publicly released....    I think there's so much confusion around this that I understand why reporters and the public are asking questions, but the facts are pretty clear. I did not send nor receive anything that was classified at the time...."

---  Disputes  like that get settled in courts every day ---  they are called "criminal trials"



BUT  ---  Is that where it all stands, right now ?



According to a post by CNN,  "Of the many allegations related to Hillary Clinton's emails -- ranging from reasonable to conspiratorial -- the most serious are the findings by two inspectors general that Clinton's private email server contained classified information and a related referral to the FBI concerning a 'potential compromise of classified information.' While details remain unclear, the alleged presence of classified information on a private email server undoubtedly has legal implications for the controversy -- and places a strain on Clinton's public defense...."  (See "How serious is the Clinton email controversy?"  by Douglas Cox, 7/27/15,  CNN  [http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/27/opinions/cox-clinton-email-controversy/index.html]).
After a lenghthy and detailed discussion of Hillary Clinton's obligations and actions handling "classified" material on her private E-mail system,   CNN's Douglas Cox concluded his blog-posted article with this:  "....   In the end, the high political stakes and aggressive voices on both sides make finding the middle -- or the truth -- challenging. There is, so far, no evidence Clinton has committed a criminal act, and those making such allegations risk overplaying their hand. In fact, had there actually been a criminal referral against Clinton, it would likely serve as a silver bullet for Clinton's public defense. Such referrals rarely result in criminal investigations, much less charges, and the eventual, inevitable decision not to pursue the matter would allow Clinton to claim vindication....   Ultimately, though, details about the private email server continue. And as they do, they are making Clinton's blanket assertions that she faithfully followed all laws and regulations related to both federal records and classified information increasingly untenable."

HILLARY IS UNTRUSTWORTHY & HER E-MAIL EXCUSES NEVER PAN OUT                        --  JENNIFER RUBIN, WA/PO

According to Jennifer Rubin's column in Sunday's Washington Post, "There is a reason Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers show voters think she is untrustworthy: She keeps telling them things that are not true....   On the use of her e-mails, we know the long list of untruths about the private e-mail server and the e-mails, thousands of which were destroyed. She turned over everything she had. (No, about 15 documents were not given to the State Department.) She never got a subpoena. (Oh yes she did.) She did it only for the convenience of using one device. (She had multiple devices.)...  The biggest untruth of them all: She followed all the rules. No she did not, The Post’s Glenn Kessler found: “In reality, Clinton’s decision to use a private e-mail system for official business was highly unusual and flouted State Department procedures, even if not expressly prohibited by law at the time. Moreover, while she claims ‘everything I did was permitted,’ she appears to have not complied with the requirement to turn over her business-related e-mails before she left government service. That’s a major misstep that she has not acknowledged.” There was no classified material. (Actually, an inspector general says there was.)..."  (See "Hillary Clinton’s e-mail excuses never pan out" by Jennifer Rubin, 7/26/15,  Washington Post/ On the Right [https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2015/07/26/hillary-clintons-e-mail-excuses-never-pan-out/]).

WHAT THE INSPECTORS' GENERAL REFERRAL TO THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS ALL ABOUT

The following is the analysis provided by "The Daily Signal,"  which is the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation:   "After this referral hit the news on Friday, a dispute erupted over whether the request by the inspector general of the intelligence community to open an investigation of Clinton’s handling of information classified as 'secret' was a 'criminal' referral or not. At first, a Department of Justice official said the 'investigation was criminal in nature' according to the Wall Street Journal but the department 'reversed course hours later without explanation.'...   As the former head of the National Security Division of the Justice Department, Lisa O. Monaco, who is now an assistant to the president for counterterrorism, explained in testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in 2012 (before the public knew about Clinton’s personal server), the intelligence community must report the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials to DOJ....   The Daily Signal is the multimedia news organization of The Heritage Foundation.  We’ll respect your inbox and keep you informed....    Those referrals 'come in the form of a letter identifying the classified information'  and providing other relevant information such as  'the level of classification.'...   That is obviously exactly what the inspector general has done in the referral letter sent to DOJ....   Before anyone can definitively assert that there has been no disclosure of classified material, they should be reminded that that is the precise issue here: we don’t know—at this point— if there has been any such disclosure....    What we do know is that the inspector general for the intelligence community has alleged that information classified as “secret” at the time it was sent went out on a non-secure, personal email system in contravention of all of the rules and regulations (and common sense) governing the handling of secret and sensitive material....   According to Monaco, agency referrals like this one by the inspector general go to the National Security Division and 'typically represent the first step to initiating a criminal investigation.'... ”  (See "The Clinton Emails: Will DOJ Conduct a Real Investigation?" by  Hans von Spakovsky,  7/27/15,  The Daily Signal  [http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/27/the-clinton-emails-will-doj-conduct-a-real-investigation/]).

HERE'S WHERE IT STANDS RIGHT NOW

A joint statement by the two inspectors general, who were involved in the referral of the matter of mishandling classified information on Hillary Clinton's  E-mail system to the DOJ, was issued late Friday.  That joint statement contradicts what former Secretary of State Clinton said about the emails on Saturday.  To date, the  IG for the Intelligence Community has only been allowed to review a small sample from Clinton’s private email server [ 40 out of the total of 30,000 emails  that Clinton has turned over to the State Department].  In that limited sample of forty (40),  four (4)  E-mails contained classified information.

According to a report from the Conservative News Service,   "....   'The four emails, which have not been released through the State FOIA process, did not contain classification marking and/or dissemination controls,'  State Department Inspector General Steve Linick and Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough, III, said in their joint statement released late Friday afternoon....   'These emails were not retroactively classified by the State Department; rather, these emails contained classified information when they were generated and, according to IC classification officials, that information remains classified today,' the inspectors general said...."  (See  "State Dept. Inspector General Contradicts Clinton: Emails ‘Contained Classified Information When They Were Generated’"  by Brittany M. Hughes,   7/27/15,  CNS/ CNSNews.com   [http://cnsnews.com/news/article/brittany-m-hughes/state-dept-inspector-general-contradicts-clinton-emails-contained]).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Guv Cuomo is having a press conference tomorrow to announce 4 billion dollar project to build new airport. Cuomo is sharing photo op with Biden.

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE "JOHN KERRY & STATE DEPARTMENT FINALLY BLINK ABOUT TURNING OVER E-MAILS BY HILLARY CLINTON'S AIDES" EDITION

STATE DEPARTMENT AGREES TO PRODUCE OVER 5,000 PAGE OF DOCUMENTS TO THE BENGHAZI COMMITTEE ON TUESDAY, RATHER THAN HAVESECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY'S CHIEF OF STAFF, JON FINER, TESTIFY IN FRONT OF TREY GOWDY'S HOUSE SELECT BENGHAZI COMMITTEE ON WEDNESDAY

NO HILLARY CINTON DOCUMENTS ESPECTED IN THE CACHE TO BE TURNED OVER TO GOWDY'S COMMITTEE

COMMITTEE SAYS DOCUMENTS WERE LONG-SOUGHT AND NECESSARY TO PREPARE FOR PROPER QUESTIONING OF CLINTON AIDES, HUMA ABEDIN, CHERYL MILLS, AND JAKE SULLIVAN


According to a report in the Washington Post, "The House committee investigating the 2012 attacks on two U.S. compounds in Benghazi, Libya, said the State Department has pledged to hand over 5,000 new pages of documents related to the incident on Tuesday.... 'The State Department has informed the Committee it will make a production of approximately 5,000 pages tomorrow — the second largest production the Committee has received and the largest since last summer,' Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman, said in a statement Monday.... The documents are not expected to include e-mails involving then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been embroiled in a controversy over her use of a private e-mail account while the nation’s top diplomat...." (See "UPDATE 1-U.S. House Benghazi panel says State Dept. to hand over documents Tuesday" by Reuters Staff, 7/27/15, The Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-benghazi-committee-says-state-department-is-providing-documents/2015/07/27/fed91180-34cf-11e5-8e66-07b4603ec92a_story.html]).
The article went on and noted among other matters that ".... The State Department has provided the committee with thousands of documents, but Gowdy has repeatedly said he is looking for additional records relating to some of Clinton’s staff members as well as the former secretary.... Gowdy says he wants all relevant documents before Clinton testifies to the committee. Her campaign has said she will testify in October, but the committee said the timing was not set...."

Obviously the threat of direct questioning about the delay in providing documents caused some movement by the State Department. According to the WaPo article, "... In exchange for receiving the documents on Tuesday, Gowdy said, the committee had granted a request from Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s chief of staff, Jon Finer, to postpone a hearing set for Wednesday at which Finer was scheduled to testify."

[This Comment by Galewyn Massey is continued immediately below]

Galewyn Massey said...

[Galewyn Massey's comment "UPDATE: THE "JOHN KERRY & STATE DEPARTMENT FINALLY BLINK ABOUT TURNING OVER E-MAILS BY HILLARY CLINTON'S AIDES' EDITION" is continued from above]

Meanwhile an article in Politico provided this additional background and information: "... The committee has called off a much publicized grilling of Secretary of State John Kerry’s chief of staff, Jon Finer, over State’s pace of handing over Benghazi-related documents, in return for 5,000 pages worth of emails from Hillary Clinton’s top staff.... The production — which followed a “frank conversation” between Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Finer a few days ago — will be the second-largest batch of documents the committee has received from State since the panel was convened to investigate the 2012 terrorist attack in Libya that left four Americans dead.... The committee’s GOP investigators have accused State of slow-walking documents in order to protect Clinton and her top advisers.... Benghazi Committee Republicans say it has forced them to postpone their work, including several interviews with top Clinton staff — Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan — who they had hoped to bring in for questioning this July. But because they didn’t have the relevant documents from the witnesses, they said they have not been able to proceed.... 'The State Department has used every excuse to avoid complying with fundamental requests for documents,' Gowdy said in a statement when the panel announced the Finer hearing. They’ve tried 'asking personally,' with 'letter requests' and subpoenas, they said. 'While the tactics tried have varied, the results have not. Our Committee is not in possession of all documents needed to do the work assigned to us.'..." State, for its part, says it has turned over thousands of pages of information, and Clinton’s defenders say Republicans are just looking to drag the process into 2016...." (See "Benghazi panel, State Dept. reach deal on documents" by Rachael Bade, 7/27/15, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/benghazi-panel-state-dept-reach-deal-on-documents-120694.html]).

Galewyn Massey said...

UPDATE: THE "DOES THIS PASS THE SMELL TEST ?" EDITION

DID HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED MATERIAL LIKE WHAT IS CONTAINED ON THIS "THUMB DRIVE" VIOLATE LAWS AND RULES GOVERNING HANDLING OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION ?

UNTIL ALL THESE CLASSIFICATION ISSUES ARE RESOLVED, WHY ISN'T THIS "THUMB DRIVE" UNDER GOVERNMENT CONTROL ?

According to a report in Politico, " -- The device has copies of emails Clinton kept on a private server while Secretary of State -- Hillary Clinton’s private lawyer has a thumb drive containing classified information from as many as five U.S. intelligence agencies — but the State Department told POLITICO the law firm is taking 'appropriate measures' to secure the files.... The agency declined to detail steps made to protect the sensitive information in attorney David Kendall’s possession, but the issue is raising concern among Republicans on Capitol Hill who’ve criticized Clinton’s handling of the email controversy. The thumb drive has copies of emails Clinton kept on a private server while she served as secretary of state, a trove now known to contain classified documents.... The agency told POLITICO that Clinton 'does have counsel with clearance.' Kendall, a prominent Williams & Connolly attorney who defended former CIA director David Petraeus against charges of mishandling classified information, declined to comment.... Clinton’s campaign echoed the State Department.... 'The thumb drive is secure,' said Nick Merrill, a spokesman for the Democratic front-runner’s presidential campaign, referring questions to state...." (See "Hillary Clinton camp: Email 'thumb drive is secure'" by Rachael Bade and Josh Gerstein, 7/30/15, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/hillary-clinton-email-thumbdrive-security-120833.html]).

Politico also noted that ".... About 25 of Clinton’s emails were deemed classified by [the State Department] so far; one thus far by FBI. The inspector general for the intelligence community also has said one email made public contained classified information, raising their alarm...."