>>> Or, to be Shakespearean, about it, while Lady MacClinton is declaiming "out damned spot..." she’s been “... hoist on her own petard...” <<<
Why would Hillary say that she “...fully complied with every rule that [she] was governed by..."; if in less than a day, it all turns out to be a big lie ( or, if not a big lie, then merely a very convenient, but totally inaccurate, statement of the facts of the case) ?
Here it is. At her press conference on Tuesday, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "...I fully complied with every rule that I was governed by..." when serving as Secretary of State. Well, if that’s so, then she had to sign an “OF-109" form required of every State Department official, including the Secretary of State, upon leaving their position or office. That form states that the signer has "...surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the government acquired while in the employ of the federal government...." Unfortunately for "Mrs. Bill" Clinton, she did not surrender any of her e-mails until — not months but years — after she left the office of Secretary of State.
According to Newsmax, the signing of an “OF-109" form and not complying with its requirements constitutes a false statement; and it is a felony, punishable by fines and/or prison time, said Shannen Coffin, a former Assistant Deputy U.S. Attorney General and a guest expert on Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File" (See “Lawyer: Hillary Committed Felony if She Signed Disclosure Form” by Greg Richter, 3/11/15, Newsmax [http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/hillary-clinton-disclosing-records-form/2015/03/11/id/629656/]; see also “What State Dept. guidelines did Hillary Clinton violate?” [video link of Megyn Kelly interview with Shannen Coffin] 3/11/15, Fox News, The Kelly File [http://video.foxnews.com/v/4106177790001/what-state-dept-guidelines-did-hillary-clinton-violate/?playlist_id=2694949842001#sp=show-clips]).
UPDATE & BACKFILL: THE “JUST REMEMBER, IT’S THE VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY EDITION
ReplyDelete— LIKE ABC, CBS, NBC, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE ATLANTIC, MOTHER JONES, TIME MAGAZINE, AND ON AND ON — YOU KNOW THAT WHOLE CROWD OF ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE CRAZIES
HILLARY’S ANSWER: TELL THE WORLD “BLACK IS WHITE” OVER AND OVER AND OVER, AGAIN
According to “The Atlantic” magazine, “... [Tuesday] was Clinton's first major press availability in months. She seemed mostly confident, but showed flashes of sarcasm and impatience, and was dismissive of some questions, especially a final inquiry about an ambassador apparently fired for using private email. She portrayed herself as just another ordinary American: "No one wants their personal emails made public." Her comments could set the stage for a classic Clinton media strategy [citing and linking to David Corn in “Mother Jones]: Lash out at the press, claim the mantle of victimhood, and when necessary, insist that black is white....” (See “Hillary: Just Trust Me on This One” by David A. Graham, 3/10/15, The Atlantic [http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/03/hillary-trust-me-guys-i-got-this/387418/]).
According to the Corn piece, “They're stuck in the days of Whitewater and Lewinsky... It is, unfortunately, an old and all-too familiar story. A Clinton, meaning Bill or Hillary, does something wrong (or possibly wrong). The media pounces; the Clinton antagonists of the right hit the warpath. Immediately, the Clinton camp and its supporters accuse the media and the conservative Clinton Hate Machine of trumping up a story to thwart the noble Clintons. Clinton spokespeople go into war-room mode. Resentful reporters grouse (privately and publicly) about the heavy-handed operators and obfuscators of Clintonland. And the right claims this latest fuss is a scandal that surpasses Watergate. Rinse, repeat. *** The latest iteration of this Clinton-media dysfunctional spin cycle was triggered by the Hillary Clinton email kerfuffle that exploded last week. The Clinton camp's handling of the controversy was a sign that Hillary and her gang are stuck in the Whitewaterish 1990s when it comes to communications strategy, relying on always-be-combating tactics predicated on self-perceived persecution. It's bad news for anyone hoping that Hillary 2016 has learned from the miscalculations of the past. (See “The Return of the Clinton Media Persecution Complex” by David Corn, 3/10/15, Mother Jones [http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/clinton-media-persecution-complex-emails-state-department]).
Today it’s the Business Insider — “Hillary Clinton is being bombarded on all sides after her exclusive use of a personal email address while she was secretary of state became public last week. Her belated explanations have not sufficed, and experts on all sides are wondering whether the former first lady and likely 2016 presidential candidate may have jeopardized US interests by using a vulnerable form of communication and deleting many of her emails. *** But don't expect all that to stop Hillary, who is treating the flap like many of the events that have defined her political career. *** ‘The Clintons play by their own set of rules. And in this case, the former Secretary of State explained, those rules bless her decision to erase some 30,000 emails from the family server despite knowing that the emails had become a subject of intense interest to congressional investigators’ [citing and linking to David Von Drehle in Time Magazine] (See “Why the Hillary Clinton email scandal is bigger than email” by Maichael B. Kelley, 3/12/15, Business Insider [http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-hillary-clinton-email-scandal-is-bigger-than-email-2015-3])
See also “The Clinton Way” by David Von Drehle, Time Magazine/ time.com [http://time.com/3741847/the-clinton-way/] for a devastating in depth article about the problems Hillary Clinton is now facing because of her E-mail scandal.
UPDATE: THE “MAINSTREAM MEDIA KEEPS ASKING NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON’S E-MAILS — AND WHAT WAS GOING ON AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT WHILE SHE WAS SECRETARY OF STATE ?
ReplyDeleteTHE DOG THAT DIDN’T BARK — WHERE WAS THE STATE DEPARTMENT I.G. WHILE HILLARY FAILED TO FILE HER E-MAILS WITH GOVERNMENT RECORDS KEEPERS ? — THERE WAS NO OFFICIAL “PERMANENT, INDEPENDENT INSPECTOR GENERAL” AT THE STATE DEPARTMENT WHILE HILLARY WAS IN CHARGE
WHAT OTHER PROBLEMS WEREN’T BEING INVESTIGATED WHILE HILLARY CLINTON WAS SECRETARY OF STATE
According to Bloomberg News, “One of the many unanswered questions of the Hillary Clinton e-mail story has been: Whose job was it to raise and address concerns about her exclusive use of a private account? According to open government advocates, it would have been the agency’s permanent, independent Inspector General—someone nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate—if such a person had existed. ( See “One More Question on Hillary Clinton E-Mails: Where Was the Watchdog?” by Arit John, 3/24/15, Bloomberg News/ “Missing Links” [http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-24/one-more-question-on-hillary-e-mails-where-was-the-watchdog-]). The Bloomberg News report goes on to state that “Inspectors General uncover waste, fraud and mismanagement in federal agencies.” However, during the whole time that Hillary Clinton was in charge of the State Department, the department didn’t have an official “permanent, independent Inspector General.”
For five years, including all of Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General never had a confirmed inspector. Instead, it was led by acting inspector Harold W. Geisel, a former ambassador. Geisel had been accused of being too cozy to agency leadership by transparency groups like the Project on Government Oversight. Throughout President Obama’s first term, the absence of a State Department Inspector General while internal scandals and Benghazi rocked the department drew bipartisan congressional criticism.
In a 2011 report, during Hillary Clinton’s term as Secretary of State, the Government Accountability Office called on the State Department to address concerns regarding its independence writing that “the appointment of management and Foreign Service officials [like acting inspector Harold W. Geisel] to head the State [Department] OIG in an acting capacity for extended periods of time is not consistent with professional standards for independence.”
By September 2013, within a few months after Hillary Clinton had left the department, the State Department finally had a permanent Inspector General. Soon thereafter, the State Department released a report documenting how few E-Mails the State Department had saved for government records keepers. But the long-time gap in having a official, permanent, independent Inspector General does raise questions about what other problems weren’t being investigated while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State ?