Inspector Generals of U.S. State Department and Intelligence Agencies call for "Criminal Investigation" by U.S. Justice Department concerning the mis-handling of classified material contained in Hillary Clinton's E-Mails
IGs' request is under review, but no decision has been made by the Justice Department --- Spokesman for Hillary Clinton declined to comment to the NY Times
In a feature based upon memos "... provided to The New York Times by a senior government official..." the Times reports on Page One of its Friday editions that --- "Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.... The request follows an assessment in a June 29 memo by the inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence agencies that Mrs. Clinton’s private account contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.” The memo was written to Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management.... It is not clear if any of the information in the emails was marked as classified by the State Department when Mrs. Clinton sent or received them.... But since her use of a private email account for official State Department business was revealed in March, she has repeatedly said that she had no classified information on the account.... " (See "Criminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Account" by Michael S. Schmidt & Matt Apuzzo, 7/23/15, NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/us/politics/criminal-inquiry-is-sought-in-hillary-clinton-email-account.html] [A version of this article appears in print on July 24, 2015, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: "Criminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Use"]).
The Timesmen, who did the Friday report, emphasized that "... [a]t issue are thousands of pages of State Department emails from Mrs. Clinton’s private account. Mrs. Clinton has said she used the account because it was more convenient, but it also shielded her correspondence from congressional and Freedom of Information Act requests...."
The Times article contained the following notations: "The Justice Department has not decided if it will open an investigation, senior officials said...." -- and -- "A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign declined to comment...."
CLINTON TEAM'S RESPONSE IS THE USUAL NON-RESPONSE --- HRC CAMPAIGN ONCE AGAIN FAILS TO GET AHEAD OF BIG STORY
So far, it does not appear that either the Hillary Clinton campaign or the Clintons' personal legal and PR team have made any atempt to address these issues in any way. That would be consistent with prior experience in these kinds of situations. As in several such instances in the past, where Hillary Clinton has reponded late and after much prodding by the media, it is to be expected that some response to this development will happen in due course.This is a big story that already seems to have some legs. A Google search for "Hillary Clinton News" at 1:30 AM EDT yeilded these results:
"Hillary Clinton's email could become a criminal matter – report --The Guardian-1 hour ago
Hillary Clinton may face a criminal investigation by the justice department over her use of a private email address while she was secretary of ...Justice Department asked to probe Hillary Clinton's email use: NYT -- Reuters-37 minutes ago
Criminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Account -- New York Times-1 hour ago
Federal officials want a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's ... -- Business Insider-1 hour ago
2 IGs urge probe of Hillary Clinton email -- Opinion-Boston Herald-20 minutes ago
Criminal Investigation Sought Over Hillary Clinton's State ... -- Blog-Slate Magazine (blog)-1 hour ago
Explore in depth (20 more articles)" (See: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=hillary+clinton+news&tbm=nws).
Then again, this isn't the easiest stuff to spin. After all, State Department and Intelligence Agencies' IGs, and the New York Times are hardly part of the vast right-wing conspiracy or the GOP's political machine. But, who knows, soon maybe we'll find out that they are.
FLASH UPDATE : THE "WOW, HILLARY HAS FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES" EDITION
ReplyDeleteNY TIMES REPORTEDLY PUSHED AROUND BY THE CLINTON CAMPAIGN
HILLARY WAS HIT HARD BY THE NY TIMES --- SO HER CAMPAIGN PUSHED BACK EVEN HARDER & THE FOLKS AT THE TIMES BLINKED
BUT THE SUBSTANCE OF THE NY TIMES STORY REMAINS THE SAME --- AND THANKS TO THE CLINTON FOLKS, THIS IS NOW A REALLY BIG STORY
[*** NOTE >>>> THE BREITBART NEWS ITEM CITED BELOW CONTAINS THE WORST HILLARY CLINTON FACE SHOT EVER (Photo Credit Cliff Owens, AP)]
According to Bresitbart News, "On Thursday evening, the New York Times broke a bombshell story that could spell doom for Hillary Clinton’s already-faltering campaign. The headline read, 'Criminal Inquiry Sought in Hillary Clinton’s Use of Email.'... The article began as follows: 'Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether Hillary Rodham Clinton mishandled sensitive government information on a private email account she used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.'... But suddenly, without notice to readers or attribution, the headline was changed to, 'Criminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Account.'... The opening paragraph of the story was stealth-edited to an even more absurd degree, to distance Clinton herself from the story. It now reads as if she was a bystander to the potentially illegal activity: “Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.” [emphasis added]....The Times even altered the URL of the web page to cover its tracks, evidently having learned that one of the favorite tactics of media watchdogs is to check the URL – which usually defaults to the initial headline – against what the story currently says...." (See "NEW YORK TIMES STEALTH-EDITS CLINTON EMAIL STORY AT HER COMMAND" by John Haywood, 7/24/15, Breitbart News/ Big Journalism [http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/07/24/new-york-times-stealth-edits-clinton-email-story-at-her-command/]).
I guess there have been plenty of comments, phone calls and arm-twisting by the HRC Campaign folks and the rest of the Clinton team after they actually read the original NY TImes article -- the original referred to in my post above [with original NY Times quotes and URL].
Clinton's slime machine is working overtime going after the IGs and the Times. HILLARY CLINTON & CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION & HANDLING CLASSIFIED INFORMATION in the same headline is not a very good thing for her White House chances.
ReplyDeleteBACKFILL: THE "OTHER BIG NY TIMES FRONT PAGE STORY TODAY WAS VERY BAD FOR HILLARY" EDITION
ReplyDeleteA NY TIMES' MORE "LIFESTYLE" THAN "POLITICS" TYPE PIECE COMPARES AN >>> AUTHENTIC BROOKLYNITE BERNIE SANDERS <<< TO AN >>> INAUTHENTIC HILLARY CLINTON WITH HER HEADQUARTERS IN BROOKLYN <<<
The first few pargraphs of the Times piece say it all: "Ivor Williams stood on his porch and stared suspiciously at the visitor who was pointing to the attic of his pink and shingled house near Brooklyn College.... 'I used to live here,' Steve Slavin explained, to no noticeable reaction from Mr. Williams. Then he uttered the magic words: 'With Bernie Sanders.'... 'Bernie?' Mr. Williams, a 78-year-old immigrant from Guyana, exclaimed. 'I was just watching Bernie on the TV.'... Hillary Rodham Clinton may be a former senator from New York who located her campaign headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, but all it takes to know who really represents Brooklyn in the race for the Democratic nomination is for Mr. Sanders to open his mouth and utter a few syllables.... As Mr. Sanders, a senator from Vermont, draws large crowds on the campaign trail and enjoys an unexpected surge, his ur-Brooklyn accent and upbringing in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Flatbush off Kings Highway have become a particular point of pride for friends, former schoolmates and fellow progressives in the borough where he was born...." (See "Bernie Sanders’s ‘100% Brooklyn’ Roots Show Beyond His Accent" by Jason Horowitz, 7/24/15, NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/us/politics/bernie-sanderss-100-brooklyn-roots-show-beyond-his-accent.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1]).
UPDATE: THE "IF FRIDAY IS ANY GUIDE, HILLARY WILL E HAVING ONE REALLY BAD JULY WEEK-END FOR ABOUT THE NEXT TWO DAYS" EDITION
ReplyDeleteTHE CLINTON FOLKS MIGHT BE SMUGLY PATTING EACH OTHER ON THE BACK THAT SOME QUICK WORD PLAY GOT THE NY TIMES TO BACK OFF --- AND THERE WON'T BE LYNCH MOBS AT HILLARY'S DOOR OVER MISHANDLING SENSITIVE MATERIAL ON HER PRIVATE E-MAIL
NONETHELESS, IT WAS CONFIRMED THAT THE REFERRAL TO THE DOJ BY STATE DEPARTMENT AND INTELLIENCE AGENCIES IGs DID OCCUR --- AND THE INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES' IG INDICATED THAT HE HAD FOUND FOUR INSTANCES OF MISHANDLED CLASSIFIED MATERiAL IN A SMALL SAMPLE OF HILLARY CLINTON'S E-MAIL
According to a Reuters report late on Friday, "At least four emails from the private email account that former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used while in office contained classified information, according to a government inspector's letter that has deepened the email controversy dogging Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.... The inspector general who oversees U.S. intelligence agencies wrote in a letter to members of Congress on Thursday that a sampling of 40 of about 30,000 emails sent or received by Clinton found at least four that contained information the government had classified as secret.... The information was classified at the time the emails were sent, according to the inspector general, Charles McCullough...." ( See "Clinton emails contained classified material: U.S. inspector" by Jonathan Allen, 7/24/15, Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/24/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN0PY0DH20150724]).
The article continues with this: " 'This classified information should never have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system,' McCullough said in a joint statement on Friday along with his equivalent at the State Department, Steve Linick.... The information remains classified to this day, the statement said.... McCullough said State Department officials told his office 'that there are potentially hundreds of classified emails within the approximately 30,000 provided by former Secretary Clinton.'..."