MORE THAN NINE (9) MONTHS AFTER HILLARY CLINTON BELATEDLY TURNED OVER A PORTION OF HER E-MAILS TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT, THREE OF HER TOP AIDES HAVE EVEN MORE BELATEDLY TURNED OVER 100,000 PAGES OF THEIR OWN
ACCORDING TO THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT, HUMA ABEDIN TURNED OVER ABOUT 23,000 PAGES OF E-MAILS — PHILIPPE REINES RETURNED 70,000 PAGES — & CHERYL MILLS ALMOST 12,000 PAGES
STATE DEPARTMENT INDICATES THAT IT MUST PERUSE ALL THE ABEDIN, REINES & MILLS E-MAILS, COMB THEM FOR CLASSIFIED MATERIAL AND REDACT SUCH MATERIAL — BEFORE MAKING IT AVAILABLE TO REQUESTS BY THE PUBLIC
According to a report in the Saturday Washington Times — “Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top aides have belatedly turned over more than 100,000 pages of emails they had kept on personal email accounts, or accounts tied to Mrs. Clinton’s server, the government told a federal judge late Friday.... Huma Abedin turned over an estimated 23,000 pages of emails, Philippe Reines gave back 70,000 pages of messages and Cheryl Mills returned somewhere in the neighborhood of 11,870 pages, the Obama administration told Judge Rudolph Contreras in a court filing....” ( See “Hillary Clinton’s aides relinquish more than 100,000 pages of emails” by Stephen Dinan, 9/19/15, The Washington Times [http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/19/hillary-clinton-aides-relinquish-more-100000-pages/]).
Stephen Dinan’s article went on to note that “.... The messages came to light after it was discovered Mrs. Clinton used a non-State.gov account to conduct her business during her four years as secretary. Attention then turned to her aides, and it turned out they, too, did a lot of business on non-State.gov email accounts.... Those messages have effectively been shielded from public scrutiny for years, in defiance of federal policies that discourage use of personal email accounts and insist that when they are used, all government-related business be forwarded to an official account for record-keeping.... Mrs. Clinton returned about 32,000 messages to the government in December. Ms. Mills didn’t return her last batch of messages until Aug. 12, and Ms. Abedin was even later, taking until Sept. 1 — or after the deadline the State Department had agreed to — to finally give back all of her government business messages.... Mr. Reines returned 70,000 pages of emails on July 28. But most of those are daily compilations of articles in the press related to State Department business. Excluding those, Mr. Reines has provided about 16,000 pages of new emails to the Department....”
7 comments:
I tried reading the Washington Times Article and I was besieged by non stop pop up ads.
Are you going to do something about that?
The State Department gets its own e mails 2 years after Hillary leaves. Now that's what I call progress.
RESPONSE & COMMENTARY: THE "DON'T MISS THIS NUANCE" EDITION
IF THE STATE DEPARTMENT, AND HILLARY, HUMA, PHILIPPE, AND CHERYL ARE TO BE BELIEVED, NOBODY HAD PROPERLY "CLASSIFIED" E-MAILS AT THE TIME THEY WERE WERE SENT AND/OR RECEIVED --- THAT IS EITHER A SHOCKING LEVEL OF INCOMPETENCE BY HRC AND ALL HER CLOSEST AIDES OR IT'S A WILLFUL DISREGARD FOR U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY BY EACH OF THOSE PEOPLE
Relative to the comment of "Anonymous said... 9:42 AM"; there is so much more wrong with these late-turned-over E-mails by HRC's close personal retainers while they supposedly worked for the U.S. State Department, rather than for Hillary Clinton personally.
The State Department has said there will likely be a substantial delay while the E-mails of Huma Abedin, Philippe Reines and Cheryl Mills are subject to a "classification" or security review. The implication is that none of these E-mails has any classification markings at the time they were turned over; and that those markings weren't there at the time they were sent and/or received.
FBI and congressional investigators need to look into this very closely. The apparently wide-spread practice might well bespeak a CONSPIRACY by those closest to HRC to circumvent U.S. national security laws and rules for some as yet unexplained reason.
UPDATE: THE “SOUND OF THE ECHO MIGHT HAVE MORE CLARITY THAN THE ORIGINAL NOTE” EDITION
SUNDAY ARTICLE IN “REDSTATE” MIGHT BE MORE ACCESSIBLE AND READABLE THAN ORIGINAL MATERIAL PRESENTED IN THE WASHINGTON TIMES
EACH NEW E-MAIL DISCLOSURE IS MORE AND MORE EVIDENCE AGAINST HILLARY CLINTON IN THE E-MAIL SCANDAL
Comment maker “Anonymous said.... September 19, 2015 at 9:21 PM” complained about pop-ups and other problems at the Washington Times site mentioned above.
There is a very good follow-up item that appeared in “Redstate” earlier today. That “Redstate” article covers all of the high points of the initial Washington Times article about the turnover of the Abedin, Reines and Mills E-mails, upon which it is based. In addition, it makes some pithy observations about the review of the E-mails submitted by three of Hillary Clinton’s closest operatives ( See “Hillary Aides Haved Turned Over more than 100,000 Emails” by Jake (Diary) 9/20/15, Redstate [http://www.redstate.com/2015/09/20/hillary-aides-haved-turned-100000-emails/]).
Here’s how the “Redstate” folks handled the key material: “More and more potential evidence is showing up in the scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton’s emails. According to the government’s latest report, the total number of emails turned over to the State Department by Hillary’s aides has topped 100,000. The Washington Times broke down the numbers.... To add all those numbers together, we [at ‘Redstat’”] reach an estimated 104,870 pages of messages. We can be fairly certain that this will not be the end of people in the Clinton camp relinquishing emails, either. Also important to note is Huma Abedin’s name on the list provided. There have been a lot of calls to investigate her involvement in Hillary Clinton’s decision making at the State Department, and hopefully, these emails will provide some answers.... The State Department is not the FBI, though, and the two people overseeing the internal investigation, Patrick Kennedy and Janice Jacobs, are Democratic partisans and Clinton loyalists, meaning we can expect them to try to do everything they can to protect Clinton. Regardless, these documents are still there, should the FBI come calling, and I’m certain the bureau is very interested in the contents of these emails....”
Here’s what Jake at “Redstate” concluded: “.... Every new page of emails turned over to State or the FBI weakens that aura of inevitability around [Hillary Clinton], both in the primaries and the general, and it’s making the Democratic establishment nervous. That is what we should realistically be rooting for more than anything. That’s why, as I explained yesterday, they are beginning to seriously contemplate supporting Joe Biden. Even if he never becomes the nominee, he’s useful as an insurance policy against Bernie Sanders. as a back up to protect them from having to deal with the prospect of Bernie Sanders as the nominee. Still, if a severely damaged Hillary and those other two guys are the best they can do, the chances for Republicans look pretty good, as long as we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot, as we have a penchant for doing.”
UPDATE: THE “FBI REFUSES TO COMMUNICATE WITH U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON’S E-MAILS” EDITION
THE NATION’S TOP INVESTIGATORS REBUFFED A U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT REQUEST MADE AT THE DIRECTION OF A FEDERAL JUDGE IN A FOIA CASE — TO PROVIDE ANY ADDITIONAL HUMA ABEDIN - RELATED E-MAILS FROM HRC’S DEVICES NOW IN THE POSSESSION OF THE FBI
FBI WOULD NOT DISCUSS WHAT E-MAIL MATERIAL IT RECOVERED FORM HILLARY CLINTON’S SERVER, WHAT MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO BE RECOVERED AND/OR WHETHER THERE WERE ANY ONGOING ATTEMPTS TO RECOVER ANY E-MAIL
IN FACT, THE FBI’S STATEMENT WOULD >>> “... NEITHER CONFIRM NOR DENY THE EXISTENCE OF ANY ONGOING INVESTIGATION, NOR ARE WE IN A POSITION TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AT THIS TIME...”
According to NBC news — “The FBI has declined to give the State Department any kind of progress report on its efforts to recover documents from Hillary Clinton's private email server.... In fact, the FBI declines even to tell the State Department what it has already admitted publicly — that it's doing an investigation.... ‘At this time, consistent with long-standing Department of Justice and FBI policy, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation, nor are we in a position to provide additional information at this time,’ the FBI told the State Department in a letter dated today, according to a court filing in one of the email FOIA cases....” (See “FBI to State: Can't Help You With Hillary Clinton Emails” by Pete Williams, 9/21/15, NBC News [http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-state-cant-help-you-hillary-emails-n431021]).
A federal judge last month had ordered the State Department to ask the FBI for information about what investigators found on Hillary Clinton's e-mail server. That case involves a side issue in the email controversy, a FOIA inquiry about an employment arrangement that allowed top Clinton aide Huma Abedin to do outside consulting while working at the State Department.
In that case, Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan directed the State Department to ask for a response from the FBI as to whether investigators had found anything related to Abedin's work arrangement, either on Hillary Clinton’s E-mail server or thumb drives that had been given to her attorneys.
UPDATE & FOLLOWUP: THE “JUDICIAL WATCH FOLKS MENTION BRINGING IN HILLARY CLINTON INTO THEIR FOIA LAWSUIT AFTER FBI’S REFUSAL TO PROVIDE ADDITIONAL E-MAILS” EDITION
JUDICIAL WATCH SAYS THAT FBI IS STONEWALLING, POSSIBLY IN COLLUSION WITH THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT IN REFUSAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE ADDITIONAL E-MAILS THAT FIT ITS FIOA REQUEST
According to a report in Politico — “The FBI on Monday rebuffed a federal judge's request for information on the inquiry it is conducting into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email account and server, raising the question of whether the courts or Congress will take more forceful action to try to secure data from Clinton's email system.... ( See “FBI rejects judge's request for Clinton email info” by Josh Gerstein, 9/21/15, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/fbi-rejects-judges-request-for-clinton-email-info-213889]).
Politico’s Josh Gerstein went on to note that — “.... The watchdog group that brought the lawsuit said the FBI's answer amounted to stonewalling.... ‘The FBI has evidently decided to stonewall the court's legitimate inquiry here and the State Department is going along with it,’ Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in an interview. ‘We're seeking quick court action to find out where these records might be.’... Judicial Watch asked Sullivan to move up a hearing set for next week to address the FBI's response.... Fitton said it might be time for the court to move in that direction or to see whether Clinton herself might be able to clarify whether any back-ups of her messages exist — particularly of the 32,000 messages she had deleted after her attorney determined they were personal in nature.... At the hearing last month, the judge ‘talked about bringing the FBI in,’ Fitton noted. ‘The FBI might be asked questions. ... If it's going to be that the FBI can't talk about where her records might be, certainly she should be able to disclose whether they exist and where.’...”
UPDATE: THE “JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN EXPRESSES IRE OVER FBI’S REFUSAL TO HONOR FEDERAL JUDGE’S REQUEST IN FIOA CASE” EDITION
SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY SAYS THAT “... THE FBI IS BEHAVING LIKE IT’S ABOVE THE LAW....” — “... SIMPLY REFUSING... IS NOT AN APPROPRIATE COURSE OF ACTION...”
SENATOR SEES FBI’S REFUSAL AS NOT AIDING IN TRANSPARENCY OF GOVERNMENT ON THE ISSUE OF HILLARY CLINTON’S E-MAILS
“Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is blasting the FBI for rebuffing a judge's request for information on the law enforcement agency's investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email system.... Grassley, whose panel oversees the FBI, reacted sharply to a letter the FBI sent Monday turning aside U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan's request for information on whether investigators have been able to retrieve records from a backup thumb drive of Clinton emails or from a server turned over by a tech company Clinton hired....” (See “Grassley blasts FBI over Clinton emails – ‘The FBI is behaving like it’s above the law.’ ” by Josh Gerstein, 9/21/15, Politico [http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/fbi-rejects-judges-request-for-clinton-email-info-213889]).
Also according to Josh Gerstein’s report — “.... ‘The FBI is behaving like it’s above the law,’ Grassley said in a statement provided to POLITICO on Monday evening. ‘Simply refusing to cooperate with a court-ordered request is not an appropriate course of action. This entire case, from Secretary Clinton’s ill-advised decision to use a non-government email server, to the FBI’s investigation about classified information, needs some transparency in order to assure the American people that getting to the bottom of this controversy is a priority.’...”
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