Tag Archives: email scandal

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Clinton on If She Would Drop Out If Indicted: ‘I’m Not Even Answering That Question’

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At Wednesday’s presidential debate presented by CNN and Univision, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton attempted to downplay the seriousness of an ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into what the FBI called “matters related to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server” when she served as Secretary of State.

Debate moderator Jorge Ramos asked Clinton who gave her permission to use private email servers to send 104 emails “that the government now says contain classified information according to The Washington Post analysis,” noting that Clinton had sent a memo to State Department employees requiring them to use official email due to security concerns.

“It wasn’t the best choice. I made a mistake. It was not prohibited. It was not in any way disallowed. And as I have said and as now has come out, my predecessors did the same thing and many other people in the government. But here’s the cut to the chase facts. I did not send or receive any emails marked classified at the time. What you are talking about is retroactive classification. And the reason that happens is when somebody asks or when you are asked to make information public, I asked all my emails to be made public. Then all the rest of the government gets to weigh in,” claimed Clinton in reply.

[Reality Check: Hillary Clinton Not Telling Truth About Her “Super-Predator” Claims]

She added, “And some other parts of the government, we’re not exactly sure who, has concluded that some of the emails should be now retroactively classified. They’ve just said the same thing to former Secretary Colin Powell. They have said, we’re going to retroactively classify emails you sent personally. … Now I think he was right when he said this is an absurdity. And I think that what we have got here is a case of overclassification. … There was no permission to be asked. It had been done by my predecessors. It was permitted.”

Ramos then pressed Clinton to answer whether she would drop out if she is indicted over the scandal, prompting her to retort, “Oh, for goodness — that’s not going to happen. I’m not even answering that question.”

Meanwhile, Politico is reporting that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch criticized White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday for suggesting that Hillary Clinton is not likely to be indicted as a part of the FBI investigation.

“Certainly, it’s my hope when it comes to ongoing investigations, that we would all stay silent. … It is true that neither I nor anyone in the department has briefed Mr. Earnest or anyone in the White House about this matter. I’m simply not aware of the source of his information,” said Lynch.

Earnest subsequently walked back his comments on whether Clinton might be indicted and said, “My comments from that briefing were rooted specifically and entirely on public comments as reported by all of you. … I was making a very specific statement based on what I had read in a wide variety of media accounts. And that is in no way predicated on any secret conversations that I’ve had with the Department of Justice, because I haven’t had any secret conversations with the Department of Justice.”

Retired Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was appointed by and served under President Obama, urged Clinton to drop out of the race and told CNN, “If it were me, I would have been out the door and probably in jail.”

He added, “This over-classification excuse is not an excuse. If it’s classified, it’s classified.”

[RELATED: DoJ Grants Immunity to Clinton Staffer Behind Private Email Setup]

Department of State staffer Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s private email server, was granted immunity last week in exchange for giving testimony on the matter.

CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos said, commenting on the implications of a Clinton subordinate being granted immunity, “The big question is whether there is a grand jury convened. The smart bet is yes. After all, the fact that there are immunity agreements logically means there’s a grand jury investigation in some district. The grand jury is typically the genesis of the government’s subpoena power. The next, bigger question, is whether anyone will be indicted.”

He added, “The person who often has to worry the most during this process is the person who hasn’t been approached at all by the government. That’s a chilling indicator that you may be the target.”

Hillary Clinton specifically said on Monday, according to The Hill, that it is true that neither she nor her lawyers have been told that she is the target of an FBI investigation.

Former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Joseph E. diGenova told The Daily Caller on Wednesday that he believes that the FBI is also investigating the Clinton Foundation. “The Bureau has between 100 and 150 agents assigned to the case. They would not have that many people assigned to a classified information case. Based on reports that agents are asking questions about the foundation, it seems to me it is the subject of a second prong of the investigation,” he said.

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Featured, Government Accountability, Technology

DoJ Grants Immunity to Clinton Staffer Behind Private Email Setup

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A Hillary Clinton staffer, who set up the private email account Clinton used for government business during her tenure as Secretary of State, has reportedly been granted immunity by the United States Department of Justice in exchange for his testimony.

Bryan Pagliano, a staff member of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign who set up the private email server at Clinton’s home in New York in 2009, agreed to testify after months of reported negotiations with the FBI.

When asked to testify in front of the Benghazi committee, Pagliano initially said in September that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right due to the fact that what he said could incriminate him in the ongoing federal investigation into Clinton’s email setup.

Following the announcement about Pagliano’s testimony, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said the campaign is “pleased” Pagliano has agreed to testify before prosecutors.

[RELATED: Former House Majority Leader Claims FBI is ‘Ready to Indict’ Hillary Clinton]

FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee that while he can’t provide specific details about the investigation, he can confirm that he is “very close personally to that investigation to ensure that we have the resources we need.”

“As you know we don’t talk about our investigations,” Comey said. “What I can assure you is that I am very close personally to that investigation to ensure that we have the resources we need, including people and technology, and that it’s done the way the FBI tries to do all of it’s work: independently, competently and promptly.”

The Washington Post noted that there is “no indication that prosecutors have convened a grand jury in the email investigation to subpoena testimony or documents, which would require the participation of a U.S. attorney’s office.”

[RELATED: FBI Formally Confirms Its ‘Ongoing’ Investigation into Hillary Clinton’s Email Server]

It was not until February that the FBI acknowledged the fact that it was conducting a criminal investigation into Clinton’s email setup to determine if she compromised national security by sending and receiving classified information on an unsecured network.

Featured, Politics, Technology

FBI Formally Confirms Its ‘Ongoing’ Investigation Into Hillary Clinton’s Email Server

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation has confirmed that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is under an “ongoing” investigation for her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

The investigation was confirmed in a letter from FBI general counsel James Baker, released Monday to the State Department. He noted that he is writing to update a response he gave the department on Sept. 21, 2015, when asked if Clinton was formally under investigation.

“At the time, I informed you that that the FBI could neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation,” Baker wrote. “Since that time, in public statements and testimony, the Bureau has acknowledged generally that it is working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.”

Baker also said that while he cannot give any details on the “ongoing investigation,” the FBI’s response regarding the case has “changed to some degree” because it is now admitting that the investigation exists.

“The FBI has not, however, publicly acknowledged the specific focus, scope, or potential targets of any such proceedings,” Baker wrote. “Thus while the FBI’s response to you has changed to some degree due to these intervening events, we remain unable [to] provide the requested information without adversely affecting on-going law enforcement efforts.”

As previously reported, the FBI insisted that it could “neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation” when Judge Emmet G. Sullivan sent a court-ordered inquiry to the State Department in September 2015, instructing it to reach out to the FBI to find out if any information could be recovered from Clinton’s server.

[RELATED: Former House Majority Leader Claims FBI is ‘Ready to Indict’ Hillary Clinton]

On Jan. 25, former U.S. House Majority leader Tom DeLay said that according to his sources within the FBI, the Bureau is “ready to recommend an indictment and they also say that if the attorney general does not indict, they’re going public.”

Read more about Hillary Clinton’s Email Scandal Here

Election, Featured, Government Accountability, Politics

Former House Majority Leader Claims FBI is ‘Ready to Indict’ Hillary Clinton

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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been under investigation by the FBI for several months, and former U.S. House Majority leader Tom DeLay said Monday that the FBI is “ready to indict” her for using a private email server to conduct government business.

During an interview on “The Steve Malzberg Show,” DeLay, a Republican from Texas, said he has friends in the FBI who tell him “they’re ready to indict” the former Secretary of State.

“They’re ready to recommend an indictment and they also say that if the attorney general does not indict, they’re going public,” DeLay said.

[RELATED: FBI Refuses to Release Information in Hillary Clinton Email Investigation]

Clinton’s use of personal email on a private server during her tenure as Secretary of State was revealed in March 2015, and while she has maintained that she never sent or received any classified information on the server, her claims have been contradicted by the Intelligence Community.

Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III sent a letter to Congress on Jan. 14, revealing that not only did “several dozen” of Clinton’s emails contain classified information, but some of the information was classified as SAP or “special access programs,” which is beyond top secret.

“To date, I have received two sworn declarations from one [intelligence community] element,” McCullough wrote. “These declarations cover several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the IC element to be at the confidential, secret, and top secret/sap levels. According to the declarant, these documents contain information derived from classified IC element sources.” 

[RELATED: Report: Dozens of Hillary Clinton Emails were Classified from The Beginning]

DeLay said he believes Clinton is “going to have to face these charges” eventually, whether it’s through an FBI indictment or through the “public eye.”

“One way or another either she’s going to be indicted and that process begins, or we try her in the public eye with her campaign,” DeLay said. “One way or another she’s going to have to face these charges.”

Election, Government Accountability, Politics, Videos

FBI Upgrades 60 Hillary Clinton Emails To ‘Classified’ Status

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As the FBI and the State Department conduct an investigation into the 30,000 emails released from the private server used by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State, 60 emails have been upgraded to “classified” status.

According to a report from the Washington Times, officials involved in the investigation have said that there are nearly 60 emails that “contained classified secrets at the lowest level of ‘confidential'” with one email containing “information at the intermediate level of ‘secret.'” The 60 emails are in addition to two emails recently flagged as “top-secret” by Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III.

Officials also told the Times that the number of classified emails is expected to grow as the FBI continues its investigation, and that sorting through the 30,000 emails Clinton deemed “work-related” is a process that is “expected to take months.”

[RELATED: Federal Judge Orders Access To 32,000 Personal Emails After Hillary Turns In Blank Server]

After the revelation that two of the emails Clinton released contained “top-secret” information, federal judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the FBI to gain access to the trove of “personal” emails Clinton claimed she deleted.

Clinton claimed she deleted around 32,000 emails that she deemed “personal,” even though Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said that Clinton deleted the messages after she was made aware that they had been subpoenaed by the Committee.

[RELATED: Hillary Clinton Deletes All Emails, Wipes Server Clean]

Gowdy criticized Clinton on Sunday for using a “nonexistent right-wing conspiracy” to justify the federal investigation into her practice of using a personal email address on a private server to conduct government business.

“She need not blame House Republicans for having her own personal server, for exclusively using private e-mail for telling us the Sydney Blumenthal e-mails were unsolicited and then we later find out they were not,” Gowdy said. “For telling us there was no classified information, then we later find out that there was. For telling us the public rec was complete and then we found 15 e-mails she never turned over to the State Department.”

The New York Times noted that while “nearly all investigations are assigned to one of the bureau’s 56 field offices,” the investigation into Clinton’s email is being conducted at the FBI’s headquarters in Washington D.C. in an “unusual move” motivated by the inquiry’s level of importance.

Despite the ongoing investigation, Clinton told reporters at the Iowa State Fair on Saturday that her voters aren’t concerned about the federal investigation into her email practices.

“I never sent classified material on my email and I never received any that was marked classified. I’m gonna let whatever this inquiry is go forward and we’ll await the outcome of it,” Clinton said. “It’s not anything people talk to me about as I travel around the country. It is never raised in my town halls, it is never raised in my other meetings with people.”

Clinton also joked about the smartphone app Snapchat’s feature that automatically deletes pictures and videos sent between users. “I love it, I love it,” she said. “Those messages disappear all by themselves.”

For more election coverage, click here.

Election, Politics

Judge Orders Access To 32,000 ‘Personal’ Emails After Hillary Turns In Blank Server

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After Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton cleaned the server she used during her tenure as Secretary of State and handed it over to the FBI, a federal judge made an order that the Justice Department and the FBI gain access to the 32,000 emails Clinton did not turn over because she classified them as “personal.”

Before releasing the server, along with three thumb drives containing a redacted list of emails, Clinton released 55,000 pages comprised of 30,000 emails that she deemed “work-related” to the State Department last year, and then claimed that she deleted over 30,000 emails that she had deemed “personal.”

[RELATED: Hillary Clinton Deletes All Emails, Wipes Server Clean]

Out of the 30,000 emails the State Department has access to, it has released 40 to I. Charles McCullough III, the inspector general for the intelligence community. On Tuesday, he classified two of those emails as “top secret,” containing the highest classification of government intelligence information.

After it was revealed that at least two messages had been upgraded to classified, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the Justice Department work with the FBI to gain access to the trove of “personal” emails Clinton claimed she deleted.

[RELATED: Breaking The Law? Hillary Clinton Used Private Email As Secretary of State]

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), a member of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said that the Committee is now aware that they “didn’t get all the relevant documents from that server and the American people are entitled to them.”

The Washington Times noted that while one judge is “trying to decide how the government is going about determining what classified information is included” in Clinton’s emails, another judge is “exploring the email practices” of Clinton’s top aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills.

Although Clinton insisted that her server did not contain any classified information, McCullough’s “top secret” findings add to the list of false claims she has made about her email use as Secretary of State.

[RELATED: Fact Check: Holes In Hillary’s Email Story]

Judge Andrew Napolitano, the Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News, noted that while Clinton’s server contained “top secret,” or the highest level of information that could potentially cause “grave harm” to national security, General David Petraeus had access to classified information, which is at the lowest level, and he was “indicted, prosecuted and convicted” for having the materials “in a desk drawer in his house.”

Prior to the revelation that Clinton’s email account contained “top secret” information, two inspectors general requested that the State Department conduct a criminal investigation into Clinton’s email practices after a memo was released, which stated that Clinton’s private email account contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.”

[RELATED: Criminal Investigation Requested In Hillary Clinton’s Use Of Personal Email]

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Election, Politics

Hillary Caught in an email lie, “youthful” O’Malley to announce presidential run

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When Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private email scandal broke, Hillary claimed her using her private e-mail for matters of state was a matter of convenience. She didn’t want to complicate things by carrying two phones.

But, she’s complicating things even further. The New York Times revealed another Clinton private email address. hrod17@clintonemail.com.

One of her attorneys had previously denied the existence of this second email address.

“As explained in my March 4th, 2015 email to your Staff Director and certain others, “hrod17@clintonemail.com” is not an address that existed during Secretary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State,” the statement read.

Then, they could no longer deny it, because the New York Times published emails related to Libya, and hrod17@clintonemail.com was among the fray. The dates were definitely during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State.

As an expected political response, Clinton, at a campaign event in Iowa said, “I want those emails out.”

Then there is the Clinton Cash scandal. According to Vox.com, Hillary Clinton financially benefited “personally” from a large speaking fee paid by Corning, Inc., a company that lobbied her during her tenure as Secretary of State.

With all the scandal surrounding Team Hillary, many Democrats are attracted to former Maryland Governor Martin O’ Malley.

O’Malley told CNN that he wants to emphasize his “youthfulness,” and a less scripted, more accessible presidential campaign.

O’Malley even used SnapChat to hint at expected presidential announcement location.

Even Bill Clinton wrote O’Malley in 2002 stating: “I won’t be surprised if you go all the way.”

According to CNN, O’Malley’s campaign is likely to produce several more similar videos leading up to the announcement.

For more news related to the 2016 Presidential election, click here.