There are some discrepancies between Hillary Clinton’s story and the story being put out by the State Department on the Clintonemail server. Clinton told CBS on Sunday the State Department just wanted to do record keeping and she had no problem with giving them up. But State Department spokesperson John Kirby told The Washington Post on Tuesday that’s not exactly what happened.
“In the process of responding to congressional document requests pertaining to Benghazi, State Department officials recognized that it had access to relatively few email records from former Secretary Clinton. State Department officials contacted her representatives during the summer of 2014 to learn more about her email use and the status of emails in that account.”
That’s about three months before Clinton, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, and Madeline Albright were asked to provide their Secretary of State emails. Three. Whole. Months. This isn’t stopping the Clinton camp from trying to wave the inconsistency away like it were some errant insect. Clinton told The Des Moines Register right after the Post’s story broke she wasn’t sure why the stories didn’t match.
“I don’t know that. I can’t answer that. All I know is that they sent the same letter to everybody. That’s my understanding. You’re telling me something I don’t know. All I know is what I have said. What I have said is it was allowed. The State Department has confirmed that. The same letter went to, as far as I know, my predecessors, and I’m the one who said, ‘Hey, I’ll be glad to help.’ But we’ll give you additional information as we get it.”
This has Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson hopping mad, pointing out other problems with Clinton’s story.
He cited a July 23, 2014, e-mail in which employees at Platte River Networks, the private company that was then maintaining her server, discussed sending copies of Clinton’s e-mails overnight to Cheryl Mills, a longtime Clinton adviser. A spokesman for the company confirmed Tuesday that its workers started pulling Clinton’s e-mails to submit to Mills in July 2014.
So Clinton may have been caught up in a web of her own secrets more complicated than any type of mystery Hercule Poirot had to solve. It also shows how the Clintons try to be secretive about almost everything. The Washington Times reported back in June how The Clinton Foundation set up shop in Sweden in 2011 without talking to the State Department ethics committee about possible conflict of interests. Sweden was pressuring Hillary Clinton to not sanction their business with Iran. Then there’s the entire taking cash from the Saudis, even if Clinton promised not to have any conflicts of interest. So it shouldn’t be surprising at all that this is going on.
What IS surprising is that the FBI has apparently FOUND personal and work emails on the wiped server. Bloomberg is relying on those ever vague “persons familiar with the investigation” to get their story out, but it’s still interesting (emphasis mine).
The FBI is investigating how and why classified information ended up on Clinton’s server. The probe probably will take at least several more months, according to the person, who described the matter on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing and deals with sensitive information…The bureau’s probe is expected to last at least several more months, according to the person. That timeline would push any final determination closer to the Democratic presidential primary calendar, which kicks off Feb. 1 with the Iowa caucuses.
Now isn’t that a kick in the pants. Clinton is possibly lucking out here over the potential timeline, especially if the claims the State Department and FBI are working together to protect her prove out. If the investigation wraps up in, say January, and the FBI says, “Oh nothing’s there,” then it might make potential supporters less worried. Of course if it turns out there are problems, then this could end up being a “February surprise” and torpedo her campaign again. But it all depends on who else is running. If “Feel the Bern” is real, then it could lean towards Bernie Sanders. If Vice President Joe Biden runs, then Iowa could swing for “Uncle Joe.” That “Candidate of Destiny” thing Clinton thinks she has going for her, which is blatantly being stolen from Jazz, may end up being another mirage. But it all depends on what emails are released and if Clinton’s spin will keep holding up. Her lawyer is just holding the line of “we did what State Department asked,” but if people inside State are getting a little antsy, then real answers will hopefully come out unless it’s a big feint and the Obama Administration and the Clintons are trying to play everyone for fools. Which, in this crazy world, is always possible.
It’s still kind of fun to see the chaos hitting the Democrats the same as it does for the Republicans. Just hope the GOP is ready for whoever the Democratic candidate is.
UPDATE: (Taylor) Judge Emmet Sullivan is telling the State Department go get a move on and start processing Clinton’s emails faster than they have been. He ordered (link: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/22/judge-state-find-staffers-process-clinton-emails/print/) the State Department to get all emails from Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills in some kind of electronic system by the end of the week.
“There has to be some reallocation of resources because these are atypical cases.”
This didn’t go too well with the Justice Department who claimed the State Department was understaffed and overworked.
Elizabeth Shapiro, a senior Justice Department lawyer handling many of the more than 30 cases seeking Clinton-related emails, said the administration is doing what it can, but said its employees are already stretched, working “really demoralizing, crushing hours.”
“The State Department is being crushed with obligations,” she said…
The State Department says it has the equivalent of about 63 full-time employees working on the thousands of open-records requests the department gets each year, and those staffers are being pushed to meet tight deadlines, including those imposed by more than a dozen judges now involved in some Clinton email-related cases.
Ms. Shapiro said the department is also concerned that they are giving too much time and attention to cases where someone has sued, saying that ends up stiffing the other requesters who don’t have the resources to go to court.
Sullivan’s answer is brilliant,”find the resources.” One would think the government would want this to be over and done with as quickly as possible. But again, maybe the Justice and State departments are moving slow in hopes of Biden riding backwards on a white pony to save them all.
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