[VIDEO] She Said It: Five Memorable Moments from Clinton’s Latest Interview

1.  Clinton Twice Refused to Apologize for Using Private Email, Secret Server

2.  “I am sorry that this has been confusing to people and has raised a lot of questions.”

After refusing to apologize twice, Clinton’s nonapology apology is to suggest that the situation is too complex for us to understand. The reality is, none of this would be an issue if Clinton had been transparent and up front from the start and had not set up a secret server. She has no one to blame but herself.

3.  “I take classified material very, very seriously. And we followed all the rules on classified material.”

Although it has been confirmed that Hillary Clinton both sent and received classified information on unsecured networks several times a month, Hillary repeated the claim that she did not send classified material on her secret email server.

Even worse, Hillary has continually tried to dismiss her mishandling of classified information as a laughing matter. A recent email released by the State Department also shows Clinton telling a staffer wary of sending classified information over her private network to “just send it.”

4.  “…I was not thinking a lot when I got in”

So Clinton takes classified material very seriously, but didn’t think the security and protocol of her primary means of communication was something she should think about when she became Secretary of State? Clinton cites the “convenience” of using her personal email, but wouldn’t it have been more convenient to comply with the setup and rules that were already clearly setup for the State Department’s government email system?

5.  “There are answers to all of these questions and I will continue to provide those answers.” 

The facts don’t match the talking points. Just this week, the State Department bobbedand weaved through a series of straightforward questions about Hillary’s email practices.

And then there’s this…

Exhibit A
​


Exhibit B

What’s clear is Hillary Clinton regrets that she got caught and is paying a political price, not the fact her secret email server put our national security at risk. Hillary Clinton’s repeated distortions of her growing email scandal, which now involves an FBI investigation, and her refusal to apologize only reinforce why three-fifths of the country doesn’t trust her.

 

Via: GOP.com

Continue Reading.....

Could This Be the Scandal That Finally Sinks Hillary Clinton?

Yeah, I know.

Those of us who have been watching politics for the last quarter of a century have asked this question time and again, as the Clintons wriggled out of a dozen different kinds of shady behavior. And each time we think something’s finally going to take them down, they skate. It’s kind of like being a Cubs fan: maybe next year.

But there are five reasons why Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal could finally be the one.

1) It’s not about Bill.

People like Bill Clinton. I don’t really know why; he’s always struck me as a smarmy used car salesmen. But people actually do buy used cars from questionable characters, and the general public somehow likes Bill Clinton and wants to cut him some slack. Sometimes there’s just no accounting for these things.

But Hillary is not Bill. She can’t do that thing where he responds to a scandal with finger-wagging outrage at the unjust accusations one moment, and humble, lip-biting contrition the next, and people buy it. She seems cold and distant, and her lame attempts to laugh off the scandal as a non-issue don’t make her seem buoyantly confident. They just make her seem contemptuous and out of touch.

There are plenty of people—Democratic Party activists, mostly—who have a vested interest in making excuses for Hillary. But she doesn’t have the kind of mysterious charisma that gets her a free pass with the general public.

2) It’s about a real issue.

There were some real issues behind the previous scandals, as we wasted a lot of time explaining to anyone who would listen, which wasn’t many people. But the most famous issue on which the Clintons skated—Bill’s dalliance with a White House intern—seemed like it was all about his personal sex life, not matters of state. So who cared, really?

This scandal is about national security. It’s about Hillary Clinton casually, recklessly mishandling something that was central to her job as Secretary of State: protecting the secrets of the United States. That’s why the latest revelation is so important: that her unsecure homebrew e-mail server was not merely the passive recipient of classified information sent to her by others, but that she used it to 766 Comments containing classified material.

3) It’s about something concrete.

The biggest Clinton scandal by far is the way the family cashed in after Bill left office, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in speaking fees and consultancies, far beyond the actual value of any work they provided—money that is obviously being laid down in an attempt to secure access and favors from the Clinton family. And all of that money has been washing around between Bill and Hillary and their foundation, which seems to operate mostly as a family slush fund.

But the thing about influence peddling is that it’s vague and hard to pin down. That’s why people do it. Everybody knows the rules of the game: give money and you get access, you get an ear eager to hear your concerns—but there is never any explicit quid pro quo, no smoking gun that can send anybody to jail. So critics are left pointing to overall patterns that seem suspicious, but it can all just be brushed off as coincidence.

The e-mail scandal is specific and concrete. It’s about a server and a hard drive. It’s about a specific classified message sent at a particular time from a particular e-mail account. It’s a lot harder to explain away.

4) It’s something people have been prosecuted for.

It’s hard to turn back once you’ve made a witch hunt out of mishandling classified information. Too many people have been prosecuted for that under this administration. Most famously, prosecutors went after General David Petraeus for keeping physical notebooks with classified information in his home—which is actually more difficult for our enemies to steal than the contents of a server, which can be hacked remotely. While you might be able to get someone to construct an argumentabout how that case is totally different from this one, it’s a distinction that isn’t going to hold up.

5) It turns Hillary’s big accomplishment into a big liability.

Secretary of State is the only executive office Hillary Clinton has ever held. When she lost the Democratic primary in 2008, this was the position she wanted as her stepping stone back to the presidency. It was an office in which she could rack up experience doing something that seems presidential—dealing with foreign policy—without having to take responsibility for whatever Obama messed up in domestic policy.

This scandal takes the one big thing Hillary Clinton has done in the past ten years to demonstrate her credentials to run for president, and it turns that one big asset into a big liability. It turns her tenure at the State Department into something she cannot mention without raising questions about all the classified information she potentially laid bare to Russian and Chinese hackers.

When it comes to actual prosecution, the Clintons are masters at getting off on a technicality, claiming that they didn’t really violate the strict letter of the law because it all depends on what the meaning of the word “is” is. And you know they can afford flesh-eating lawyers who will work every angle for them if this goes to court.

But we also know just how ambitious the Clintons are. We know that the real punishment for them isn’t prosecution or prison. It is being denied access to power. All this scandal really has to do is to make Hillary Clinton look unfit to be commander-in-chief.

After all, nobody can keep getting away with this stuff. It’s all got to catch up with them some time.

Doesn’t it?

Follow Robert on Twitter.

Via: The Federalist

Continue Reading.....

Ambassador Kennedy used private email, watchdog says

Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and senior staff at the U.S. embassy in Japan used personal email accounts for official business, an internal watchdog report said Tuesday -- making Kennedy the latest Obama administration official to run afoul of email security guidelines.

The State Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) report said it received reports concerning the use of private email accounts for official business, and identified instances where emails labeled "sensitive but unclassified" were sent from or received by personal email accounts. 

“On the basis of these reports, OIG’s Office of Evaluations and Special Projects conducted a review and confirmed that senior embassy staff, including the Ambassador, used personal email accounts to send and receive messages containing official business. In addition, OIG identified instances where emails labeled Sensitive but Unclassified were sent from, or received by, personal email accounts," the report said.

CLICK HERE FOR THE REPORT.

The OIG stressed that department policy says employees generally should not use private accounts for official business, citing the risk of hacking and data loss. 

"Employees are also expected to use approved, secure methods to transmit sensitive but unclassified information when available and practical," the report says.

The report, conducted between January and March, comes as the same OIG office reviews email use and policies across the department amid the controversy over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email and server. The FBI is reviewing the security of that server, with questions mounting over whether classified material was improperly shared or stored on the Clintons' private account. 

Email issues aren't confined to the State Department. The IRS admitted Monday to a federal court there was a second personal email account -- set up under the name "Toby Miles" -- that Lois Lerner, the official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal, used to conduct agency business.

But State Department messages can cover a range of sensitive and classified material involving America's allies and enemies. The OIG report does not appear to suggest a serious information breach. Sensitive but unclassified information can be shared outside of the government, though officials are required to use discretion. However, it puts further spotlight on the department's struggle to keep its information secure.

Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy, has been ambassador to Japan since November 2013.

The report also noted the economic section of the embassy – which works closely with the United States Trade Representative on the Trans-Pacific Partnership – was not maintaining centralized files, and the embassy has not enforced department or federal regulations on managing records.

“Officers have individual files based on their own filing systems, located in personal folders on a shared drive and in Microsoft Outlook email personal folders. These files are not accessible to anyone else and are not archived, retired, or retrievable,” the report said.

Asked about the report, a State Department official told The Associated Press that the embassy in Japan requires the use of official email accounts to conduct official business whenever possible, and indicated that Kennedy and other staff are acting on the inspector's recommendations.

"Ambassador Kennedy uses an official email address for official business. As the report reflects, in the past, like others at the mission, Ambassador Kennedy infrequently used her personal email account for official business," said the department official, who was not authorized to speak on the record and requested anonymity.

"This is allowed, so long as measures are taken to ensure that official records sent or received on personal email are preserved and other requirements are observed. The ambassador and embassy staff are implementing the OIG recommendations, including those regarding emails," the official said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] Hillary ‘Hissy Fit': ‘I Wouldn’t Get Down In The Mud With Republicans’, Claims She’s Being Investigated Because Of ‘Politics’

In an angry moment at the Iowa Democratic Wing Ding on Friday, Hillary Clinton said she will not “get down in the mud” with Republicans who she claims are trying to exploit her use of a private email server and the Benghazi attacks for political gain.

“[Republicans will] try to tell you this is about Benghazi, but it is not,” Clinton told an audience at the event, her voice fraught with anger and her finger wagging in the air.

“Benghazi was a tragedy. Four dedicated public servants lost their lives,” she added. “And we have to be focused on how to prevent future tragedies.”

She said that seven congressional investigations have “already debunked all of the conspiracy theories” about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

It’s not about Benghazi,” Clinton bellowed to applause.

“And you know what, it’s not about emails or servers, either,” she continued. “It’s about politics.”

Clinton’s remarks are her most direct and hostile on the issue of her private email and private server use. The aggression comes at the same time that the FBI has opened an investigation into the server she used as secretary of state. The FBI seized the server this week from Platte River Networks, a Denver-based cybersecurity company Clinton hired in 2013 to manage the system.

But Clinton, as she’s done all throughout the scandal, which commenced in March due to the investigative work of the Republican-controlled House Select Committee on Benghazi, tried to portray herself as taking a proactive part in the inquiry. She said that she has insisted that the State Department publish the 55,000 pages of emails she turned over in December “as soon as possible.” She also said that she has offered to answer questions before Cognress “for months.”

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading.....

[VIDEO] Hillary Clinton to turn over private email server to Justice Department

Washington (CNN)Hillary Clinton agreed to turn over her private email server to authorities on Tuesday, the same day an intelligence community inspector general told congressional committees that at least five emails from the server did contain classified information.

The decision to hand over the server, as well as a thumb drive of all her work-related emails to the Justice Department, represents an effort to blunt an expanding probe into her use of a private email account.

Clinton, now the Democratic presidential front-runner, "directed her team to give her email server that was used during her tenure as (secretary of state) to the Department of Justice, as well as a thumb drive containing copies of her emails already provided to the State Department," her spokesman, Nick Merrill, told CNN early Tuesday evening. "She pledged to cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them."

Merrill said in the meantime, Clinton's team "has worked with the State Department to ensure her emails are stored in a safe and secure manner."

The FBI, which is handling the matter, declined to comment Tuesday evening. David E. Kendall, Clinton's lawyer, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

A senior Clinton campaign aide said the server hadn't yet changed hands as of Tuesday evening and Clinton's team is working with the Justice Department to arrange the logistics of the handover. The thumb drive, meanwhile, has been turned over. And Kendall, the aide said, has followed State Department guidance on safekeeping.

Clinton's campaign believes there are no emails from her State Department tenure on the server, since it was wiped clean after she turned over her work-related emails to the State Department, the aide said.

The aide said it's the Clinton campaign's understanding that the Justice Department isn't looking to reconstruct the server's history, but is instead concerned about the security of the emails today, since some are now classified, though they weren't classified or labeled as such at the time.

Clinton certifies she has turned over work-related emails

Boehner: 'It's about time'

For Clinton, the move -- which Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner have urged for months -- indicates her campaign sees a growing risk in the issue of her use of a private email server, which has stoked concerns about her trustworthiness.

"It's about time," Boehner said in a statement Tuesday night.

Since news broke in March of her use of a personal email address on a server kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home, Clinton has insisted that she's turned over all of her work-related emails to the State Department and deleted all others -- but wouldn't turn over her server to the government.

Clinton has been dogged by poll numbers showing that more Americans, by a margin of about 20 percentage points, say she's not trustworthy rather than trustworthy. A late July CNN/ORC poll found that 58% of all registered voters say it is extremely important that the next president be honest and trustworthy.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House Select Committee on Benghazi and has pushed for Clinton's emails for months, claimed credit for her decision to turn over the server.

"The revelation that Secretary Clinton exclusively used private email for official public business, and the multitude of issues that emanated from her decision, including this most recent one, demonstrates what can happen when Congress and those equally committed to exposing the truth, doggedly pursue facts and follow them," he said in a statement.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Clinton waited "a long time" 

Via: CNN Politics

Continue Reading....

MOTION FILED TO CONFISCATE HILLARY'S THUMB DRIVE

A lawyer who has filed a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case against Bill and Hillary Clinton and their family foundation, alleging it is more or less a criminal enterprise to benefit the Clintons, has renewed his request for a federal court to take control of a thumb drive reportedly held by the Clintons’ lawyer.

That thumb drive and its contents all of a sudden have been in the news, with reports on Wednesday that the FBI has kicked off an investigation into the type of security Hillary Clinton used to safeguard the private email system she set up in her New York home while serving as U.S. secretary of state.

The move came after two inspectors general in the government noted there was classified information in the emails that had been run through the extra-governmental computer system.

The report of the investigation prompted David Kendall, Hillary Clinton’s attorney, to release a statement: “Quite predictably, after the [intelligence community inspectors general] made a referral to ensure that materials remain properly stored, the government is seeking assurance about the storage of those materials.”

Just in time for the 2016 election, hear Hillary Clinton say she would NOT run for president, in “Hillary Unhinged” by Thomas Kuiper.

Kendall said he and Clinton were “actively cooperating” with the FBI. At the same time, Clinton’s campaign sought to downplay the news, and paint it as no big deal.

“WaPs story tonite doesn’t change anything we knew 10 days ago after nYT fixed botched report: IG sent ask to [Department of Justice] to confirm emails are secure,” tweeted Brian Fallon, Clinton’s press secretary.

Clinton’s use of her private email server for public business has been the talk of Capitol Hill for some time. Since March, and the discovery of her email system, various congressional members have demanded more information to discern whether her correspondences ever included sensitive or classified information. The email server scandal has also driven down Clinton’s poll numbers for the presidency, fueling voters’ perceptions of her as untrustworthy.

Reports are that Kendall has possession of a thumb drive that contains some of the emails in question.

Attorney Larry Klayman, of Freedom Watch, filed the RICO case against the Clinton’s several months ago, and the Clintons have been trying to have it dismissed. Recently, a judge suspended plans for depositions by the Clintons pending resolution of other issues.

Klayman’s new motion asks the court to “take into custody” the thumb drive “in current possession of her counsel David Kendall.”

“This thumb drive apparently contains, according to reports (Exhibit 1), not only government information but also classified government information,” Klayman wrote.

Via: Western Journalism

Continue Reading....

[VIDEO] Giuliani: Hillary Clinton Should Be Under Investigation For Five Different Crimes

Former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said that if he was still a U.S. Attorney, he’d have former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton under investigation for five different crimes.

“I believe she should be under investigation by the United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York for obstruction of justice, for destroying government property,” he said on CNN’s New Day. “I think its clear that she had a conflict of interest, her husband getting hundreds of millions of dollars, she’s making decisions about companies and about corporations that he’s getting money from. I think they filed a joint tax return.”

“I’d have her under investigation for about five different crimes,” he continued. “I think it’s outrageous that the Justice Department is not moving forward with this. General Pertraeus, a lot of other people have gone to jail…”

That said, Giuliani said he would’ve have shown leniency towards David Petraeus after the former general was found guilty of moving classified government documents off site. “Hillary Clinton, there are five acts we are talking about. Pertraeus gave away one or two little things. She destroyed a drive with 34,000 e-mails on it.”

Via: Mediaite

Continue Reading....

Report: Hillary Clinton Had Second Secret Email Address While Secretary of State

A second secret email address used by Hillary Rodham Clinton while she was secretary of state was revealed Monday.

The email address, published by The New York Times, was used in exchanges between Clinton and longtime adviser Sydney Blumenthal, and is from the same private email server that was uncovered earlier this year.

“Fyi. The idea of using private security experts to arm the opposition should be considered,” Clinton wrote Blumenthal from the ­email address HRod17@clintonemail.com.

The two were discussing strategies to help the opposition rebels oust Moammar Khadafy in Libya as that country descended into chaos in 2011.

Clinton’s office insisted just two months ago that the only private email address used by the former secretary of state during her tenure was hdr22@clintonemail.com.

In a 2015 letter to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), Clinton’s lawyer acknowledged that the HRod17 email address existed, but stated explicitly that it was “not an address that existed during Secretary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.”

The time stamps and content of the messages make clear that this statement was inaccurate, according to the Times report.

The first private email use was seen as a breach of protocol. Clinton’s advisers handed over 55,000 pages of emails to the State Department so they could comply with an investigation. But, according to Vice News, those emails will not be made public until 2016.

Via: New York Post

Continue Reading....