Difference between revisions of "Hillary Clinton email scandal"
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==Some background== | ==Some background== | ||
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The Office of Secretary of State is on the 7th floor of the [[State Department]] building. Security protocols do not allow any outside, non-State Department electronic transmission or listening devices on the 7th floor. [[Hillary Clinton]] insisted upon using her own personal Blackberry and refused to use State Department issued equipment and a State Department email account. For four years, when at work in her State Department Office suite, the Secretary of State was incommunicado with anyone she wanted to communicate with, or who needed to communicate with her, whether professional, diplomatic, or personal. | The Office of Secretary of State is on the 7th floor of the [[State Department]] building. Security protocols do not allow any outside, non-State Department electronic transmission or listening devices on the 7th floor. [[Hillary Clinton]] insisted upon using her own personal Blackberry and refused to use State Department issued equipment and a State Department email account. For four years, when at work in her State Department Office suite, the Secretary of State was incommunicado with anyone she wanted to communicate with, or who needed to communicate with her, whether professional, diplomatic, or personal. | ||
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Bill Clinton met privately with Attorney General [[Loretta Lynch]]. Days later FBI Director James Comey closed the investigation. Later it was revealed President Obama communicated with Hillary on the server using a pseudonym, which seemingly implies he was aware of the abuse. As in the Jeffrey Epstein child sex scandal, the FBI whitewashed the investigation. | Bill Clinton met privately with Attorney General [[Loretta Lynch]]. Days later FBI Director James Comey closed the investigation. Later it was revealed President Obama communicated with Hillary on the server using a pseudonym, which seemingly implies he was aware of the abuse. As in the Jeffrey Epstein child sex scandal, the FBI whitewashed the investigation. | ||
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==Pay to play== | ==Pay to play== | ||
Revision as of 08:14, January 7, 2018
The Hillary Clinton email scandal began when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intentionally violated the Federal Records Act, stole and destroyed government property belonging to the people. Evidence suggests the 33,000 emails Hillary Clinton admitted to destroying are related to the Uranium One bribery scandal.[1]
The private system Clinton set up was in violation of government and State Department regulations. Her staff fought efforts to bring her into the government email system – even though she forced the resignation of an ambassador his conducting of government business over an unauthorized private email system.
When the request was made that Clinton surrender her emails to the State Department, she turned them over to her own lawyers and subordinates who did not have the security clearances required for access to the information. She destroyed tens of thousands of emails, even though they were under subpoena, so that they could not be reviewed by the State Department or the FBI. Of the 30,000 she deigned to surrender to the State Department, over 2,000 contained classified information, some of it among the nation’s most highly classified national-defense secrets. And she serially lied in her public statements about her emails, in congressional testimony (in which she brazenly claimed to have turned over all work-related email to the State Department, and that her lawyers had carefully reviewed every email before designating which should be surrendered and which withheld), and in her FBI interview (in which she pretended not to know what the ubiquitous “[C]” designation — for confidential — in classified documents meant).
Some background
The Office of Secretary of State is on the 7th floor of the State Department building. Security protocols do not allow any outside, non-State Department electronic transmission or listening devices on the 7th floor. Hillary Clinton insisted upon using her own personal Blackberry and refused to use State Department issued equipment and a State Department email account. For four years, when at work in her State Department Office suite, the Secretary of State was incommunicado with anyone she wanted to communicate with, or who needed to communicate with her, whether professional, diplomatic, or personal.
Fortunately for her, the job of Secretary of State required a lot of traveling. The Secretary usually is in the office only once a month when he/she returns to Washington D.C. for a monthly Congressional Oversight hearing. While on the road Hillary used exclusively her personal Blackberry tied to an email account server in her Chappaqua New York home.
Because of her insistence on using personal equipment, emails from her via the Chappaqua server were put on the State Department's spam block list. Huma Abedin pleaded with her to get an official state.gov email account. Hillary responded saying, “Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.”[2] Clinton later admitted to having emailed over 100 government officials, including President Obama, through her personal email account.[3]
It has been established Hillary knew both her Blackberry and Chappaqua server were vulnerable to hackers. After a bureaucratic fight, the State Department accommodated her by disabling some of their security features to allow access from the Chappaqua server.
Criminal investigations of Hillary Clinton fundamentally surround three issues:
- Handling of classified information and government records;
- conflicts of interest with donors and the Clinton Foundation;
- efforts to circumvent the Watergate reform era Freedom of Information Act and openness in government.
The issue of intent was reviewed by the inspector general’s offices in the State Department and the U.S. Intelligence Community which referred the case to the FBI for criminal investigation after it was determined the Chappaqua server contained classified information. The Chappaqua server was hacked and sensitive classified information compromised.[4]
When Hillary moved her server to Platte River Networks, it was a further violation of law.
Bill Clinton met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Days later FBI Director James Comey closed the investigation. Later it was revealed President Obama communicated with Hillary on the server using a pseudonym, which seemingly implies he was aware of the abuse. As in the Jeffrey Epstein child sex scandal, the FBI whitewashed the investigation.
Pay to play
- Main article : Clinton Foundation conflicts of interest
Rosatom-Uranium One deal
- Main article: Uranium One bribery scandal
In 'resetting' relations with Russia, Secretary Clinton gave approval to a deal that allowed a Russian government enterprise to control one-fifth of all uranium producing capacity in the United States.[5] Rosatom, the Russian company, acquired Uranium One, a Utah mining company owned by a Canadian firm and run by Frank Giustra (pron. Ju-stra). Giustra is a member of the Clinton Foundation Board. The transaction required Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's approval. Giustra then donated over $130 million to the Clinton family non-profit foundation.[6][7]
Rosatom is the 21st century free market inheritor of the Soviet system's command and control predecessor agency which operated the Chernobyl reactor. In the era of global corporate competition, Rosatom has taken the Soviet-style model of design, construction, and operation of nuclear power plants on the road for export. Rosatom does not just build power plants for anyone with the cash willing to pay, it can operate the plant with continuing contracts using its own technicians and employees. This includes supplying reactor grade plutonium and the more problematic and environmentally hazardous disposal of spent fuel rods. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in May 2010 discussed with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev the possibility of Rosatom building nuclear power plants in Syria.[8] In its report on Rosatom, Greenpeace International cites cost-cutting and an historical culture of corruption as causes of concern.[9] Russia has now achieved near monopoly control globally in uranium enrichment for the worlds nuclear plants.
Rosatom builds more nuclear power plants worldwide than anyone else, with projects currently underway in China, Vietnam, India, and Turkey. Rosatom built Iran’s nuclear reactor in Bushehr. With the purchase of Uranium One, Rosatom also bought uranium exploration rights in Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.[10] Uranium is the only fuel right now that can reliably produce large amounts of electricity without the release of greenhouse gases and other hydrocarbon pollutants.[11] And under Russian law, contaminated waste must be returned to the country of origin.
According to the New York Times money began flowing into the Foundation before the transaction was complete.
Canadian records show, a flow of cash made its way to the Clinton Foundation. Uranium One’s chairman used his family foundation to make four donations totaling $2.35 million. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons, despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all donors. Other people with ties to the company made donations as well.
And shortly after the Russians announced their intention to acquire a majority stake in Uranium One, Mr. Clinton received $500,000 for a Moscow speech from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was promoting Uranium One stock.[12]
Between August 28 and September 3, 2015 an FBI agent sent notification to preserve records to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; U.S. Dept. of Treasury; Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI James Clapper); National Counter Terrorism Center; and the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE),[13] the National Security Agency (NSA – Admiral Mike Rogers) the United States Secret Service (USSS);[14] the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Department of Defense in relation to Hillary Clinton email scandal.[15][16] All member agencies of the CFIUS group necessary for approval of the Uranium One deal. During these notifications on August 31 Vadim Mikerin was allowed to plead guilty to lesser a charge.[17]
APCO Worldwide
APCO Worldwide, a global communications firm that lobbied on behalf of Rosatom and it's American subsidiary Tenex at the time of the Uranium One deal, vastly understated its support for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The Hill discovered APCO provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in pro-bono services and in-kind contributions which APCO reported, but CGI did not. In the fall of 2011 APCO’s lists in-kind contribution at $275,000, and the annual report submitted to the United Nations Global Compact, boasted “APCO significantly increased its pro-bono support for CGI and, for the first time, our team managed the press around CGI’s America meeting, as well as its global Annual Meeting."
At the time APCO was paid $3 million by Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear company. Rosatom paid APCO to lobby the State Department and other federal agencies on behalf of Tenex, which sought to increase uranium business inside federal agencies and Congress. APCO made more than 50 contacts with federal and congressional figures for Tenex, including at least 10 involving senior officials inside the Clinton State Department in 2010 and 2011. The contacts ranged from “promoting US-Russian civilian nuclear partnership” to attempts at freeing Russia from “anti-dumping” restrictions imposed on its uranium business.
APCO Executive Director Kent Jarrell claimed the company had little contact with Vadim Mikerin, director of Tenex, who pleaded guilty in 2015 to a corruption charge stemming from the FBI bribery probe. Jarrell said APCO dealt mostly with Rosatom oligarchs, who also were subjects of the FBI's extortion and money-laundering investigation. The firm promoted a U.S. visit in 2011 by former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Kirienko, who then as the top official at Rosatom.
Mikerin was tasked with forming Tenex’s new American office called Tenam. APCO’s lobbying records show the firm helped create a Web site for Tenam and a press release announcing the new American subsidiary. An invite list provided to the FBI by a confidential informant shows APCO executives attended the grand opening celebration of Tenam’s office in suburban Washington in October 2010.
APCO officials estimate their total cash donations to CGI totaled $45,600 and their in-kind support to CGI exceeded $1 million since 2008. They also acknowledged that the firm’s pro-bono work increased significantly in 2011 while it worked for Tenex. Pro-bono work involved providing free media support to CGI for various events and activities as well as to the other non-governmental organizations that made charitable commitments under the Clinton brand.
William Campbell, the FBI's confidential informant in the Uranium One scandal, informed Congress that he was told by top Russian officials that APCO was hired specifically because it had close connections to the Obama administration and the Clintons. “His Russian counterparts made clear to him they valued APCO’s connections to the Clinton Global Initiative and expected it to grow while the firm was working for Tenex,” Campbell's attorney Victoria Toensing said. “And he reported those conversations back to the FBI.”
Hillary Clinton and staff considered at least one APCO lobbyist, former career ambassador Elizabeth Jones, for two top jobs. “At Friday's meeting, Hillary made clear Beth Jones was her first choice for Ambassador to Iraq. Since I don't know her, we agreed that I should meet with her today or tomorrow,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote Clinton confidant John Podesta in a 2009 email. Clinton’s top aides successfully vetted her in 2011 to become a special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan
Laureate International Universities
Between 2010 and 2014 while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State, Bill Clinton made $16.5 million for his role as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company which operates in 30 countries.[18] The State Department funneled $55 million in grants during Hillary Clinton’s tenure to groups associated with Laureate’s founder. The International Youth Federation, an organization connected to Laureate chairman Douglas Becker, received USAID funding.[19] Becker is a major donor to the Clintons and the Clinton Foundation.[20][21] In her first year as Secretary of State, Hillary is quoted as directly asking that Laureate be included in a high-profile policy dinner — just months before the lucrative contract was given to Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton references in an email “Laureate Universities, started by Doug Becker who Bill likes a lot".[22] “It’s a for-profit model that should be represented,” she wrote in the August 2009 email.[23][24]
For-profit colleges have been criticized by education experts for low graduation rates and do little more than saddle students with insurmountable debt. In the case of Laureate, the scam has been spread to no less than 30 countries.
FBI whitewash
- Main article: FBI scandal
In a nationally televised address on April 10, 2016 President Obama intervened on behalf of the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Obama made clear that he did not want criminal charges brought against Clinton. Obama made two points: Mrs. Clinton 1) had exhibited “carelessness,” and 2) had not intended to breach national security when she stored and transmitted classified information on her private system.
Dir. Comey wrote an internal memorandum saying Hillary Clinton and others were guilty of gross negligence punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment;[25] Comey sent draft copies of a public announcement he was planning to Dep. Dir. Andrew McCabe, general counsel James Baker and chief of staff James Rybicki for their input.[26] Comey had already decided to exonerate Clinton. Clinton herself and 17 other key witnesses had not yet been interviewed. Comey's memo further is evidence of he wholly anticipated on May 2, 2016 to usurp the Attorney General's authority contradicting his sworn testimony he only decided days in advance of his public press conference because the Attorney General had compromised herself by meeting privately with Bill Clinton in Phoenix in late June.
The FBI admited it recovered thousands of State Dept. emails that originated or passed through Clinton’s private server — some which had been deleted — that were never turned over to the State Department as government records by Clinton’s team. Comey told Sen. Grassley that the FBI did investigate whether violations of Federal Records Act occurred.
The principal felony offense in Clinton’s case is the willful retention or transmission of classified information — subsections (d) and (e) of the Espionage Act (section 793 of the federal penal code). To prove this offense, the prosecutor must prove that the official 1) had possession of the information, 2) had “reason to believe [it] could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation,” 3) transmitted it to an authorized person or place, or failed to deliver it on demand to an authorized government agency, and 4) acted willfully, which means acting intentionally and with an understanding that one’s actions are wrongful. This is a straightforward case of criminal intent.
There is no requirement to prove an intent to harm the United States. The statute calls only for an awareness that the information could be used to hurt the U.S. or benefit a foreign nation. To be guilty, the official does not need to want that to happen; she must merely be aware that it could happen. Of course, every government official who is privileged to hold a security clearance is well aware of this. Making the official aware of it and having the official expressly acknowledge her awareness are essential parts of the indoctrination that is a condition of getting the clearance. And thus every government official with a security clearance knows it is wrongful to transfer classified information to a person not authorized to have it or to a place where its storage is not authorized.[27]
Agent Peter Strzok changed the term “grossly negligent” in Comey's memo to “extremely careless.” If Comey used the words “grossly negligent,” it would be the equivalent of pronouncing Clinton guilty. The pre-edited statement read “we assess it is reasonably likely that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s private email account.” However, Comey’s July 5 public statement read, “Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.”
Senate Homeland Security chairman Ron Johnson stated, "The edits to Director Comey’s public statement, [28] made months prior to the conclusion of the FBI’s investigation of Secretary Clinton’s conduct, had a significant impact on the FBI’s public evaluation of the implications of her actions." Johnson stated the edits “raise profound questions about the FBI’s role and possible interference in the 2016 presidential election and the role of the same agents in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Trump.”[29]
Andrew McCabe
On January 12, 2017, one week before President-elect Trump was sworn in, an FBI Inspector General began a review of Andrew McCabe, FBI Deputy Dir. and others for conflict of interest in the Hillary Clinton email probe.[30] McCabe, who assisted in writing the bogus Benghazi talking points for Susan Rice and oversaw the whitewashing of Hillary's email investigation, is married to a candidate for the Virginia state Senate who took $700,000 from Terry McAuliffe's PAC while the FBI’s investigation of Clinton's emails was ongoing. McAuliffe simultaneously with Clinton was under FBI investigation for pay-to-play schemes involving a Chinese businessman.[31] McAuliffe ran Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign which was marred by a foreign influence peddling scheme known as Chinagate. McAuliffe was Hillary's 2008 campaign manager. McCabe succeeded James Comey as Acting FBI Director after Comey's firing. McCabe's last act as Acting FBI Dir. was illegally seizing a transcript of Paul Manafort's Congressional testimony which specifically was outside a warrant served on Manafort in June of 2016.
Peter Strzok
Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin lie to FBI investigator Peter Strzok. “Mills did not learn Clinton was using a private server until after Clinton’s [Department of State] tenure...Mills stated she was not even sure she knew what a server was at the time....Abedin did not know that Clinton had a private server until about a year and a half ago when it became public knowledge.”[32] Email exchanges from 2009 to 2011 exist in which both Mills and Abedin directly discussed or were involved in discussing Clinton’s server. Mills asked about it in a Feb. 27, 2010 email to Abedin and an aide to Bill Clinton who helped set up the Clinton Chappaqua server. “Ur funny. We are on the same server,” Cooper replied. Mills and Abedin were also involved in an Aug. 30, 2011 exchange in which State Department official Stephen Mull mentioned that Clinton’s “email server is down.” In a Jan. 9, 2011 email exchange, Cooper told Abedin that Clinton’s server had been malfunctioning because “someone was trying to hack us.” “Had to shut down the server,” wrote Cooper, who told the FBI in his interviews that he discussed Clinton’s server with Abedin in 2009, when it was being set up. Neither Mills or Abedin were prosecuted for making lying to the FBI.
See also
- Clinton Cash
- Hillary Rodham Clinton facts
- Hillary Rodham Clinton's net worth
- Bank of Credit and Commerce International
- Obamagate timeline 2009-2015
- Obamagate timeline
- Deep state coup
References
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/katica-foia-1.jpg <
- ↑ New Clinton email cover-up: Hillary did not include crucial message to right hand aide which demanded her account stay secret in hand-over of 'all' her work-related emails, By Associated Press, 23 June 2016. dailymail.co.uk
- ↑ Klein, Aaron (September 13, 2017). Hillary Clinton Admits She Emailed Over 100 Government Employees from Private Server. Breitbart News. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
- ↑ How EmailGate Weakened America’s National Security, By John R. Schindler, The Observer, 06/01/16
- ↑ Charity watchdog: Clinton Foundation a ‘slush fund’, Isabel Vincent, New York Post, 26 April 2015
- ↑ Board of Directors | Clinton Foundation, www.clintonfoundation.org
- ↑ http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/04/23/more-clinton-foundation-cronyism-the-deal-to-sell-uranium-interests-to-russia-while-hillary-was-secretary-of-state/
- ↑ UPDATE 1-Russia says eyes atomic energy cooperation with Syria, Reuters, May 11, 2010.
- ↑ Rosatom Risks: Exposing the troubled history of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Greenpeace International, October 2014.
- ↑ Moscow’s American Uranium, By Matt Baker, 18th October 2013 - Politico. www.defenddemocracy.org
- ↑ Putin’s Power Play – How It Will Change the Uranium Sector, Casey Research, May 15, 2013
- ↑ Cash Flowed to Clinton Foundation Amid Russian Uranium Deal, By JO BECKER and MIKE McINTIRE, New York Times, APRIL 23, 2015. nytimes.com
- ↑ Hillary Clinton emails, FBI Vault, Part 15, page 7.
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/katica-foia-2.jpg
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/katica-foia-3.jpg
- ↑ https://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/katica-foia-4.jpg
- ↑ https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/russian-nuclear-energy-official-pleads-guilty-money-laundering-conspiracy-involving
- ↑ Hillary and Bill Clinton Made $139 Million in Eight Years, Richard Rubin & Jennifer Epstein, Bloomberg, July 31, 2015
- ↑ Douglas L. Becker, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Laureate Education. International Youth Foundation. www.iyfnet.org
- ↑ Laureate, a for-profit education firm, finds international success (with a Clinton’s help), By Mina Kimes and Michael Smith. Washington Post, January 18, 2014
- ↑ The Clinton University Problem: Laureate Education Lawsuits Present Problem For Clintons [Updated] Jonathan Turley, June 8, 2016. jonathanturley.org
- ↑ Hillary’s emails reveal lucrative ties to for-profit colleges, Ana Kasparian, RawStory, 12 Mar 2016. www.rawstory.com
- ↑ Clinton Sought Invite for Laureate at State Dept. Dinner, Inside Higher Ed, September 2, 2015. insidehighered.com
- ↑ UNCLASSIFIED U.S. Department of State Case No. F-2014-20439 Doc No. C05763085
- ↑ http://dailycaller.com/2017/11/06/report-comey-accused-clinton-of-gross-negligence-in-email-case/?utm_source=site-share
- ↑ http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/14/comey-draft-said-it-was-reasonably-likely-that-hillarys-server-was-hacked/?utm_content=bufferf8260&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
- ↑ http://amp.nationalreview.com/article/455202/hillary-clinton-email-investigations-trump-justice-department-revives-motive-criminal-intent
- ↑ http://dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Screen-Shot-2017-12-14-at-3.59.10-PM-620x363.png
- ↑ https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/government-corruption/comey-concluded-hillary-hacked.htm
- ↑ https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2016-01-12%20DOJ%20OIG%20to%20CEG%20et%20al%20-%20Review%20of%20Clinton%20Investigation%20Process.pdf
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/embed/video/1294661.html
- ↑ http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/04/clinton-aides-went-unpunished-after-making-false-statements-to-anti-trump-fbi-supervisor/
External links
- 12,173 declassified stolen Clinton emails recovered by State Department
- 30,322 stolen Clinton emails recovered by State Department under the FOIA
- Stolen Clinton emails recovered by Russian Television
- Declassified FBI criminal investigation documents