[h=2]Clinton campaign calls claims she is ill 'deranged' in fightback against 'conspiracy theories' that she is taking days off, coughing too much and even having seizures[/h]
Hillary Clinton's campaign is going after Donald Trump for peddling 'conspiracy theories' about the Democratic nominee's health.
[h=2]Huma Abedin poses up for Vogue revealing her Muslim faith helped her through sexting scandal and how she never wants to run for office[/h]
Huma Abedin has given access to Vogue Magazine for a glossy profile where she reveals she relied on her faith and friends to get through Weiner's tumultuous sexting scandal.
[h=2]Why the secrecy? Hillary Clinton holds 'private' meeting with Paul McCartney that photographers aren't let in - yet musical icon later tweets photo and declares 'she's with me'[/h]
An aide to Clinton's campaign said the meeting between two friends and therefore it occurred privately without photographers - then McCartney tweeted out a photi.
[h=1]Paul McCartney ‘comes together’ with Hillary Clinton, riffs off her campaign slogan[/h][FONT="]
‘She’s with me,’ he tweeted
[FONT="][/FONT]Ms Clinton met the star and his wife in Ohio
[FONT="]After meeting Hillary Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio, Paul McCartney took to social media to show his support for the Democrat.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"She’s with me," the singer-songwriter tweeted, alongside a picture of the pair, twisting around her campaign slogan "I’m With Her".[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Beatles star is the latest celebrity to publicly show his favour for Ms Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, following endorsements from a swathe of personalities like Lena Dunham and Katy Perry.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]McCartney posted the picture after meeting the Democratic nominee while she was on the campaign trail at the Quicken Loans Arena.[/FONT]
[FONT="]McCartney, MBE, was in Cleveland to perform at two shows as part of his "One on One" tour.[/FONT]
[FONT="]A Clinton aide told CNN that the pair talked about the election, their families and the Olympics.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ms Clinton also met his wife, Nancy, for about half an hour.[/FONT]
View image on Twitter
[FONT="]McCartney is a British citizen so will not be able to vote for Ms Clinton come November.[/FONT]
[FONT="]
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[/FONT]
‘She’s with me,’ he tweeted
[FONT="]After meeting Hillary Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio, Paul McCartney took to social media to show his support for the Democrat.[/FONT]
[FONT="]"She’s with me," the singer-songwriter tweeted, alongside a picture of the pair, twisting around her campaign slogan "I’m With Her".[/FONT]
[FONT="]The Beatles star is the latest celebrity to publicly show his favour for Ms Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election, following endorsements from a swathe of personalities like Lena Dunham and Katy Perry.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]McCartney posted the picture after meeting the Democratic nominee while she was on the campaign trail at the Quicken Loans Arena.[/FONT]
[FONT="]McCartney, MBE, was in Cleveland to perform at two shows as part of his "One on One" tour.[/FONT]
[FONT="]A Clinton aide told CNN that the pair talked about the election, their families and the Olympics.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Ms Clinton also met his wife, Nancy, for about half an hour.[/FONT]
View image on Twitter
Paul McCartney [FONT="]McCartney is a British citizen so will not be able to vote for Ms Clinton come November.[/FONT]
[FONT="]
[/FONT]
[/FONT]
Hillary has had very few press conferences. Her supporters have said that she will have them when she feels like it. Why – because she is leading or possibly because of her health issues, the less exposure the better. She went months without holding one but now she better get with the program, that is if she is up to it health wise.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign: ‘We’ll have a press conference when we want to have a press conference’
Hillary Clinton’s campaign: ‘We’ll have a press conference when we want to have a press conference’
Why Doesn't Hillary Clinton Have More Press Conferences?
Listen·
Heard on Morning Edition
DAVID FOLKENFLIK
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Hillary Clinton holds a press conference regarding her U.N. Woman's Day speech and the email server controversy at the United Nations on March 10, 2015, in New York City.
Steve Sands/Getty Images
Just a few weeks ago, Donald Trump taunted Hillary Clinton over the length of time it had been since she had formally faced a pack of reporters with microphones, cameras, iPhones and notepads at the ready.
"So, it's been 235 days since crooked Hillary Clinton has had a press conference," Trump told reporters and supporters who gathered in Miami on July 27. "You, as reporters who give her all of these glowing reports, should ask yourselves why."
POLITICS
Donald Trump Might Be In Real Trouble This Time
Why that's the case requires a layered answer, involving events as fresh as Trump's own missteps in recent days and as dated as Clinton's memories of the first years of her husband's administration.
For the moment, Trump is busy sabotaging himself in full public view: attacking the grieving parents of a Muslim U.S. Army officer killed while protecting comrades in Iraq; making easily disprovable claims that even his campaign cannot sustain; attacking fellow Republican leaders such as Sen. John McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Democratic strategist Lis Smith says the Clinton campaign is taking a calculated risk in failing to hold a press conference with reporters since last December.
Journalists care about such things, Smith says. Clinton aides know that voters typically don't, she says: "As they're watching Donald Trump implode daily, with his impolitic statements and gaffes, they're sitting back and laughing."
Smith, who has never worked for either Bill or Hillary Clinton, led Barack Obama's rapid response team on the 2012 campaign and was deputy campaign manager for Martin O'Malley until he dropped out of the primaries. She says the Clinton campaign is more likely to react if local media outlets and figures in key swing states criticize her for a lack of press conferences.
POLITICS
People Liked The Democratic Convention Better. Will That Boost Clinton?
Otherwise, she says, never interfere when your foe is busily doing your dirty work for you in discrediting himself.
As former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod tweeted: "If I were @HillaryClinton, I might embark on summer tour of America's splendid national parks & cede the stage entirely to @realDonaldTrump."
Yet Clinton's recalcitrance toward press conferences has endured for months.
In late May, CNN's Jake Tapper sought to pin Clinton down during a televised interview by phone, asking her when she'd remedy that.
"Oh, I'm sure we will," Clinton said in the May 31 interview. (So far, she hasn't.)
Clinton then suggested there are other, better ways to glean insights from a candidate.
"I was shocked myself that I've done nearly 300 interviews and they're not even sure they've captured all the that ones I've done," Clinton said. "I believe that we do and we should answer questions. Of course I'm going to, in many, many different kinds of settings."
POLITICS
Painting Trump As Temperamental, Clinton Attempts To Flip The Gender Script
Modern presidents have often sought to circumvent the filter of the traditional media. President George W. Bush relied on interviews with local television stations, while President Obama mixes up interviews with conventional outlets such as CBS News and The Atlantic with newer outlets such as Vox, BuzzFeed, Reddit, and Zach Galifianakis' Between the Ferns. Neither view press conferences with great favor.
And Clinton has a point: Interviews can prove illuminating. Clinton's aides and surrogates have invoked the large and climbing number of interviews many times. As modern campaigns almost invariably keep a running tally of such interactions, I asked Clinton's press office late Wednesday night for an itemization of those 300 interviews. On Thursday, midday, I was promised a detailed reply. None arrived by midnight.
Even when Clinton does interviews, however, she can encounter choppy waters. Last weekend, after the conclusion of the Democratic convention, she gave an interview toFox News Sunday's Chris Wallace. Her characterization of what FBI Director James Comey said about her email servers was widely panned.
There's a historic context, too.
According to political professionals who have followed her closely, Clinton has never enjoyed the give-and-take with scrums of reporters. Part of it stems from her personality. She is said to shine in smaller settings. And part arises from her history.
POLITICS
See Who's Defecting From Their Party This Election
A generation ago, as first lady of Arkansas and of the United States, Hillary Clinton felt badly treated by the press during coverage of scandals (that she insisted were not scandals) and setbacks (that could have cost Clinton an independent career of her own).
In 1994 she held her own press conference to try to lance the boil, acknowledging a steady drumbeat of questions over a series of transactions encompassed in the Whitewater flap and the collapse of the health care overhaul she championed.
Clinton told reporters assembled in the White House State Dining Room that she had always tried to answer the questions to reporters on the campaign trail in informal settings or in one-on-one interviews with local media outlets.
"I really was under the misimpression that if I answered them in Rochester or answered them in St. Louis, or somewhere else, that should be enough," Clinton told reporters. "And I just didn't understand enough about being accessible to all of you or being accessible in Washington. And so I came to that realization. And that's why I'm here."
Yet history echoed itself in March 2015, when Clinton held an awkwardly orchestrated press conference at the United Nations. It was intended to allow her to be seen confronting deepening concerns about Clinton's use of a private email server for sensitive State Department matters. It turned into something of a debacle.
POLITICS
Clinton Highlights Billionaires' Support As A Way To Try To Undermine Trump
Smith, the Democratic consultant, says too many candidates are too worried about making the wrong kind of news. The Senate was a kind of rolling press conference for Clinton; the remove of the State Department and Clinton Foundation left her rusty, Smith says.
"The longer you go without doing a press conference, the longer you you give reporters the ability to come up with killer questions and the longer you give reporters the ability to build up a simmering rage," Smith says.
Reporters on the trail say Clinton's warmed up, a bit, taking questions in gaggles — brief on-the-record exchanges with reporters traveling with her on the campaign. Such moments provide hope of more direct interactions — but so far, it's just that.
Listen·
Heard on Morning Edition
DAVID FOLKENFLIK
Hillary Clinton holds a press conference regarding her U.N. Woman's Day speech and the email server controversy at the United Nations on March 10, 2015, in New York City.
Steve Sands/Getty Images
Just a few weeks ago, Donald Trump taunted Hillary Clinton over the length of time it had been since she had formally faced a pack of reporters with microphones, cameras, iPhones and notepads at the ready.
"So, it's been 235 days since crooked Hillary Clinton has had a press conference," Trump told reporters and supporters who gathered in Miami on July 27. "You, as reporters who give her all of these glowing reports, should ask yourselves why."
POLITICSDonald Trump Might Be In Real Trouble This Time
Why that's the case requires a layered answer, involving events as fresh as Trump's own missteps in recent days and as dated as Clinton's memories of the first years of her husband's administration.
For the moment, Trump is busy sabotaging himself in full public view: attacking the grieving parents of a Muslim U.S. Army officer killed while protecting comrades in Iraq; making easily disprovable claims that even his campaign cannot sustain; attacking fellow Republican leaders such as Sen. John McCain and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Democratic strategist Lis Smith says the Clinton campaign is taking a calculated risk in failing to hold a press conference with reporters since last December.
Journalists care about such things, Smith says. Clinton aides know that voters typically don't, she says: "As they're watching Donald Trump implode daily, with his impolitic statements and gaffes, they're sitting back and laughing."
Smith, who has never worked for either Bill or Hillary Clinton, led Barack Obama's rapid response team on the 2012 campaign and was deputy campaign manager for Martin O'Malley until he dropped out of the primaries. She says the Clinton campaign is more likely to react if local media outlets and figures in key swing states criticize her for a lack of press conferences.
POLITICSPeople Liked The Democratic Convention Better. Will That Boost Clinton?
Otherwise, she says, never interfere when your foe is busily doing your dirty work for you in discrediting himself.
As former Obama campaign manager David Axelrod tweeted: "If I were @HillaryClinton, I might embark on summer tour of America's splendid national parks & cede the stage entirely to @realDonaldTrump."
Yet Clinton's recalcitrance toward press conferences has endured for months.
In late May, CNN's Jake Tapper sought to pin Clinton down during a televised interview by phone, asking her when she'd remedy that.
"Oh, I'm sure we will," Clinton said in the May 31 interview. (So far, she hasn't.)
Clinton then suggested there are other, better ways to glean insights from a candidate.
"I was shocked myself that I've done nearly 300 interviews and they're not even sure they've captured all the that ones I've done," Clinton said. "I believe that we do and we should answer questions. Of course I'm going to, in many, many different kinds of settings."
POLITICSPainting Trump As Temperamental, Clinton Attempts To Flip The Gender Script
Modern presidents have often sought to circumvent the filter of the traditional media. President George W. Bush relied on interviews with local television stations, while President Obama mixes up interviews with conventional outlets such as CBS News and The Atlantic with newer outlets such as Vox, BuzzFeed, Reddit, and Zach Galifianakis' Between the Ferns. Neither view press conferences with great favor.
And Clinton has a point: Interviews can prove illuminating. Clinton's aides and surrogates have invoked the large and climbing number of interviews many times. As modern campaigns almost invariably keep a running tally of such interactions, I asked Clinton's press office late Wednesday night for an itemization of those 300 interviews. On Thursday, midday, I was promised a detailed reply. None arrived by midnight.
Even when Clinton does interviews, however, she can encounter choppy waters. Last weekend, after the conclusion of the Democratic convention, she gave an interview toFox News Sunday's Chris Wallace. Her characterization of what FBI Director James Comey said about her email servers was widely panned.
There's a historic context, too.
According to political professionals who have followed her closely, Clinton has never enjoyed the give-and-take with scrums of reporters. Part of it stems from her personality. She is said to shine in smaller settings. And part arises from her history.
POLITICSSee Who's Defecting From Their Party This Election
A generation ago, as first lady of Arkansas and of the United States, Hillary Clinton felt badly treated by the press during coverage of scandals (that she insisted were not scandals) and setbacks (that could have cost Clinton an independent career of her own).
In 1994 she held her own press conference to try to lance the boil, acknowledging a steady drumbeat of questions over a series of transactions encompassed in the Whitewater flap and the collapse of the health care overhaul she championed.
Clinton told reporters assembled in the White House State Dining Room that she had always tried to answer the questions to reporters on the campaign trail in informal settings or in one-on-one interviews with local media outlets.
"I really was under the misimpression that if I answered them in Rochester or answered them in St. Louis, or somewhere else, that should be enough," Clinton told reporters. "And I just didn't understand enough about being accessible to all of you or being accessible in Washington. And so I came to that realization. And that's why I'm here."
Yet history echoed itself in March 2015, when Clinton held an awkwardly orchestrated press conference at the United Nations. It was intended to allow her to be seen confronting deepening concerns about Clinton's use of a private email server for sensitive State Department matters. It turned into something of a debacle.
POLITICSClinton Highlights Billionaires' Support As A Way To Try To Undermine Trump
Smith, the Democratic consultant, says too many candidates are too worried about making the wrong kind of news. The Senate was a kind of rolling press conference for Clinton; the remove of the State Department and Clinton Foundation left her rusty, Smith says.
"The longer you go without doing a press conference, the longer you you give reporters the ability to come up with killer questions and the longer you give reporters the ability to build up a simmering rage," Smith says.
Reporters on the trail say Clinton's warmed up, a bit, taking questions in gaggles — brief on-the-record exchanges with reporters traveling with her on the campaign. Such moments provide hope of more direct interactions — but so far, it's just that.
[h=4]Jim Young/Reuters[/h]
[h=4]BETSY WOODRUFF[/h]https://twitter.com/intent/follow?o...me=woodruffbets&tw_p=followbutton&variant=2.0https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?ur...ans-should-resign-including-bill-clinton.html
http://www.reddit.com/submit?title=...g-bill-clinton.html?via=desktop&source=Reddit
[h=3]AWKWARD[/h][h=4]08.17.16 12:00 AM ET[/h]
[h=1]Tim Kaine Once Said Cheating Politicians Should Resign—Including Bill Clinton[/h]The Democratic vice presidential candidate is pretty much part of the Clinton family at this point. But in 2002, he said Bill Clinton should have stepped down in the wake of his affair with a White House intern.
Bill Clinton should have resigned over the Monica Lewinsky scandal—at least, that’s a view Tim Kaine once held.
Kaine’s remark—reported 14 years ago in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in the aftermath of a state-level sex scandal—hasn’t drawn any attention thus far in the 2016 presidential cycle. But it suggests Hillary Clinton’s running mate at one point harbored reservations about the integrity of the man poised to become the country’s first first gentleman.
Kaine commented on the Lewinsky scandal in 2002, when allegations of sexual harassment had rocked the Virginia House of Delegates. The speaker of the house, Vance Wilkins, was a Republican power broker who had just helped his party flip the House and build its majority after Democrats had historically controlled the chamber.
Just one problem: Earlier in 2001, Wilkins agreed to pay $100,000 in hush money to a former female employee at his construction company who said he sexually harassed her.
The woman, Jennifer Thompson, alleged privately that Wilkins groped her and pinned her against office furniture. She considered pressing charges, according toa Washington Post report that broke the news on June 7, 2002. But she ultimately decided not to, accepting the $100,000 from Wilkins and signing a confidentiality agreement.The Post cited “sources familiar with the settlement” in their report on it. Wilkins held—and still holds, as he stated in an interview with The Daily Beast—that he didn’t sexually harass Thompson, and that he only paid her to keep her allegations from becoming a scandal that would have undermined Republicans’ efforts to control the House.
The Post’s report caused an immediate firestorm, and top Republicans called for Wilkins to resign. Jerry Kilgore, then the state’s attorney general and top-ranking elected Republican, joined the chorus.
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Tim Kaine Becomes Trump's Newest Nickname Victim
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The Dad Jokes Are Strong With Tim Kaine
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Tim Kaine Showed Off His Spanish And Trump-Mocking Skills In VP Intro
So did Tim Kaine, who was the state’s lieutenant governor at the time. And according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, he said he also believed Bill Clinton should have resigned from the presidency over his own sex scandals.
Here’s what the paper wrote, in a story published June 8, 2002:
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[COLOR=#AAAAAA !important][COLOR=#79BBE9 !important]inRead[/COLOR] invented by Teads[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#AAAAAA !important][COLOR=#79BBE9 !important]inRead[/COLOR] invented by Teads[/COLOR]
[COLOR=#AAAAAA !important][COLOR=#79BBE9 !important]inRead[/COLOR] invented by Teads[/COLOR]
“If the allegations are true, he should definitely resign,” Kaine said, adding he held the same view about President Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
“That is an intolerable way to treat women and it’s not something that the state should be dragged through.”
The Times-Dispatch story is behind a paywall in its archive.
A report in The Washington Post, also published on June 8, 2002, characterized his views the same way:
Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D), who may face [state Attorney General Jerry] Kilgore in the 2005 governor’s race, likened the matter to the sexual scandal of President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky, saying, “If the allegations are true, he ought to resign.”
“Somebody in public life shouldn’t behave that way toward women,” Kaine said. “It’s tawdry. It’s not the leadership that Virginia should have.”
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An AP story that ran on the same day also highlighted Kaine’s criticism of Bill Clinton.
“When I read it this morning, my reaction was the same I had when I read about the Clinton-Lewinsky affair: this is not appropriate conduct. It’s beneath the dignity of the office,” he said.
Amy Dudley, a spokesperson for Kaine, said the Virginia senator is focused on the future.
“As the Associated Press reported at the time, Kaine characterized President Clinton’s actions as ‘not appropriate’ conduct, but he had previously been on record criticizing the impeachment effort,” she said. “He believes this election is about Hillary Clinton’s vision to make historic investments to create good paying jobs, make college debt free and build an economy that works for everyone, not re-litigating personal issues from the distant past.”
Wilkins told The Daily Beast that he didn’t recall Kaine making the comment, but that he “didn’t pay much attention to him anyway.”
“He saw a political opportunity to make a political hit and he took it,” Wilkins added. “It doesn’t surprise me at all.”
Kaine wasn’t the only Democrat disturbed by Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Clinton’s world-famous lie—“I did not have sexual relations with that woman”—became one of the definitive lines of the ’90s. And their dalliances ultimately led to the House voting to impeach Clinton. Five House Democrats—including Virginian Virgil Goode, who later became a Republican—voted for some of the articles of impeachment. No Senate Democrats voted that Clinton was guilty.
In the years since then, Kaine has spoken favorably of Bill Clinton. In a 2008 interview on CNN—when he was stumping for Barack Obama, who he endorsed in the Democratic primary—he was positive about the former president’s legacy, saying he “got us out of a malaise.”
Kaine isn’t the only Democratic vice presidential nominee to once have harsh words for Bill Clinton. Joseph Lieberman, then a Democratic senator from Connecticut, gave a famous speech on the Senate floor calling Clinton’s behavior “disgraceful.”
“Such behavior is not only inappropriate,” Lieberman said at the time, as The Washington Post reported. “It is immoral and it is harmful.”
Al Gore, Clinton’s vice president, went on to pick Lieberman as his running mate in the 2000 presidential race.
Democratic party leaders have not always been so gracious to Bill Clinton’s critics, as Claire McCaskill knows. The Missouri senator—now a top surrogate for Hillary Clinton—faced the Clinton camp’s wrath when she suggested the former president is a creep.
“I think he’s been a great leader, but I don’t want my daughter near him,” she said on a 2006 episode of Meet the Press.
McCaskill apologized to the former president for the comment, according to Amie Parnes and Jonathan Allen’s book HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, but didn’t do herself any favors when she endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
“‘Hate’ is too weak a word to describe the feelings that Hillary’s core loyalists still have for McCaskill,” they wrote.
Kaine obviously hasn’t faced the same treatment. In fact, The New York Times reportedthat the former president he once criticized was his top advocate in the veepstakes.
Kaine has spent the past few weeks palling around with the Clintons as the latest inductee to their circle of trust. But—as his hometown paper once reported—he wasn’t always their biggest fan.
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[h=2]Hillary Laughs at Health Question[/h]
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton laughed off questions from reporters about her health, while standing in the rope line after a campaign
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton laughed off questions from reporters about her health, while standing in the rope line after a campaign [h=1]Roger Stone: Saying Trump ‘in Bed with Putin’ is a ‘Conspiracy Theory’ — While Clinton ‘Does Paid Errands’ for Russian Oligarchs[/h]
MIKHAIL METZEL/AFP/GettyImages
by JOHN HAYWARD18 Aug 201625
[h=2]On Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily, Roger Stone said it wasn’t conspiracy-mongering paranoia to ask about Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s ties to radical Islamist organizations.[/h]“No conspiracy theory – this is really simple,” Stone explained. “Her parents were funders of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, also active in the World Muslim League – both funded by the radical sheikh Omar Abdul Naseef, who also founded the Rabita Trust, identified by the Department of Justice as one of the funders of the attack on America on 9/11. Those are indisputable facts.”
When SiriusXM host Alex Marlow pointed out the the Left is looking for opportunities to label Clinton critics as purveyors of conspiracy theories, Stone responded, “I’ll give you a conspiracy theory: Donald Trump and Paul Manafort are in bed with Vladimir Putin. Nowthere’s a conspiracy theory!”
Video: Team USA defeats Argentina, Spurs’ Manu Ginobili plays last Olympic game
“Bill and Hillary, who’ve done the paid errands for the oligarchs around Putin – Donald Trump’s never met Putin,” he continued. “Putin’s certainly met the Clintons. That’s why he doesn’t trust them. Yet he’s well aware of the fact that Hillary’s a neocon, and that she’s probably committed to war with Russia, where Donald Trump wants a period of detente.”
He said Hillary Clinton has “clear ties to Putin and his inner circle of oligarchs, while Trump has none. That’s a conspiracy theory.”
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by JOHN HAYWARD18 Aug 201625
[h=2]SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER[/h]
[h=2]On Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily, Roger Stone said it wasn’t conspiracy-mongering paranoia to ask about Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s ties to radical Islamist organizations.[/h]“No conspiracy theory – this is really simple,” Stone explained. “Her parents were funders of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, also active in the World Muslim League – both funded by the radical sheikh Omar Abdul Naseef, who also founded the Rabita Trust, identified by the Department of Justice as one of the funders of the attack on America on 9/11. Those are indisputable facts.”
When SiriusXM host Alex Marlow pointed out the the Left is looking for opportunities to label Clinton critics as purveyors of conspiracy theories, Stone responded, “I’ll give you a conspiracy theory: Donald Trump and Paul Manafort are in bed with Vladimir Putin. Nowthere’s a conspiracy theory!”
Video: Team USA defeats Argentina, Spurs’ Manu Ginobili plays last Olympic game
“Bill and Hillary, who’ve done the paid errands for the oligarchs around Putin – Donald Trump’s never met Putin,” he continued. “Putin’s certainly met the Clintons. That’s why he doesn’t trust them. Yet he’s well aware of the fact that Hillary’s a neocon, and that she’s probably committed to war with Russia, where Donald Trump wants a period of detente.”
He said Hillary Clinton has “clear ties to Putin and his inner circle of oligarchs, while Trump has none. That’s a conspiracy theory.”
[h=1]ICYMI: WAPO - PROTECTED HILLARY HASN’T HELD A PRESSER IN 257 DAYS[/h]
Hillary Clinton Hasn’t Held A Press Conference In 257 Days. That’s Ridiculous.
By Chris Cillizza
The Washington Post
August 18, 2016
Click Here To Read
Donald Trump said lots (and lots) of thing during his hour-long town hall with Fox News's Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. This one -- Trump talking about Hillary Clinton -- stood out to me:
“She is so protected. They are so protecting her. She hasn't had a news conference in like 250 days.”
It couldn't be that long since Clinton talked to the press, I thought. So, I went to the handy-dandy tool that some guy named Philip Bump built to track how long it's been since Clinton faced the press. And this is what I found:
Almost 258 days!
(…)
One of the most important things when someone is offering themselves up to represent all of us is that we get the best sense we can about how that person thinks on his or her feet, how they deal with unwanted or adversarial questions. Those two traits are big parts of doing the job of president in the modern world.
(…)
Put all of that aside, and think of this: The last time Clinton held a press conference was Dec. 5, 2015. That was before:
1. A single state had cast a vote in either a presidential primary or caucus
2. Major terrorist attacks in Nice, Brussels and Orlando
3. FBI Director James Comey issued his scathing report on Clinton's email practices while at the State Department
4. The Bernie Sanders phenomenon
5. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was run out of the Democratic National Committee in the wake of a massive email hack/leak
(…)
The fact that she continues to avoid questions from the press is simply unacceptable given the office she is seeking and the stakes in this election.
Click Here To Read The Full Article
“The fact that [Clinton] continues to avoid questions from the press is simply unacceptable given the office she is seeking and the stakes in this election.”
Hillary Clinton Hasn’t Held A Press Conference In 257 Days. That’s Ridiculous.
By Chris Cillizza
The Washington Post
August 18, 2016
Click Here To Read
Donald Trump said lots (and lots) of thing during his hour-long town hall with Fox News's Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. This one -- Trump talking about Hillary Clinton -- stood out to me:
“She is so protected. They are so protecting her. She hasn't had a news conference in like 250 days.”
It couldn't be that long since Clinton talked to the press, I thought. So, I went to the handy-dandy tool that some guy named Philip Bump built to track how long it's been since Clinton faced the press. And this is what I found:
Almost 258 days!
(…)
One of the most important things when someone is offering themselves up to represent all of us is that we get the best sense we can about how that person thinks on his or her feet, how they deal with unwanted or adversarial questions. Those two traits are big parts of doing the job of president in the modern world.
(…)
Put all of that aside, and think of this: The last time Clinton held a press conference was Dec. 5, 2015. That was before:
1. A single state had cast a vote in either a presidential primary or caucus
2. Major terrorist attacks in Nice, Brussels and Orlando
3. FBI Director James Comey issued his scathing report on Clinton's email practices while at the State Department
4. The Bernie Sanders phenomenon
5. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was run out of the Democratic National Committee in the wake of a massive email hack/leak
(…)
The fact that she continues to avoid questions from the press is simply unacceptable given the office she is seeking and the stakes in this election.
Click Here To Read The Full Article
[h=6]- AUGUST 18, 2016 -[/h][h=1]STATEMENT ON CLINTON’S UNETHICAL STATE DEPARTMENT[/h]“Hillary Clinton and her aides reportedly skipped their ethics training. That would make sense since Hillary was planning a criminal enterprise trading government favors for cash. As she focused on personal enrichment, the Middle East went up in flames and ISIS exploded onto the globe. Now, all the people who've been paying off Hillary for years are funding her campaign. Mr. Trump has proposed new ethics reforms to restore honor to our government, while Hillary Clinton is calculating how much money she can make selling the office of the Presidency for profit.” – Stephen Miller, National Policy Director
No Record That Clinton, Aides Took Required Ethics Training
By Anita Kumar
McClatchy
August 18, 2016
Click Here To Read
There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton or her top aides completed ethics training when they started at the State Department as required by federal law.
State Department records show only three of nine top Clinton aides took the mandated training for new employees. Records also suggest that none of seven top aides required to take subsequent annual training completed it.
No records indicate whether Clinton herself took any training.
Many of the aides still work for Clinton on her presidential campaign or are advising her in her bid for the White House against Republican Donald Trump in November.
(…)
The Office of Government Ethics criticized the Clinton State Department in late 2012 for a lack of compliance with annual ethics training that is supposed to outline department standards and principles, conflict of interest laws and financial disclosure forms.
(…)
There are no records to indicate whether Clinton or the following employees took any training: Cheryl Mills, chief of staff; Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff; Anne Marie Slaughter, director of policy planning; Caitlin Klevorick, special assistant, counselor to the department; Jake Sullivan; deputy chief of staff; and Kris Bladerston, special representative for global partnerships.
Records show three aides – Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary; Philippe Reines, deputy assistant secretary; and Dennis Cheng, deputy chief of protocol – completed new employee training. But they do not show whether Reines and Cheng took annual training. It’s unclear whether Shapiro or Klevorick were required to take annual training.
There were signs that State Department officials were aware of those taking the training.
In a Jan. 17, 2013 email, State Department official Angela Jordan informed Abedin that she had not completed training for 2012 and must take an online class by the end of the month since it was required by federal regulation.
Two days later, Abedin replied, confusing the request with one for her financial disclosure form. Later, when told again about the training, she responded. “Okay, wasn’t aware. Will go online.”
(…)
Federal code requires agencies to provide training – which at minimum consists of an hour to study ethics materials – to new employees within 90 days of starting work, according to the Office of Government Ethics.
Employees who file financial disclosure forms – those appointed by the president, political appointees and other senior staff are required to receive annual training by a qualified instructor for at least an hour, according to the Office of Government Ethics. Those requirements are reiterated in the State Department manual for new employees.
New State employees often take a course called Ethics Orientation for New Employees, but can receive training in other ways, Trudeau said.
Click Here To Read The Entire Article
No Record That Clinton, Aides Took Required Ethics Training
By Anita Kumar
McClatchy
August 18, 2016
Click Here To Read
There is no evidence that Hillary Clinton or her top aides completed ethics training when they started at the State Department as required by federal law.
State Department records show only three of nine top Clinton aides took the mandated training for new employees. Records also suggest that none of seven top aides required to take subsequent annual training completed it.
No records indicate whether Clinton herself took any training.
Many of the aides still work for Clinton on her presidential campaign or are advising her in her bid for the White House against Republican Donald Trump in November.
(…)
The Office of Government Ethics criticized the Clinton State Department in late 2012 for a lack of compliance with annual ethics training that is supposed to outline department standards and principles, conflict of interest laws and financial disclosure forms.
(…)
There are no records to indicate whether Clinton or the following employees took any training: Cheryl Mills, chief of staff; Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff; Anne Marie Slaughter, director of policy planning; Caitlin Klevorick, special assistant, counselor to the department; Jake Sullivan; deputy chief of staff; and Kris Bladerston, special representative for global partnerships.
Records show three aides – Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary; Philippe Reines, deputy assistant secretary; and Dennis Cheng, deputy chief of protocol – completed new employee training. But they do not show whether Reines and Cheng took annual training. It’s unclear whether Shapiro or Klevorick were required to take annual training.
There were signs that State Department officials were aware of those taking the training.
In a Jan. 17, 2013 email, State Department official Angela Jordan informed Abedin that she had not completed training for 2012 and must take an online class by the end of the month since it was required by federal regulation.
Two days later, Abedin replied, confusing the request with one for her financial disclosure form. Later, when told again about the training, she responded. “Okay, wasn’t aware. Will go online.”
(…)
Federal code requires agencies to provide training – which at minimum consists of an hour to study ethics materials – to new employees within 90 days of starting work, according to the Office of Government Ethics.
Employees who file financial disclosure forms – those appointed by the president, political appointees and other senior staff are required to receive annual training by a qualified instructor for at least an hour, according to the Office of Government Ethics. Those requirements are reiterated in the State Department manual for new employees.
New State employees often take a course called Ethics Orientation for New Employees, but can receive training in other ways, Trudeau said.
Click Here To Read The Entire Article
Report: Clinton told FBI Colin Powell advised her to use personal email
Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY7:17 a.m. EDT August 19, 2016
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Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is seeking advice from police chiefs and sheriffs from around the country in an effort to develop policy suggestions for future police-community relations. (Aug. 18) AP
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told federal investigators that Colin Powell, a former secretary of State, advised her to use a personal email account, the New York Times reports.
The newspaper said the information, from a three-and-a-half-hour interview with Clinton in July, is included in notes the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave to Congress on Tuesday.
The NYT also cites a book by political journalist Joe Conason that says during a conversation at a dinner party hosted by another former secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, in Washington in 2009, Powell advised Clinton to use her “own email” except for classified communications.
The newspaper says it received an advance copy of the book, called Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton.
“Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat,” Conason writes in the book, according to the NYT.
“Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”
“Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department,” Mr. Powell “thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier — to keep her personal account and use it for most messages,” the extract continued.
The NYT’s report could not be independently verified by USA TODAY and Clinton's representatives could not immediately be reached. FBI Director James Comey recommended in July that that no criminal charges be brought against Clinton.
Powell's office said in a statement carried by Reuters late Thursday that he could not remember the dinner conversation, but "did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department.”
"At the time there was no equivalent system within the department," the statement said, adding that Powell used a secure department computer to manage classified information.
Powell has said he had to use his personal email because the State Department did not have a fully functioning email system when he joined in 2001.
Jane Onyanga-Omara, USA TODAY7:17 a.m. EDT August 19, 2016
521 Shares
Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is seeking advice from police chiefs and sheriffs from around the country in an effort to develop policy suggestions for future police-community relations. (Aug. 18) AP
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told federal investigators that Colin Powell, a former secretary of State, advised her to use a personal email account, the New York Times reports.
The newspaper said the information, from a three-and-a-half-hour interview with Clinton in July, is included in notes the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave to Congress on Tuesday.
The NYT also cites a book by political journalist Joe Conason that says during a conversation at a dinner party hosted by another former secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, in Washington in 2009, Powell advised Clinton to use her “own email” except for classified communications.
The newspaper says it received an advance copy of the book, called Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton.
“Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat,” Conason writes in the book, according to the NYT.
“Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”
“Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department,” Mr. Powell “thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier — to keep her personal account and use it for most messages,” the extract continued.
The NYT’s report could not be independently verified by USA TODAY and Clinton's representatives could not immediately be reached. FBI Director James Comey recommended in July that that no criminal charges be brought against Clinton.
Powell's office said in a statement carried by Reuters late Thursday that he could not remember the dinner conversation, but "did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department.”
"At the time there was no equivalent system within the department," the statement said, adding that Powell used a secure department computer to manage classified information.
Powell has said he had to use his personal email because the State Department did not have a fully functioning email system when he joined in 2001.
[h=1]Clinton to Spend Rest of August Fundraising With Celebrities, Wealthy People[/h]SHARE
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BY: Morgan Chalfant
August 18, 2016 4:15 pm
Hillary Clinton will spend much of the remaining month of August fundraising with wealthy individuals and celebrities across the country.
CNN reported Thursday that the Democratic presidential nominee is expected to attend roughly 20 fundraising events in California, Massachusetts, and New York later this month.
Clinton will appear next week at eight fundraisers over three days in California, including one at the home of famed professional basketball player Magic Johnson in Beverly Hills. Co-hosts for the event also include Bob Iger, the chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation and a major Democratic donor.
One of the California fundraisers, in the wealthy Laguna Beach area, will cost guests $33,400 each to attend. Another event in Northern California will cost each couple $100,000 to gain entry.
CNN obtained invitations showing that Clinton will also appear at a fundraiser next Tuesday at the home of actor Leonardo DiCaprio, an event that will be co-hosted by talent manager Scooter Braun and actor Tobey Maguire.
Clinton embarked on similar fundraising trips to California last year. Donors in the state have been one of the most lucrative sources of revenue for Clinton’s presidential campaign and Super PAC.
This coming weekend, Clinton is set to appear at fundraisers in the Massachusetts summer destination spots of Cape Cod and Nantucket. A fundraiser in Provincetown, Cape Cod, on Sunday is expected to feature an appearance and possibly a musical performance by Cher.
Clinton is also expected to appear at nine fundraising events in the Hamptons at the end of August, capping a month of million-dollar donor events.
According to a CNN tally, Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), have already netted over $26 million from 28 fundraising events held during the first half of this month.
Clinton, Kaine, and former President Bill Clinton will appear at a combined 80 fundraising events during the month of August, according to the report.
TWEET
AP
BY: Morgan Chalfant
August 18, 2016 4:15 pm
Hillary Clinton will spend much of the remaining month of August fundraising with wealthy individuals and celebrities across the country.
CNN reported Thursday that the Democratic presidential nominee is expected to attend roughly 20 fundraising events in California, Massachusetts, and New York later this month.
Clinton will appear next week at eight fundraisers over three days in California, including one at the home of famed professional basketball player Magic Johnson in Beverly Hills. Co-hosts for the event also include Bob Iger, the chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation and a major Democratic donor.
One of the California fundraisers, in the wealthy Laguna Beach area, will cost guests $33,400 each to attend. Another event in Northern California will cost each couple $100,000 to gain entry.
CNN obtained invitations showing that Clinton will also appear at a fundraiser next Tuesday at the home of actor Leonardo DiCaprio, an event that will be co-hosted by talent manager Scooter Braun and actor Tobey Maguire.
Clinton embarked on similar fundraising trips to California last year. Donors in the state have been one of the most lucrative sources of revenue for Clinton’s presidential campaign and Super PAC.
This coming weekend, Clinton is set to appear at fundraisers in the Massachusetts summer destination spots of Cape Cod and Nantucket. A fundraiser in Provincetown, Cape Cod, on Sunday is expected to feature an appearance and possibly a musical performance by Cher.
Clinton is also expected to appear at nine fundraising events in the Hamptons at the end of August, capping a month of million-dollar donor events.
According to a CNN tally, Clinton and her running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), have already netted over $26 million from 28 fundraising events held during the first half of this month.
Clinton, Kaine, and former President Bill Clinton will appear at a combined 80 fundraising events during the month of August, according to the report.
[h=2]Trump Visits Louisiana Flood Victims as Hillary Rests and Obama Vacations[/h]
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence are going to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Friday to meet victims of the flooding that has killed 13 and forced 30,000 Louisianans to leave their
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate Mike Pence are going to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Friday to meet victims of the flooding that has killed 13 and forced 30,000 Louisianans to leave their Roger Stone: How Did Clinton Aide Huma Abedin Get Security Clearance, ‘Given Very Clear Ties to a Radical Offshoot of Islam?’
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
by JOHN HAYWARD18 Aug 2016363
On Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily, SiriusXM host Alex Marlow asked guest Roger Stone about the Vogueinterview with Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin, who said her Muslim faith helped her get through the sexting scandals of her husband, disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner.
“It’s an attempt, of course, to clean Huma up, and make her respectable, even sympathetic, for voters,” said Stone. “Vogue has been a great enabler and advocate for Hillary Clinton, which is ironic, in view of Hillary’s role in bullying, intimidating, and threatening the various women who have been her husband’s sexual assault victims. Are those the actions of a feminist, or an advocate for women? I think not.”
“It is funny, yesterday there were quite a few Tweets online saying, oh, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone, they are advocates for the conspiracy theory about Huma,” Stone observed, referring to Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, who has become the chief executive officer of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Video: Team USA Basektball will face Spain who may be without Pau Gasol
“No conspiracy theory – this is really simple,” Stone explained. “Her parents were funders of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, also active in the World Muslim League – both funded by the radical sheikh Omar Abdul Naseef, who also founded the Rabita Trust, identified by the Department of Justice as one of the funders of the attack on America on 9/11. Those are indisputable facts.”
“It’s ironic that Huma also comes out of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, as did Mr. Khan, who of course got quite a bit of press at the Democratic convention last week. Two radical Islamic organizations,” he continued. (The Democratic convention was held July 25-28.)
“Why is Huma’s background important? It’s very simple: we know, since she went through all of Hillary’s email, to determine what we should see and what we should not, that she has therefore had access to Top Secret classified documents. How did this woman ever get a security clearance, given her very clear ties to a radical offshoot of Islam?” Stone asked.
He said that both Clinton and Abedin are women who have been “publicly humiliated” by their husbands, “but they stay for the power, and the money, presumably.”
“At least, that’s how it began with Anthony Weiner,” he added. “That was a prestigious marriage. Also, given her radical background, marrying a Jewish fellow, that’s pretty good cover, if you ask me.”
“In both cases, the women are humiliated, but they do nothing whatsoever about it. I find that interesting. Maybe they’re kindred spirits,” Stone speculated. “Now, from what I hear, from my Democratic friends, is that HIllary’s furious that Anthony Weiner is back in the paper again, because it reminds people of the philandering of her husband. The whole thing, I think, is a P.R. nightmare for the Clinton camp.”
He found it amusing that Abedin praised her mother as a “respected feminist” in theVogue interview, because “her mother was the leading advocate for genital mutilation in the Islamic world. That does not sound very feminist to me.”
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by JOHN HAYWARD18 Aug 2016363
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On Thursday’s Breitbart News Daily, SiriusXM host Alex Marlow asked guest Roger Stone about the Vogueinterview with Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin, who said her Muslim faith helped her get through the sexting scandals of her husband, disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner.
“It’s an attempt, of course, to clean Huma up, and make her respectable, even sympathetic, for voters,” said Stone. “Vogue has been a great enabler and advocate for Hillary Clinton, which is ironic, in view of Hillary’s role in bullying, intimidating, and threatening the various women who have been her husband’s sexual assault victims. Are those the actions of a feminist, or an advocate for women? I think not.”
“It is funny, yesterday there were quite a few Tweets online saying, oh, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone, they are advocates for the conspiracy theory about Huma,” Stone observed, referring to Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, who has become the chief executive officer of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Video: Team USA Basektball will face Spain who may be without Pau Gasol
“No conspiracy theory – this is really simple,” Stone explained. “Her parents were funders of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, also active in the World Muslim League – both funded by the radical sheikh Omar Abdul Naseef, who also founded the Rabita Trust, identified by the Department of Justice as one of the funders of the attack on America on 9/11. Those are indisputable facts.”
“It’s ironic that Huma also comes out of the Institute for Muslim Minority Affairs, as did Mr. Khan, who of course got quite a bit of press at the Democratic convention last week. Two radical Islamic organizations,” he continued. (The Democratic convention was held July 25-28.)
“Why is Huma’s background important? It’s very simple: we know, since she went through all of Hillary’s email, to determine what we should see and what we should not, that she has therefore had access to Top Secret classified documents. How did this woman ever get a security clearance, given her very clear ties to a radical offshoot of Islam?” Stone asked.
He said that both Clinton and Abedin are women who have been “publicly humiliated” by their husbands, “but they stay for the power, and the money, presumably.”
“At least, that’s how it began with Anthony Weiner,” he added. “That was a prestigious marriage. Also, given her radical background, marrying a Jewish fellow, that’s pretty good cover, if you ask me.”
“In both cases, the women are humiliated, but they do nothing whatsoever about it. I find that interesting. Maybe they’re kindred spirits,” Stone speculated. “Now, from what I hear, from my Democratic friends, is that HIllary’s furious that Anthony Weiner is back in the paper again, because it reminds people of the philandering of her husband. The whole thing, I think, is a P.R. nightmare for the Clinton camp.”
He found it amusing that Abedin praised her mother as a “respected feminist” in theVogue interview, because “her mother was the leading advocate for genital mutilation in the Islamic world. That does not sound very feminist to me.”
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[h=1]GOP preps tough perjury case against Clinton[/h]
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By Julian Hattem - 08/19/16 06:01 AM EDT
House Republicans are doubling down in their effort to bring perjury charges against Hillary Clinton over her testimony last year to the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
GOP lawmakers have claimed that the Democratic presidential nominee broke the law by lying under oath about her private email setup during her marathon appearance in October.
Next month, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee plan to make the issue a central part of a hearing with senior officials from the FBI, a committee aide said on Thursday. Legally, the GOP faces a tough case. Politically, however, raising the perjury allegations would be a way to keep the issue of Clinton’s truthfulness in the public eye throughout the fall as she battles Republican nominee Donald Trump for the White House.
Proving that someone committed perjury means overcoming a high hurdle: that the person knowingly told a falsehood under oath.
Convincing lawyers at the Department of Justice to take the case would also be difficult, because prosecutors would have to prove that what the former secretary of State said during the 11-hour hearing was directly at odds with the truth.
“There is no case,” said Stephen Ryan, a former federal prosecutor and general counsel for the Democratic-run Senate Government Affairs Committee, bluntly.
“Even if you tried to step back from the politically laden nature that this was the Democratic presidential nominee and you look at it, there’s no way the Department of Justice would touch a case like that.”
“There’s just no appeal to this case, other than the political appeal,” added Ryan, who said he is not involved in the presidential race.
Politically, hearings, letters and the other trappings of Washington could be useful for the GOP.
Polls have consistently shown that voters have doubts about Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness.
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, the Democratic candidate for the Senate in her state, even was tripped up this week. On three occasions, she sidestepped questions from CNN about whether she believed Clinton was honest before her campaign released a statement underlying her trust in the presidential nominee.
Even if the perjury allegations don’t save Trump, they could help down-ballot Republicans fighting against the current. Polls in Virginia and Colorado, both battleground states, have shown Trump running behind Clinton by double-digits.
The GOP heads of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees outlined the potential case against Clinton in a joint letter this week to Washington’s top federal prosecutor.
In their six-page letter, Reps. Bob Goodlatte (Va.) and Jason Chaffetz (Utah) pointed to four instances during which the former secretary of State “appear[ed] to implicate” two criminal laws barring perjury and false statements.
“The evidence collected by the [FBI] during its investigation of Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email system during her time as secretary of State appears to directly contradict several aspects of her sworn testimony,” they told U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips.
The Justice Department decided last month not to press charges against Clinton for mishandling sensitive material after a yearlong FBI investigation.
Goodlatte and Chaffetz, in their letter, noted that the FBI discovered classification markings on three of the emails in Clinton’s inbox, seemingly disproving her assertion that “nothing was marked classified at the time I sent or received it.”
But in a letter to Capitol Hill this week, the FBI’s congressional liaison noted that those markings were incomplete, might have been made in error and were buried in a chain of emails.
The fact that Clinton received messages with those partial markings, Jason Herring wrote, “is not clear evidence of knowledge or intent.”
In another case, the GOP chairmen point to Clinton’s claim before Congress that her attorneys “went through every single email” while deciding which emails belonged in a federal storehouse and which could be deleted.
Comey later said that, in fact, her attorneys “did not individually read the content of all of her emails” but instead looked at “header information” and “search terms” to separate the roughly 30,000 emails that Clinton claimed were work-related from the similarly sized batch of messages that she said were personal. Comey said that the FBI discovered “several thousand” allegedly personal emails that were actually related to her official duties.
Those two statements are not necessarily at odds.
“’Went through’ and ‘read’ are two different things,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University.
“There’s some ambiguity there,” he added. “Consequently, there’s some uncertainty about whether the fact she was asserting — ‘went through’ — is false, since it doesn’t necessarily mean ‘read every email.’”
Partly because of those types of ambiguities, it’s not common for perjury charges to be brought over testimony before Congress.
“The questions of the witnesses in Congress tends to be sloppier and looser,” said Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore and former lawyer for both the House and Senate, who recently wrote a book called “The Polarized Congress.”
“Congressmen leave far more wiggle-room than professionals like prosecutors questioning witnesses on the witness stand.”
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the now largely defunct Benghazi committee, is a former prosecutor who is known for approaching congressional witnesses with precise, strategic lines of questioning. But other Republican members of the committee don’t have the same background.
Spokespeople for Chaffetz and Goodlatte did not respond to inquiries about the merits of the legal arguments.
Democrats have written off the GOP’s call for a prosecution, insisting that the move is merely a political gesture meant to attack Clinton’s credibility.
“It is clear that Secretary Clinton was telling the truth based on the facts she had at the time, and this Republican perjury referral is making a mockery out of congressional authority and trivializing our procedures for political purposes,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Oversight panel, said in a statement.
To be sure, Clinton has repeatedly made statements about her email system over the course of the last year and a half that were later proven false by the FBI.
She has been forced to walk back her claims that there was no classified information on the messages she sent and received. A total of 113 emails contained information that was classified at the time the messages were sent, Comey asserted last month.
She also insisted that all of the work-related emails were given to the State Department for safekeeping, though in fact thousands were marked as personal and deleted.
The FBI has every right to launch a preliminary investigation into allegations that she lied to Congress based on the recommendation of the GOP chairmen, noted Gillers, the professor from New York University.
But unless they can dig up concrete proof that Clinton knew she was lying under oath, the probe might end there.
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“If the case were just, ‘Did Hillary Clinton tell things to Congress that turned out not to be true?’ I think the answer there is, yes,” said Tyler Doyle, a partner at the Houston-based law firm Smyser Kaplan & Veselka.
“Can it be said with certainty, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she willfully made such a statement?” he added.
“That’s tougher.”
[h=1]GOP preps tough perjury case against Clinton[/h]
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1.8K
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By Julian Hattem - 08/19/16 06:01 AM EDT
House Republicans are doubling down in their effort to bring perjury charges against Hillary Clinton over her testimony last year to the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
GOP lawmakers have claimed that the Democratic presidential nominee broke the law by lying under oath about her private email setup during her marathon appearance in October.
Next month, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee plan to make the issue a central part of a hearing with senior officials from the FBI, a committee aide said on Thursday. Legally, the GOP faces a tough case. Politically, however, raising the perjury allegations would be a way to keep the issue of Clinton’s truthfulness in the public eye throughout the fall as she battles Republican nominee Donald Trump for the White House.
Proving that someone committed perjury means overcoming a high hurdle: that the person knowingly told a falsehood under oath.
Convincing lawyers at the Department of Justice to take the case would also be difficult, because prosecutors would have to prove that what the former secretary of State said during the 11-hour hearing was directly at odds with the truth.
“There is no case,” said Stephen Ryan, a former federal prosecutor and general counsel for the Democratic-run Senate Government Affairs Committee, bluntly.
“Even if you tried to step back from the politically laden nature that this was the Democratic presidential nominee and you look at it, there’s no way the Department of Justice would touch a case like that.”
“There’s just no appeal to this case, other than the political appeal,” added Ryan, who said he is not involved in the presidential race.
Politically, hearings, letters and the other trappings of Washington could be useful for the GOP.
Polls have consistently shown that voters have doubts about Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness.
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, the Democratic candidate for the Senate in her state, even was tripped up this week. On three occasions, she sidestepped questions from CNN about whether she believed Clinton was honest before her campaign released a statement underlying her trust in the presidential nominee.
Even if the perjury allegations don’t save Trump, they could help down-ballot Republicans fighting against the current. Polls in Virginia and Colorado, both battleground states, have shown Trump running behind Clinton by double-digits.
The GOP heads of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees outlined the potential case against Clinton in a joint letter this week to Washington’s top federal prosecutor.
In their six-page letter, Reps. Bob Goodlatte (Va.) and Jason Chaffetz (Utah) pointed to four instances during which the former secretary of State “appear[ed] to implicate” two criminal laws barring perjury and false statements.
“The evidence collected by the [FBI] during its investigation of Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email system during her time as secretary of State appears to directly contradict several aspects of her sworn testimony,” they told U.S. Attorney Channing Phillips.
The Justice Department decided last month not to press charges against Clinton for mishandling sensitive material after a yearlong FBI investigation.
Goodlatte and Chaffetz, in their letter, noted that the FBI discovered classification markings on three of the emails in Clinton’s inbox, seemingly disproving her assertion that “nothing was marked classified at the time I sent or received it.”
But in a letter to Capitol Hill this week, the FBI’s congressional liaison noted that those markings were incomplete, might have been made in error and were buried in a chain of emails.
The fact that Clinton received messages with those partial markings, Jason Herring wrote, “is not clear evidence of knowledge or intent.”
In another case, the GOP chairmen point to Clinton’s claim before Congress that her attorneys “went through every single email” while deciding which emails belonged in a federal storehouse and which could be deleted.
Comey later said that, in fact, her attorneys “did not individually read the content of all of her emails” but instead looked at “header information” and “search terms” to separate the roughly 30,000 emails that Clinton claimed were work-related from the similarly sized batch of messages that she said were personal. Comey said that the FBI discovered “several thousand” allegedly personal emails that were actually related to her official duties.
Those two statements are not necessarily at odds.
“’Went through’ and ‘read’ are two different things,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University.
“There’s some ambiguity there,” he added. “Consequently, there’s some uncertainty about whether the fact she was asserting — ‘went through’ — is false, since it doesn’t necessarily mean ‘read every email.’”
Partly because of those types of ambiguities, it’s not common for perjury charges to be brought over testimony before Congress.
“The questions of the witnesses in Congress tends to be sloppier and looser,” said Charles Tiefer, a law professor at the University of Baltimore and former lawyer for both the House and Senate, who recently wrote a book called “The Polarized Congress.”
“Congressmen leave far more wiggle-room than professionals like prosecutors questioning witnesses on the witness stand.”
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the now largely defunct Benghazi committee, is a former prosecutor who is known for approaching congressional witnesses with precise, strategic lines of questioning. But other Republican members of the committee don’t have the same background.
Spokespeople for Chaffetz and Goodlatte did not respond to inquiries about the merits of the legal arguments.
Democrats have written off the GOP’s call for a prosecution, insisting that the move is merely a political gesture meant to attack Clinton’s credibility.
“It is clear that Secretary Clinton was telling the truth based on the facts she had at the time, and this Republican perjury referral is making a mockery out of congressional authority and trivializing our procedures for political purposes,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member of the Oversight panel, said in a statement.
To be sure, Clinton has repeatedly made statements about her email system over the course of the last year and a half that were later proven false by the FBI.
She has been forced to walk back her claims that there was no classified information on the messages she sent and received. A total of 113 emails contained information that was classified at the time the messages were sent, Comey asserted last month.
She also insisted that all of the work-related emails were given to the State Department for safekeeping, though in fact thousands were marked as personal and deleted.
The FBI has every right to launch a preliminary investigation into allegations that she lied to Congress based on the recommendation of the GOP chairmen, noted Gillers, the professor from New York University.
But unless they can dig up concrete proof that Clinton knew she was lying under oath, the probe might end there.
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“If the case were just, ‘Did Hillary Clinton tell things to Congress that turned out not to be true?’ I think the answer there is, yes,” said Tyler Doyle, a partner at the Houston-based law firm Smyser Kaplan & Veselka.
“Can it be said with certainty, beyond a reasonable doubt, that she willfully made such a statement?” he added.
“That’s tougher.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/...itting-felonies-in-pursuit-of-hillary-clinton
Felonious cocksuckers, SUCKS to a Righty, doesn' it?
House Republicans apparently committing felonies in pursuit of Hillary Clinton
By RobRoy2
Thursday Aug 18, 2016 · 7:37 PM PDT
She's still leading despite all the bullshit being thrown at her.
Yet another story whose full import won’t be discussed anywhere that the majority of Americans are likely to see it:
Felonious cocksuckers, SUCKS to a Righty, doesn' it?
House Republicans apparently committing felonies in pursuit of Hillary Clinton
By RobRoy2
Thursday Aug 18, 2016 · 7:37 PM PDT
She's still leading despite all the bullshit being thrown at her.
Yet another story whose full import won’t be discussed anywhere that the majority of Americans are likely to see it:
After the Director of the FBI fully exonerated Hillary Clinton and made clear that she broke no laws and told no lies, House Republicans took the extraordinary step of demanding copies if the FBI’s notes from its interview with Clinton. That request was granted, and almost immediately, information from those notes began leaking to the media. The trouble: every word of those notes is, by definition, classified information.
Jennifer Palmieri, the Communications Director for the Hillary Clinton campaign, tweeted this evening that she “Would remind all that this material is classified. So this is leaking of classified material.” Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta added that he’s “Already hearing from people who have been contacted by reporters with knowledge of the content of their interviews in FBI 302’s.”
But, just as with PutinLeaks, we are told over and over that we shouldn’t care about how this material came to light, much less that it was cherry-picked and artfully arranged to cast a false light on the whole truth.Jennifer Palmieri, the Communications Director for the Hillary Clinton campaign, tweeted this evening that she “Would remind all that this material is classified. So this is leaking of classified material.” Clinton Campaign Chair John Podesta added that he’s “Already hearing from people who have been contacted by reporters with knowledge of the content of their interviews in FBI 302’s.”
