A House committee charged with investigating the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, issued subpoenas for the emails on Wednesday afternoon.
The committee's chairman, South Carolina Congressman Trey Gowdy, said that Republicans involved in the effort would use 'every legal means at our disposal' to get a hold of correspondence the former secretary of state sent from her Clintonemail.com account pertaining to the attack.
[h=1]Hillary Clinton’s use of private e-mail reflects poor judgment[/h] By Editorial Board March 4 at 2:57 PM
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON has served as first lady, a senator from New York and secretary of state. She is no newcomer to the corridors of power. Her decision to exclusively use a private e-mail account while secretary suggests she made a deliberate decision to shield her messages from scrutiny. It was a mistake that reflects poor judgment about a public trust.
Under the rules as they existed during Ms. Clinton’s time as secretary, from 2009 to 2013, government officials were not strictly required to use official e-mail accounts. However, in 2011 the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said, “We are definitely instructed that we need to conduct all of our work on our government accounts . . . .” He said it was “administration policy” to use government accounts. Did this not apply to Ms. Clinton at the State Department?
If government officials did use private e-mails for public business, they were required to consider the e-mails to be equivalent to government records and to preserve them. Ms. Clinton took her e-mail with her when she left office in 2013, and then, in December, when asked by the State Department, turned over 55,000 pages of e-mails from the private account. Her spokesman said that in cases when she wrote to department officials at their formal addresses, those e-mails should still be in the department’s system. President Obama signed amendments to a law last November that require government employees who use private e-mail for official business to forward it to government systems within 20 days.
Ms. Clinton is not the first high-ranking government official to write private e-mails about public business. But a host of questions arise from her decision to use private e-mail exclusively while serving as secretary. How secure was the private e-mail? What was her motive? Did anyone ask why the secretary of state was breaking with an announced administration policy? Why did she not turn over the e-mails promptly upon leaving office? Has she withheld anything?
It may be that Ms. Clinton used private e-mail because she anticipated Republicans would be on the prowl for scandal and wanted to control what part of her record might be scrutinized. Such fears would have had ample basis, but they do not excuse a penchant for control and secrecy that she has exhibited before — and that remains a worrying attribute as Ms. Clinton possibly enters a presidential campaign. Nor is fear of partisan criticism an even remotely valid excuse for using a private channel for official business.
There in lies the real problem. Ms. Clinton essentially privatized her e-mail , reserving to herself the decision of what should be in the record. M s. Clinton’s spokesman said she followed the “ letter and spirit of the rules .” The letter, perhaps, was followed, but certainly not the spirit. If people aspire to public service, they should behave as stewards of a public trust, and that includes the records — all of them. M s. Clinton’s use of private e-mail shows poor regard for that public trust.
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON has served as first lady, a senator from New York and secretary of state. She is no newcomer to the corridors of power. Her decision to exclusively use a private e-mail account while secretary suggests she made a deliberate decision to shield her messages from scrutiny. It was a mistake that reflects poor judgment about a public trust.
Under the rules as they existed during Ms. Clinton’s time as secretary, from 2009 to 2013, government officials were not strictly required to use official e-mail accounts. However, in 2011 the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said, “We are definitely instructed that we need to conduct all of our work on our government accounts . . . .” He said it was “administration policy” to use government accounts. Did this not apply to Ms. Clinton at the State Department?
If government officials did use private e-mails for public business, they were required to consider the e-mails to be equivalent to government records and to preserve them. Ms. Clinton took her e-mail with her when she left office in 2013, and then, in December, when asked by the State Department, turned over 55,000 pages of e-mails from the private account. Her spokesman said that in cases when she wrote to department officials at their formal addresses, those e-mails should still be in the department’s system. President Obama signed amendments to a law last November that require government employees who use private e-mail for official business to forward it to government systems within 20 days.
Ms. Clinton is not the first high-ranking government official to write private e-mails about public business. But a host of questions arise from her decision to use private e-mail exclusively while serving as secretary. How secure was the private e-mail? What was her motive? Did anyone ask why the secretary of state was breaking with an announced administration policy? Why did she not turn over the e-mails promptly upon leaving office? Has she withheld anything?
It may be that Ms. Clinton used private e-mail because she anticipated Republicans would be on the prowl for scandal and wanted to control what part of her record might be scrutinized. Such fears would have had ample basis, but they do not excuse a penchant for control and secrecy that she has exhibited before — and that remains a worrying attribute as Ms. Clinton possibly enters a presidential campaign. Nor is fear of partisan criticism an even remotely valid excuse for using a private channel for official business.
There in lies the real problem. Ms. Clinton essentially privatized her e-mail , reserving to herself the decision of what should be in the record. M s. Clinton’s spokesman said she followed the “ letter and spirit of the rules .” The letter, perhaps, was followed, but certainly not the spirit. If people aspire to public service, they should behave as stewards of a public trust, and that includes the records — all of them. M s. Clinton’s use of private e-mail shows poor regard for that public trust.
Private email would allow Mrs. Clinton to communicate with people in and out of government, separate from the system maintained at the State Department.
An aide who had been with the Clintons since the 1990s, Justin Cooper, registered the domain name, clintonemail.com, which had a server linked to the Clintons’ home address in Chappaqua, N.Y. Obtaining an account from that domain became a symbol of status within the family’s inner circle, conferring prestige and closeness to the secretary.
And Mrs. Clinton used this private address for everything — from State Department matters to planning her daughter’s wedding and issues related to the family’s sprawling philanthropic foundation.
An aide who had been with the Clintons since the 1990s, Justin Cooper, registered the domain name, clintonemail.com, which had a server linked to the Clintons’ home address in Chappaqua, N.Y. Obtaining an account from that domain became a symbol of status within the family’s inner circle, conferring prestige and closeness to the secretary.
And Mrs. Clinton used this private address for everything — from State Department matters to planning her daughter’s wedding and issues related to the family’s sprawling philanthropic foundation.
[h=1]Exclusive: Internal cable from Clinton State Department office barred use of personal email[/h]
By Catherine Herridge
Published March 06, 2015
An internal 2011 State Department cable, obtained by Fox News, shows that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons -- while at the same time, Clinton conducted all government business on a private account.
Sent to diplomatic and consular staff in June 2011, the unclassified cable, bearing Clinton's electronic signature, made clear to employees they were expected to "avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts." The message also said employees should not "auto-forward Department email to personal email accounts which is prohibited by Department policy.”
The cable underscores that government policy strongly discouraged officials from using personal email and violators faced disciplinary action, even though Clinton for years relied exclusively on hers – and her own server -- to conduct official business. The White House, without condemning Clinton’s activities, has made clear that employees were urged to use government accounts.
The 2011 cable, bearing the subject line “Securing Personal E-mail Accounts,” told employees to secure personal/home email addresses, given increased targeting of government employees by “online adversaries.” It also emphasized that these personal accounts should never be used for government business and cited department procedures which prohibit the practices.
The cited section from the Foreign Affairs Manual states: “It is the Department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized AIS [the authorized department information system] which has the proper level of security control to provide nonrepudiation, authentication and encryption, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information. … Employees should be aware that transmissions from the Department’s OpenNet to and from non-U.S. Government Internet addresses, and other .gov or .mil addresses, unless specifically directed through an approved secure means, traverse the Internet unencrypted.”
In addition to the 2011 cable, a 2012 inspector general report chastised a former ambassador to Kenya for – among other issues – using commercial email to do official business. That ambassador, Scott Gration, resigned shortly before the scathing IG report was released.
In 2013, the FBI raided the home of former CIA Director David Petraeus. Petraeus pleaded guilty this week to the improper storage of classified material, in this case keeping several black notebooks documenting his wartime career in an unlocked drawer. Fox News asked the bureau’s senior spokesman if they were concerned the servers at Clinton’s home might also contain classified information, and, therefore, were also improperly stored.
Asked if they were “officially looking into the matter,” FBI spokesman Michael Kortan said: “We’re not. You may want to check with State.”
Fox News asked the State Department how the 2011 cable, sent under Clinton’s signature, was consistent with her own use of a personal email account, and there was no immediate response.
By Catherine Herridge
Published March 06, 2015
An internal 2011 State Department cable, obtained by Fox News, shows that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office told employees not to use personal email for security reasons -- while at the same time, Clinton conducted all government business on a private account.
Sent to diplomatic and consular staff in June 2011, the unclassified cable, bearing Clinton's electronic signature, made clear to employees they were expected to "avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts." The message also said employees should not "auto-forward Department email to personal email accounts which is prohibited by Department policy.”
The cable underscores that government policy strongly discouraged officials from using personal email and violators faced disciplinary action, even though Clinton for years relied exclusively on hers – and her own server -- to conduct official business. The White House, without condemning Clinton’s activities, has made clear that employees were urged to use government accounts.
The 2011 cable, bearing the subject line “Securing Personal E-mail Accounts,” told employees to secure personal/home email addresses, given increased targeting of government employees by “online adversaries.” It also emphasized that these personal accounts should never be used for government business and cited department procedures which prohibit the practices.
The cited section from the Foreign Affairs Manual states: “It is the Department’s general policy that normal day-to-day operations be conducted on an authorized AIS [the authorized department information system] which has the proper level of security control to provide nonrepudiation, authentication and encryption, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information. … Employees should be aware that transmissions from the Department’s OpenNet to and from non-U.S. Government Internet addresses, and other .gov or .mil addresses, unless specifically directed through an approved secure means, traverse the Internet unencrypted.”
In addition to the 2011 cable, a 2012 inspector general report chastised a former ambassador to Kenya for – among other issues – using commercial email to do official business. That ambassador, Scott Gration, resigned shortly before the scathing IG report was released.
In 2013, the FBI raided the home of former CIA Director David Petraeus. Petraeus pleaded guilty this week to the improper storage of classified material, in this case keeping several black notebooks documenting his wartime career in an unlocked drawer. Fox News asked the bureau’s senior spokesman if they were concerned the servers at Clinton’s home might also contain classified information, and, therefore, were also improperly stored.
Asked if they were “officially looking into the matter,” FBI spokesman Michael Kortan said: “We’re not. You may want to check with State.”
Fox News asked the State Department how the 2011 cable, sent under Clinton’s signature, was consistent with her own use of a personal email account, and there was no immediate response.
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k:[h=1]Lawrence O’Donnell: Hillary’s Email System was ‘Designed to Defy the Law’[/h] by Andrew Desiderio | 5:22 pm, March 5th, 2015 video 123
MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has been surprisingly all over the Hillary Clinton emails story since it broke – landing himself in an RNC ad, no less — and on Thursday said the former Secretary of State’s entire system was “designed to defy the law.” That law is, of course, the Freedom of Information Act.
In the segment, first flagged by America Rising, Alex Wagner pointed out that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also chose which of his emails to release. O’Donnell said, though, he has been surprised at the reactions from liberals who have pointed to George W. Bush as the “standard” on transparency — “something they [liberals] normally find to be evil on everything.”
“Bush’s emails were legally available to everyone,” O’Donnell said. “Hillary Clinton’s system was designed to defy Freedom of Information Act requests, which is designed to defy the law.”
He went on to say that the Freedom of Information Act was a “decades-long liberal crusade” since the Nixon Administration. So, O’Donnell said, the law that Clinton is defying is a “liberal” one. Wagner asked him if this hurts Clinton with the liberal base, and O’Donnell said it doesn’t because voters simply follow an absolute partisan “devotion” to their candidates.
Watch the video below, via MSNBC:
In the segment, first flagged by America Rising, Alex Wagner pointed out that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also chose which of his emails to release. O’Donnell said, though, he has been surprised at the reactions from liberals who have pointed to George W. Bush as the “standard” on transparency — “something they [liberals] normally find to be evil on everything.”
“Bush’s emails were legally available to everyone,” O’Donnell said. “Hillary Clinton’s system was designed to defy Freedom of Information Act requests, which is designed to defy the law.”
He went on to say that the Freedom of Information Act was a “decades-long liberal crusade” since the Nixon Administration. So, O’Donnell said, the law that Clinton is defying is a “liberal” one. Wagner asked him if this hurts Clinton with the liberal base, and O’Donnell said it doesn’t because voters simply follow an absolute partisan “devotion” to their candidates.
Watch the video below, via MSNBC:
I see I’m not the only one who has that perception.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/03/05/clinton-private-emails/
Jack Shafer of Politico sums up the whole Clinton ordeal, why the press is losing its mind and why Hillary can do little to defend herself, in one sentence:
“Whether deserved or not, the Clintons have a reputation of behaving as if they’re above the rules and shouldn’t be scrutinized.”
The narrative is clear. A litany of scandals has the public utterly convinced she believes herself above the rules, like she is accountable to no one.
It's not the Clintons who are above the rules, chosen Democrats are.
If the power players within the Democrat party don't want Hillary anointed Queen - and it would appear they don't, because someone leaked this to the NYTs and the Democrat Paper of Record went ahead and printed it - then this will end her campaign before it's even begun.
