For those of you who put money on there being more to this Clinton email scandal than what was contained in the already-released files, step forward and collect your prize—this thing isn’t over yet.
Today, advocacy group Judicial Watch released documentation showing an almost five-month gap in the timeline of emails Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chose to return to the State Department last year.
The details, from Judicial Watch:
The documents were produced under court order in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Judicial Watch filed on May 6, 2013 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00687)). The lawsuit was filed after the Obama State Department violated federal law and failed to respond to two separate FOIA requests, including a request for records about the actual production of the emails records by Clinton to the State Department.The first batch of documents obtained by Judicial Watch contains a heavily redacted email from State Department official Eric F. Stein to Margaret P. Grafeld, dated April 21, 2015, with the subject “HRC Emails.” Stein is deputy director of global information systems at the State Department and Grafeld is deputy assistant secretary of global information systems. Stein reports to Grafeld that the “gaps” in Clinton’s emails include:Jan. 21 – March 17, 2009 (Received Messages)Jan. 21 – April 12, 2009 (Sent Messages)Dec. 30, 2012 – Feb. 1, 2013 (Sent Messages)In addition, Stein notes Clinton’s employment timeline as follows:Secretary Hillary ClintonAppointed: January 21, 2009Entry on Duty: January 21, 2009Termination of Appointment: February 1, 2013
Never mind that last month Clinton testified under penalty of perjury that she had “… directed that all of my emails on clintonemail.com in my custody that were or potentially were federal records be provided to the Department of State….”
Late last month DoJ lawyers made much of this oath, arguing that it rendered Judicial Watch’s arguments for more transparency redundant and unreasonable. Fortunately, the judge didn’t buy that argument.
The document dump also reveals something interesting about the way former Chief of Staff to Secretary Clinton Cheryl Mills chose to do business:
The email also contains a chart detailing the first and last emails both sent and received to Clinton’s email address, as documented in the records turned over by Clinton’s lawyers. This chart, information from which is chopped off, reveals a non-state.gov email address Cheryl Mills evidently used to conduct government business. The email address, “cherylmills@gmail.com,” received the last email the State Department currently has from the Clinton’s non-state,gov account.The chart shows a significant email gap lasting 40 days before Miguel Rodriguez, with the email address “Miguel_Rodriguez @clinton.senate.gov,” sends Clinton’s account an email on March 18, 2009. Rodriguez worked in the Clinton State Department and is now a private attorney representing Clinton aide and confidante Huma Abedin in Clinton email-related litigation. This “email gap” information was forwarded to other top officials in the State Department, including Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy.
No wonder her attorneys instructed her to destroy evidence.
Things are starting to roll downhill for Clinton. There’s an argument to be made here that what come out of this investigation will have little to no bearing on the campaign; it’s a fair theory, considering how powerful the Clinton machine is in terms of messaging. However, another email revealed in this latest batch of documents shows that high level officials charged with handling Clinton’s records did her best to avoid a paper trail:
Another new State Department email shows that one of the agency’s top officials for the records management and public disclosure did not want to create a written record about issues. State Department FOIA official Peggy Grafeld, in an October 20, 2014, email wrote to her colleagues,“Fyi. I’d prefer to discuss, rather than email. Thx.” The State Department redacted details about what caused Grafeld’s desire for secrecy.The State Department almost completely redacted several September 25, 2014, “high” importance emails about Clinton’s emails, including information about “earlier conversations and fact finding.”
This particular lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch is one of twenty challenges currently pending against the State Department. Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement today that the organization plans to seek additional discovery and court relief, adding, “Judicial Watch’s discovery of the Clinton email ‘gap’ may take a place in history next to the discovery of the Nixon tapes. The Obama administration and Hillary Clinton have taken their cover-up of the email scandal too far. I suspect that federal courts will want more information, under oath, about the issues raised in these incredible documents.”
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