FBI to Interview Hillary Aides in Next Phase of Their Email Investigation
147 agents working to determine if there is a “prosecutable case”
Despite her nonchalance about the issue, Hillary Clinton’s email problems are not going away. The FBI investigation has entered a new phase as the FBI is set to interview Hillary’s longtime and closest aides.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Federal prosecutors investigating the possible mishandling of classified materials on Hillary Clinton’s private email server have begun the process of setting up formal interviews with some of her longtime and closest aides, according to two people familiar with the probe, an indication that the inquiry is moving into its final phases.
Those interviews and the final review of the case, however, could still take many weeks, all but guaranteeing that the investigation will continue to dog Clinton’s presidential campaign through most, if not all, of the remaining presidential primaries.
No dates have been set for questioning the advisors, but a federal prosecutor in recent weeks has called their lawyers to alert them that he would soon be doing so, the sources said. Prosecutors also are expected to seek an interview with Clinton herself, though the timing remains unclear.
The interviews indicate that the FBI investigation of the server and recovery of deleted emails is coming to a close and that the next phase of the investigation will soon begin.
The Los Angeles Times continues:
The interviews by FBI agents and prosecutors will play a significant role in helping them better understand whether Clinton or her aides knowingly or negligently discussed classified government secrets over a non-secure email system when she served as secretary of State.
The meetings also are an indication that much of the investigators’ background work – recovering deleted emails, understanding how the server operated and determining whether it was breached – is nearing completion.
“The interviews are critical to understand the volume of information they have accumulated,” said James McJunkin, former head of the FBI’s Washington field office. “They are likely nearing the end of the investigation and the agents need to interview these people to put the information in context. They will then spend time aligning these statements with other information, emails, classified documents, etc., to determine whether there is a prosecutable case.”
Watch the report:
For its part, the FBI does not seem to be skimping on allocating resources for the investigation. The Washington Post reports that there are 147 agents involved in the investigation.
For me, the 147 number was eye-popping — suggesting this investigation was far more wide-ranging than I, at least, believed. That doesn’t mean Clinton is guilty — or anything close to it. But it does suggest that this is not a sort of obligatory look-see by the FBI. This is a wide-reaching examination of all of the communications between Clinton and her aides — and no one running for president wants that to be happening as they try to wrap up the party’s presidential nomination.
The general consensus seems to be that Hillary will not be indicted for her private email server, an idea about which both she and Obama are dismissive.
The Washington Post continues:
. . . [A]ccording to legal experts, Clinton is very unlikely to be punished for her exclusive use of a private email server during her time at State since the practice was not forbidden. (Worth noting: Lots of other secretaries of state used private email accounts to supplement their official accounts; none used only a private email account and server.) Potentially more problematic for Clinton is her insistence that she never knowingly sent or received any messages that were marked classified at the time.
Hillary’s defense is that there is no rule or law against having a private email server tucked away in someone’s bathroom. She’s right, there isn’t. However, the very appearance of trickery and deceit, of putting national security at risk so that she could “control the narrative,” is a serious problem for her. It smacks of the dishonest, unethical, and untrustworthy reputation that has dogged her for decades.
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Comments
It is NOT the server, per se, that is the problem. The issue has always been the lack of control over INFORMATION and her lack of supervision of others.
At this point they know she used her unsecured blackberry for classified info. More importantly, they have specific emails of government business that Hillary never turned over contrary to her sworn statement.
The FBI has specific evidence of her breaking the national security laws and perjuring herself. But Hillary is too big to jail.
Dr P. She was using a private unsecured server to conduct official government business – some of which was classified. So yes, using the private server IS and issue along with every thing else.
Does anyone think that the FBI would put 147 agents on a case that was going to turn out to be nothing or something trivial?
Wasted how much manpower with Richard Jewell but cannot catch this runaway donkey. I guess it’s different for the elites and nothing will change that.
Guilty as sin, free as a bird. That’s our democrat front runner for president.
Sure, if it’s the obama administration calling the shots. More agents helps the visuals of the slow-walking scheme leading up to, “there’s just not enough here to indict.” That is much more sellable than if the FBI had put many fewer agents on the supposed project.
“Pics or it didn’t happen.”
The FBI can say they put 1,000 agents on the case. Eventually they have to put up or shut up. Unless I have a verifiable list of agents’ names and see them actively working on the e-mail case, or we get the FBI file for an indictment based on evidence, in my mind it’s a random number on top of empty rhetoric…
… or worse yet, a political ploy to cast an innocent light on the aspiring Dowager Empress Hillary. “We investigated the hell out of it, and didn’t find enough to indict. There’s nothing here.”
So like I said, put up or shut up. “Pics or it didn’t happen.”
“The general consensus seems to be” … idiotic.
The only way to get Hillary’s aides to spill the beans on the Clinton Foundation money laundering operation is to show them that she is never going to be president, because she is going to be indicted (before the election) for mishandling classified material.
Why is it taking 150 agents so long?
Because they’re very thorough, very careful, and know that if they make a significant mistake in their work that mistake will be used as a reason to discard the entire investigation.
How long did it take to get (fill in the blank), the Mafia guy?
High-profile prosecutions are VERY deliberate, time-consuming, and often frustrating.
I’ve worked on the same cases as the feebs. I can’t say I worked with them because they are one arrogant bunch of people.
They are slow walking this because it is Hillary Clinton. Anyone else they would be leaking like a sieve and already have tossed every property she or Bill owned while aggressively pursuing her workers.
Distraction, deflection, outright misrepresentation and a Janet Reno type investigation. In the end AG will declare Hillary free as a bird. We all know she’s guilty as sin.
Our enemies got access to our secrets WITH the permission of BHO.
Just remember that the guy running this investigation for the FBI is the same guy that nailed Martha Stewart for lying to Federal Agents. The agents are likely investigating everything they can before they talk to Hillary. They will want to know the answers to their questions before they even ask them. Huma, Cheryl Mills and Hillary will all need to be very careful in how they answer.
With billions maybe trillions stolen every year by banks and other rent-takers and we get no prosecution.
Let Martha Stewart say one wrong word and it’s federal prison. Biggest waste of tax dollars that didn’t involve green energy ever.
I think the feds track record speaks for itself. No one else would have taken them so long when the rules and penalties for mishandling classified information are so painstakingly spelled out.
It’s not taking a long time because they are thorough. It’s taking them a long time because it is the former wife of a democrat president.
Hillary and her supporters cannot complain about the time it takes for any investigation as they are the primary cause of the delay.
This is analogous to the folks who kill their parents and then ask the court to have mercy on them as they are orphans.
As a spouse of an ex-president, serving as Sec. of State, with aspirations for even higher office, Hillary was breaking completely new ground. Even if her motives were pure as the new driven snow it is difficult to see how she could safely navigate the ethical minefield between the public interest and Clinton. Inc. Its all the harder without a well calibrated moral compass.
‘Even if her motives were pure as the driven snow’, and that train never left the station ever. The Clintons have been corrupt kleptocrats since day zero. They have deliberately structured their ‘foundation’ to take advantage of their power and influence and are dirty as snow in Time’s Square gutter.
The question isn’t why it’s taken so long to investigate them. The question is why they are pushing it now. It’s not like this is the first time they have illegally handled classified info even.
Dirtier than something made out of dirt, covered in some other kind of more filthy dirt, then kicked around in an anthrax laden mudhole in the desert wouldn’t begin to describe the Clintons.
any regular person would already be in federal prison for doing even a fraction of what we know she’s done.
It is hardly Hillary’s fault that she’s more equal before the law than others.
Yeah yeah. Come on, already, FBI. 147 agents over how many months and you still haven’t recommended indictment?
Could you actually be so incompetent? Is Lynch so intimidating?