Judicial Watch has taken the lead in pursuing government records of Hillary Clinton’s sketchy use of at least 13 devices for emails while serving as Secretary of State, as well as her controversial decision to set up a private server.
Judicial Watch’s FOIA requests have resulted in quite a few bombshells. Among them the fact that Hillary sent classified materials via email to her daughter and other such revelations that show the need to reopen the Hillary investigations.
Judicial Watch’s latest batch of FOIA-acquired emails reveals still more classified information sent via email and show that Hillary herself “had detailed knowledge” of the security risks associated with her non-State Department email system.
Judicial Watch today released 78 pages of new documents from the U.S. Department of State containing emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent and received over her unsecure, non-“state.gov” email system. Three of the email exchanges include classified information. The emails also reveal that Clinton had detailed knowledge about the security issues with in her non-State Department email system.On March 8, 2011, Hillary Clinton sent classified information regarding Bahrain to Justin Cooper, who reportedly had no security clearance, with instructions to show it to Bill Clinton. Cooper was the Bill Clinton aide, who asked State Department IT specialist Bryan Pagliano to build a server for Mrs. Clinton in early 2009 as she started her new job as Secretary of State.On August 24, 2010, Clinton emailed Cooper additional classified information to print, including the secretary’s call sheet for Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.In a February 13, 2010, email exchange, Hillary Clinton passed along classified information to Cooper, which originally was sent to Cheryl Mills (Clinton’s then-chief of staff) by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual. The classified information included a note from Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa to Hillary Clinton. In the email to Cooper, Clinton asks him to “look for Espinosa’s note and respond.”The documents are part of the accelerated schedule of production ordered by U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg, which requires the State Department to complete processing by September 28, 2018 the remaining documents of the 72,000 pages recovered by the FBI in its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illicit email server. These new classified and other emails appear to be among those that Clinton had attempted to delete or had otherwise failed to disclose.
Hillary’s intent to destroy or hide incriminating data shows her knowledge of the lax security of her private server and her understanding of the lack of care she took with classified information. For example, the FBI reported that her housekeeper had unauthorized access to Hillary’s SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) and routinely printed out classified materials from that location.
Judicial Watch continues:
“The fact that Hillary Clinton and her agents tried to destroy or hide emails shows how she flagrantly and knowingly violated the laws that protect classified information and government records,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “And these new emails refute Hillary Clinton’s repeated claims of having little or no knowledge about her email system. She clearly was fully in charge of setting up her outlaw email system and overseeing its use. When will the Justice Department act?”Last year, the FBI uncovered 72,000 pages of documents Clinton attempted to delete or did not otherwise disclose. Until the court intervened and established a new deadline, the State Department had been slow-walking the release of those documents at a rate that would have required Judicial Watch and the American people to wait until at least 2020 to see all the releasable Clinton material.Prior to the FBI investigation, Clinton repeatedly stated that the 55,000 pages of documents she turned over to the State Department in December 2014 included all of her work-related emails. In response to a court order in another Judicial Watch case, she declared under penalty of perjury that she had “directed that all my emails on clintonemail.com in my custody that were or are potentially federal records be provided to the Department of State, and on information and belief, this has been done.”In a related case involving emails found on the laptop of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, who is the husband of former Clinton aide Huma Abedin, Judicial Watch has discovered that Clinton failed to turn over 67 additional emails, bringing the total to at least 694 emails that Hillary Clinton failed to turn over and further contradicting a statement that, “as far as she knew,” all of her government emails had been turned over to the State Department.
This batch of emails also reveals discussions between Clinton aides, one of whom didn’t have security clearance, about how to address various “system vulnerabilities” of which Hillary was aware. At no time in these emails does she mention wiping the server or emails “like with a cloth.”
The new emails reveal Clinton’s apparent knowledge of “system vulnerabilities” with her non-state.gov email address.One email on June 6, 2011 from Clinton aide Justin Cooper, who asked State Department IT aide Bryan Pagliano to set up Clinton’s private email server, warned about “overseas” security issues with her emails and BlackBerry devices.“All of your older messages will remain on the server. There is a way for me to move everything onto the new device, but the security whizzes have convinced me that this is a horrible thing to do because you also transfer any viruses, spyware and junk overseas providers hide on there,” Cooper wrote in the email. “We also have some new security features and policies [sic] that I would like to add to any new berry you have –the most noticeable difference will require a more complex password. It is a constant fight to keep up with the security measures and unfortunately we keep seeing reminders of why we need to.”Throughout the FBI investigation, and congressional probes into the private email server, Clinton claimed she wasn’t involved in issues involving the “email system.”But new emails show exchanges between Clinton and top aides, like Pagliano and Cooper, who helped to set up the servers, discussing backups of emails and the setting up of Clinton’s ipad.Cooper reportedly had no security clearance.
With Americans’ trust in government at a near all-time low, this is something that the Department of Justice must investigate. Failure to do so simply reinforces Americans’ growing belief that the rule of law is applied unequally, with the politically-connected enjoying immunity from laws that govern the rest of us.
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