Friday, July 08, 2016

State Dept. to Reopen Suspended Clinton Email Investigation

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State Dept. Inspector General Steve Linick

by Gaius Publius

The State Dept. has announced that it's reopening the suspended Clinton email-and-server investigation, now that the FBI investigation is concluded. (For my analysis of the Comey announcement, see this: "Picking Up James Comey’s Pieces — What He Did, What He Should Have Done & Why".)

The AP reports:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and top aides.

Spokesman John Kirby says the emails probe is restarting now that the Justice Department isn't pursuing a criminal prosecution. The State Department suspended its review in April to avoid interfering with the FBI's inquiry.

Kirby set no deadline for the investigation's completion. ...
Which means there will be more from the State Dept. IG. Apparently, at least from this, the State Dept. investigation was never closed. I don't think that hit most people's radars, likely because it was not widely reported that way.

Many view the original State Dept. IG report on Clinton's email and server usage as damaging to her reputation, if not damaging to her chances of winning the election. It will be interesting to see what else they discover, if anything. (The original report is available for reading or download here.)

Trouble for Clinton's Aides?

The AP goes on to note there could be trouble ahead for Clinton's top aides:
Kirby said this week former officials [i.e., Clinton's former top aides in the State Dept.] can still face "administrative sanctions." The most serious is loss of security clearances, which could complicate Clinton's naming of a national security team if she becomes president.

Beyond the Democratic front-runner, the probe is most likely examining confidants Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan and Huma Abedin.
According to this, loss of security clearance could pose a problem for members of a future President Clinton's national security team.

Or maybe not. In a Washington Post article entitled "I’m a lawyer specializing in security clearance cases. Hillary Clinton got off easy." writer John V. Berry, a "Virginia lawyer who specializes in cases involving security clearances" notes the following:
Security clearances are ultimately governed by presidential executive order, which means that a president can decide who does and doesn’t get a security clearance, and can change the rules. Thus, as a practical matter, a President Clinton would not face a problem obtaining access to classified information, and she could overrule any recommendations denying clearances to her trusted aides.
In order to get to the point where she could make those rulings, her candidacy will need to survive through November. Another State Dept. IG report could present another hurdle in that long march.

GP
 

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3 Comments:

At 6:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

much ado about bupkus.

As the article says, the prez can overrule... everything. obamanation already overruled or dictated that $hillbillary, reagan's 10th heir, will not face prosecution for committing crimes (Comey described real crimes committed). He will surely quash whateverthefuck the state dept. is doing and/or dictate that it come to the conclusion that a security "oopsie" in an ongoing scheme to commit fraud and corruption is not worth an indictment.

I suppose if this keeps up, however, obamanation may feel obliged to issue a blanket pardon for the pos so $he can carry on the reagan and cheney legacies with impunity.

more xxFTAs (TTIP and TPP...) and lots more perpetual wars, here we come.

 
At 12:19 PM, Blogger jvb2718 said...

This and the hysteria in cleveland this week do bring up an interesting perspective on the odious choices foisted upon voters this cycle.

Rs have been tepid, at best, in their embrace of herr drumpf. Forget about the conventioneers. They're paid shills for the teevee, even notwithstanding those who still wanted to pledge cruz or whomever.

It's the delusion-fear-hate-greed electorate, who ALWAYS participate, who have been given a reason to vote drumpf -- that being HE ISN'T $HILLBILLARY. An awful lot of the DFHG devotees can ONLY abide herr drumpf BECAUSE AT LEAST HE AIN'T HER.

This election is going to be the very first TOTAL anti- election in our history.

The vast majority of votes for $hillbillary will actually be votes AGAINST herr drumpf's mussolini imitation.

The vast majority of votes for mussol... um.. herr drumpf will actually be votes AGAINST the worst D candidate in history, $hillbillary and her corruption, dishonesty and unindicted feloniousness.

Can a well/unfortunately timed release of yet ANOTHER investigation into $hillbillary's felonies and dishonesty push herr drumpf over the top? Can it motivate $hillbillary into more self-damning lies as $he tries to cover up?

There is no upside to this for the fascist D party (and their ideologically identical R establishment) who wants a 10th reagan and 5th cheney admin.

The left will hold their noses, close their eyes and probably drink heavily while they vote against the orange malignancy and his dystopian myopia. The rest, who are very energized by every development wrt $hillbillary (and her long, sordid record of deeds), will hold their noses and pray to their imaginary cosmic muffins as they vote against the lying sack-o-shit neocon neoliberal felonious warmongering corporate whore with no shame.

I remember in 1980 having a little unease about voting for Carter. He'd fucked up the Iran thing and refused to prosecute reagan for treason (iran contra, interfering with hostage release) and He and Volcker had left us with a deep recession and 14% inflation... but reagan was selling the same schlock as herr drumpf (and everyone in-between)... tax cuts combined with massive spending increases ... and no shame about doing it.

American voters were fucking imbeciles in 1980 for falling for that "voodoo economics" horseshit. And they'll fall for it again... and I would not be surprised if herr drumpf gets the chance to grow into a hitler moustache to go with his weave-over.

2 possible plusses if this happens:

1) $hillbillary will be indicted as the FIRST act of a drumpf doj.
2) The economic crater created by steroidal reaganomics will cause this whole house of cards to collapse and burn to "bolivian". Maybe the Russians or Chinese, who will inherit our claim to being the "only superpower" can do a better job than americans... who just seem to be unable to help themselves in fucking up everything they touch.

 
At 7:01 AM, Blogger jvb2718 said...

It is looking like wikileaks of $hillbillary's e-ms is starting to reveal what a lot of us knew HAD TO BE TRUE: The corruption nexus of the Clinton foundation and us government policy via $hillbillary being secstate.

We now see that the reason $hillbillary used a private e-m was to keep her corruption (trading govt. favors for foundation donations) away from FOIA's eyes.

It's also been reported that comey recommended charges wrt this corruption but that wall street lackey (served on the ny fed) and $hillbillary/obamanation surrogate Loretta lynch refused to do so.

$hillbillary, neolib Ds and Rs and herr drumpf (drumpf U and virtually every single one of his other consumer frauds) must dream of the day when all media and the internet will just leave their fraud schemes the fuck alone so they can mine the depths of our ignorance for their wealth unimpeded.

I hope that day is still in the future.

 

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