The slick and slippery language of this statement gives her multiple escape routes should any damning emails come to light, having been buried like needles in the haystack of the 55,000 page document dump released by her lawyer, or supplied by other parties to those emails (sent to/sent from/cc'd). I have little doubt that such emails have been collected by the GOP, awaiting release should she win the Dem. primary.
(Full disclosure - I'm an attorney who spent decades parsing the exact meanings of language in legal documents, and teaching Legal Writing to law students.)
"While I do not know what information may be responsive for purposes of this lawsuit, I have directed that all my emails on clintonmail.com in my custody that were or potentially were federal records be provided to the Department of State, and on information and belief, this has been done."
If one will merely click on the article's link to Ms. Clinton's declaration, one will observe that Ms. Clinton does not declare that "she has turned over to the government all of the e-mails
that were federal records," as Ms. Heldermann suggests, but instead merely asserts that Ms. Clinton has
directed that those e-mails be produced and that she believes that they have been -- of course, only
after equivocating that she's not sure which e-mails are considered "responsive."
Disclaimer 1: she does not know what information may be responsive
Disclaimer 2: she directed others to do it - By stating that "she directed", she covers her ass if damaging/"missing" emails later come to light - well it wasn't
her fault if an employee failed to follow her directive, you see.
Disclaimer 3: "in my custody" does not specify an exact time, i.e, she does not state EVER in my custody, or "in my custody" on a date certain, implying that some USED to be in her custody, but may have been deleted before her most recent email purge
Disclaimer 4: "information and belief". A standard qualifier used to protect clients from perjury charges.
information and belief
n. a phrase often used in legal pleadings (complaints and answers in a lawsuit), declarations under penalty of perjury, and affidavits under oath, in which the person making the statement or allegation qualifies it. In effect, he/she says: "I am only stating what I have been told, and I believe it." This makes clear about which statements he/she does not have sure-fire, personal knowledge (perhaps it is just hearsay or surmise), and protects the maker of the statement from claims of outright falsehood or perjury. The typical phraseology is: "Plaintiff is informed and believes, and upon such information and belief alleges that defendant diverted the funds to his own use." (See: declaration, affidavit, complaint, answer, perjury)
Ah, the great Clintonian tradition of "it depends on what the meaning of "is" is, lives on. HRC, going down in the history books as The Great Equivocator
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