FBI Formally Confirms Its Investigation Of Hillary Clinton’s Email Server

[Purveyor]

Last edited Mon Feb 8, 2016, 07:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: NBC NEWS

By Pete Williams

In a letter disclosed Monday in a federal court filing, the FBI confirms one of the world’s worst-kept secrets: It is looking into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Why say this at all, since it was widely known to be true? Because in August in response to a judge’s direction, the State Department asked the FBI for information about what it was up to. Sorry, the FBI said at the time, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation.

Now, in a letter dated February 2 and filed in court Monday, the FBI’s general counsel, James Baker, notes that in public statements and congressional testimony, the FBI “has acknowledged generally that it is working on matters related to former Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server.”

Baker says the FBI has not, however, “publicly acknowledged the specific focus, scope or potential targets of any such proceedings.”

Read more: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/fbi-formally-confirms-its-investigation-hillary-clintons-email-server

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Pressure On Lynch To Step Aside In Clinton Email Probe

By Julian Hattem - 02/08/16 06:00 AM EST
Loretta Lynch is on the edge of the spotlight, about to be dragged to the center.

If the FBI finds sufficient evidence to launch a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton or one of her top aides for mishandling classified information, Lynch’s Justice Department will have to decide whether to press ahead.


Even if no evidence of wrongdoing is found, Clinton’s many critics are unlikely to take the word of an appointee of President Obama’s and will doubt that justice has been served.

Already, top Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to be brought in and evaluate the situation.

No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn (Texas) took to the floor of the Senate last week to call for a special counsel to be appointed “because of the conflict of interest by asking Attorney General Lynch to investigate and perhaps even prosecute somebody in the Obama administration.”

MORE...

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/268456-pressure-on-lynch-to-step-aside-in-clinton-email-probe

[MisterP]

1. I hear can Peter Daou dropping a brick from all the way over in SoCal

[azurnoir]

2. rut roh

here we go again

[Purveyor]

3. This shit is about to get real... eom

[azurnoir]

5. ya it is and this is who and how we're supposed to be going into the GE with?

[MisterP]

6. playing the victim card means she'll have to blame Obama now

[azurnoir]

7. I'm not sure she can afford to do that right now

could look really bad

[ViseGrip]

44. Her? I would say the party cannot afford this (her) right now.

[Duckhunter935]

10. somehow it will be sexist

[HereSince1628]

23. Yep, pretty likely Brian Pagliano will be sacrificed.

Him being sacrificed to sate the beast of politics is sexist

[840high]

15. Let her try.

[razorman]

34. I don't think so. You might be right, but if her situation continues

to go pear-shaped, she might need the president's good will, in hopes of a pardon. I do not envy President Obama's position, either. No matter which way he goes, things can drop out from under him, as well; P.R.-wise, at least.

[christx30]

38. A pardon wouldn't look good in the GE.

She won't go to jail, but she sure as hell would never be president.
This investigation is going to have to turn up no wrong doing in anyway. She will have to come out smelling like a rose if she is to have any hope at all.

[razorman]

35. This is definitely a game-changer. I do not think anyone believed the explanation

that it was her server, rather than she, that was being investigated. But, to have the investigation officially announced puts it on a whole other level.

[Abouttime]

60. She will not be charged

There is no grand jury seated in this case. Loretta Lynch will not charge her because doing so would seriously harm President Obamas final year in office and negatively impact the Obama legacy.
No matter how much the 'pukes squeal Hillary walks on this, I'm not defending her but in no way a former SOS and front runner for our nomination gets charged with a crime this close to her nomination. Once Hillary is elected this is all forgotten. There is a good possibility a few of her aides are charged but it won't rise to Huma's level.
As we saw in the Bush 1 and 2 presidencies high level officials get away with crimes much larger than whatever Hillary is accused of. Think of it as a form of noblesse oblige, sometimes we win sometimes we lose, this time our side wins.

[Akicita]

17. Although, as Hilliary says, the FBI is investigating her server, not her.

It's possible her server will be indicted. If convicted, where will her server serve its jail time?

[840high]

22. I had a mouthful of coffee - lol

[24601]

33. Of course, why didn't I remember? Aren't there a dozen servers doing hard time in federal prisons?

There's a special place in hell for servers that turned evil.

[razorman]

36. Remember 'HAL9000' .

[24601]

40. Great catch. In the sequel, it became clear HAL was set up by conflicting programming.

Silicon lives matter!

[razorman]

45. I had forgotten about the sequel.

I basically remember, "Open the door, HAL." ... "Sorry, I cannot do that." A simple conversation, but scary.

[christx30]

39. Probably the same place that

corporations that commit crimes serve jail time.
They are people, after all.

[24601]

42. Arthur Andersen was essentially executed despite being exonerated on appeal, but too late to help

So yes, a corporation may receive punishment, even the ultimate sanction.

Of the course the problem with killing a corporation is that you take down the innocent along with the guilty and if the corporation is dead, it's pretty impossible to save the innocent.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. Wow. The timing couldn't be worse,

Just as her campaign's training wheels keep coming off.

[Jarqui]

8. Here's a link to the letter

http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000152-c304-d19a-addf-cb3d623f0001

and Politico's take on it
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/hillary-clinton-emails-fbi-218973

As far as the email case is concerned, old news.

As far as the primary tomorrow, bringing up this letter of the FBI investigating Hillary Clinton's server - that's not good PR for the Clinton camp.

It's not good PR in terms of what Hillary tried to tell folks at the debate.

I have a feeling they better get used to it. There are going to be a number of days like this between now and November.

[roguevalley]

16. is this the pay for play stuff that she did when SOS taking

contributions to the charity while awarding contracts for doing so or what?

[Jarqui]

27. I think the focus is on security of her server and extensions of that

(ie maybe others with private email)

It is NOT a criminal investigation at the moment. Depending on what they find out, the FBI could submit an indictment to the Attorney General.

As this was going down, Hillary had her staff delete about 30,000 (?) "personal" emails before turning over the server to the authorities. She also provided 55,000 pages of hard copy of the 30,000 (?) emails that remained.

In Sep 2015, the FBI were able to recover the deleted emails.

If some of these deleted emails were deleted to hide something from the authorities, that might be obstruction of Justice.

The scary thing about recovering the delete emails is that they might contain evidence of the alleged "pay for play stuff that she did when SOS" you mentioned.

Quite frankly, a bunch of that stuff doesn't matter to me at the moment. What matters is what the GOP can do with this while she's trying to run for the White House.

My fear is that Issa will call some sort of Benghazi type investigation of the Clinton Foundation and the past Secretary of State at some point in the near future - maybe after she wins the primary. That's a circus that's going to get a lot of attention and get a chunk of the electorate thinking she got dirty money - a kick back. She could be completely innocent but it's a daily smear she can't shake. It would hurt her candidacy.

[leveymg]

29. No, that would be another set of felonies.

[roguevalley]

30. leveymg, the way you said that made me laugh aloud. Thank you. :D

[leveymg]

49. ;-)

[sadoldgirl]

9. OMG, does she not see what this does to the party?!

[restorefreedom]

12. they don't care. nt

[Cryptoad]

11. Many types of investigations

FBI has yet to say its is criminal investigation. sorry Bern

[Purveyor]

13. LOL. eom

[Got it]

14. Seriously

Right, they're doing it cuz they got nothing better to do.

[roguevalley]

19. they won't say until its time and you can count on it being criminal

[Cryptoad]

20. Yea,,,,thats what GOPers have been saying

abt Benghazi........
then Emails.....OH the horror of it all,,,Emails
coming soon from bot close to u,,, Speeches,,,,,

Drink!

[roguevalley]

21. oh wait ... those didn't have the FBI involved so ...

[frylock]

24. The FBI is in the business of doing criminal investigations, not audits.

Sleep tight.

[JudyM]

25. I thought FBI investigations are only criminal, not civil...

[mikehiggins]

26. A criminal investigation of HRC is the absolute last thing we want

This campaign is about a political revolution, not savaging Hilary Clinton.

[Cryptoad]

46. wink, wink, nod, nod

[LS_Editor]

41. Federal Bureau of Investigation [of Alleged Crimes]

This isn't a friendly audit.

[840high]

18. In '08 I defended her and Bill. Then

I came to realize that there was something to defend constantly. She put our party in a bad light. No more defending.

[dorkzilla]

32. Plus 80,000,000,000

I don't know why that many times but it seemed like a good round number.

[madville]

28. My best guess

is this ends with several of her former aides striking plea deals for misdemeanor mishandling of classified information and likely having any clearances they hold revoked. I doubt Hillary gets charged with anything.

The main issue I wonder about and what could sink them is if they were reading marked/classified information on secure government systems and then drafting/recreating that information into unmarked emails on Hillary's unclassified server. That's a huge issue. Sure Hillary could be completely accurate that none of her emails were marked, that means little if the information originated from other agencies and was already classified.

The Clinton campaign paints themselves more into a corner every time they comment about this issue because they really have no idea what the FBI is investigating or where it will lead, any statements they make are as much speculation as any of the other ideas being floated out there.

[SDJay]

31. As Long As It Doesn't End With

President tRump or Cruz or whoever... That's my concern. Sanders is leaving this alone. Pretty sure that's not going to be how the Repukes deal with this during the GE.

[Jenny_92808]

37. I am with Bernie on this subject

I don't care about Hillary's emails. Other SOS's have had personal servers. I have read that most people do not care. I want Bernie to win on policies, not republican attacks on Hillary.

[Major Hogwash]

43. tick . . . tick . . . tick . . .

Justice marches on.

[Reter]

47. Drop out now

This is far too risky in an election year.

[librechik]

48. Splendid timing, Senator Cornyn! Not partisan at all!

[librechik]

50. Excuse me, James Baker of the BFEE?

why isn't anyone considering the source on this "announcement" from one of the key monarchs behind Bush Inc. And he's getting paid, too!

Anyway, this'll get locked and moved to GDP.

[leveymg]

51. Investigation into "Secretary Clinton’s use of a private email server.” Has nothing to do with her?

I recall the defense raised by her supporters several months ago that the FBI was just looking into her server. At that point, the NYT was weak-kneed enough to walk the story back a step after Hillary's lawyers got through to the editors. That was good while it lasted. But, she's increasingly looking like

[antigop]

52. Could you please explain the significance of this announcement?

It was no secret that the FBI was doing an investigation.

Does this announcement really tell us anything new?

[leveymg]

54. It confirms what the NYT originally reported: the FBI is investigating Clinton's use of the server

It's in here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251552653

Hillary Clinton's Felony. The federal laws violated by the private server

Hillary Rodham Clinton has committed a felony. That is apparent from the facts and in the plain-language of the federal statute that prohibits "Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information", 18 U.S. Code § 793(e) and (f). This offense carries a potential penalty of ten years imprisonment.

It's called a prima facie case: clear on the basis of known facts.

It's up to prosecutorial discretion by the US Attorney as to what charges may be filed and when. Nonetheless, Mrs. Clinton is clearly chargeable for violation of federal law. As of right now, the matter is under FBI investigation. This isn't just about violation of Departmental policy.

The facts:

NYT: F.B.I. Tracking Path of Classified Email From State Dept. to Hillary Clinton

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/15/us/fbi-tracking-path-of-email-to-hillary-clinton-at-state-department.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — F.B.I. agents investigating Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private email server are seeking to determine who at the State Department passed highly classified information from secure networks to Mrs. Clinton’s personal account, according to law enforcement and diplomatic officials and others briefed on the investigation.

To track how the information flowed, agents will try to gain access to the email accounts of many State Department officials who worked there while Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state, the officials said. State Department employees apparently circulated the emails on unclassified systems in 2009 and 2011, and some were ultimately forwarded to Mrs. Clinton.

They were not marked as classified, the State Department has said, and it is unclear whether its employees knew the origin of the information.

F.B.I. is also trying to determine whether foreign powers, especially China or Russia, gained access to Mrs. Clinton’s private server, although at this point, any security breaches are speculation.

Four para limit stops here. But, I will in all fairness stipulate that this article goes on to say that HRC is not at this point the target of the investigation. However, Reuters has since reported that her unsecured private server email system contained "presumed classified" materials. Hillary personally exchanged such presumed classified information with Sidney Blumenthal, and those communications were intercepted and publicly released by a Romanian hacker. http://www.aol.com/article/2015/08/21/exclusive-dozens-of-clinton-emails-were-classified-from-the-sta/21225607/

The fact that the email was not marked classified at the time does not excuse Mrs. Clinton. This is because information gathered from foreign government sources, a great deal of her email was so sourced, is presumed classified. Mrs Clinton received Departmental training on recognizing and handling classified materials. Presumed classified information is defined by Executive Order as "The unauthorized disclosure of foreign government information is presumed to cause damage to the national security." (see full text of that section of Executive Order 13526- Classified National Security Information, Sec. 1.1(4)(d), below)

Secretary Clinton was trained in handling of classified materials, and acknowledges that she understood them. By transmitting and receiving email correspondence that contained information gleaned from foreign government sources on an unauthorized, insecure system, she violated the law. This was not something she did unwittingly, and that the foreign government sourced material was not stamped classified is irrelevant.

On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton pardoned former CIA Director John Deutch who had committed similar violations. Deutch left the CIA on December 15, 1996 and soon after it was revealed that several of his laptop computers contained classified materials. In January 1997, the CIA began a formal security investigation of the matter. Senior management at CIA declined to fully pursue the security breach. Over two years after his departure, the matter was referred to the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Janet Reno declined prosecution. She did, however, recommend an investigation to determine whether Deutch should retain his security clearance.

All Deutch did was to take some classified material home with him to work his unsecured personal laptops that were connected to his home commercial internet. In other words, pretty much what Hillary did on a much larger scale.

Other, lesser, federal officials have been recently prosecuted for downloading classified materials onto private servers or media and taking them home, and they were charged and convicted even though the materials was never publicly released and they had no intention to do so or to harm the United States. Links in thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141184063, see also, http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/crime/2015/07/29/navy-engineer-sentenced-for-mishandling-classified-material/30862027/ ; and, http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/06/19/sailor-pleads-guilty-to-mishandling-documents.html


Applicable statutes and Executive Order:

1) 18 U.S. Code § 793 - Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information

Full copy of this Section of the 1917 Espionage Act is below. It has been claimed that Hillary did not violate the law because she didn't intend to injure the U.S. or aid a foreign power. However, that purpose is not required to convict under this Subsections (e) and (f) of this statute.

Subsections (a)-(d) and (g)(conspiracy) reference and require intent to injure the United States. The plain-language of Subsection (e) and particularly (f) are different:

[ . . . ]

[antigop]

55. Thx, but why is the FBI finally getting around to confirming this? What prompted the FBI to

issue any sort of statement?

If they haven't confirmed it previously, why confirm it now?

Sorry, this doesn't make any sense to me.

[leveymg]

56. Follows 2 findings in case: 1) Hillary instructed aide(s) to send classified docs; 2) Top Sec docs

That wasn't yet clear in August when everyone stepped back from the original report. If you want links to those two points, please let me know.

Thirdly, the State Dept is dragging its feet declassifying the last 1,000 documents on her server which possibly contain the most sensitive documents. The Dept missed a court ordered deadline of of Jan. 29 to do so. This may be the FBI's way of keeping things moving along toward the inevitable decision that will have to be made by the Attorney General to seek a Grand Jury indictment. If the Attorney General doesn't, it now looks like Congress will seek to have a Special Prosecutor appointed - that would be very bad for everyone (except, maybe, Hillary), because it will further politicize the prosecution and (depending upon where you stand) make it seem like (a) the Administration is obstructing justice, or (b) the GOP continues to unfairly persecute Mrs. Clinton.

[antigop]

59. thanks. nt

[itcfish]

53. So Happy You Are All Celebrating

Hope you will be celebrating when Donald Trump or Ted Cruz is sworn in.

[leveymg]

57. If that happens, it will because of excessive ambition and very bad judgement. Hers, not ours.

She should have stepped aside months ago and allowed the Party to nominate someone else.