Democratic Party presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s “culture of secrecy” is making her look “nefarious” over her secretive home-brew email server she exclusively used during her four-year tenure as Secretary of State, according to a progressive strategist quoted on Thursday by The Hill in an article entitled Dems Near Clinton Panic Mode.
A perfect example of Clinton’s ‘culture of secrecy’ came on Tuesday when Clinton gave a sit-down interview to Univision’s Maria Elena Salinas at River Valley Community College during a campaign swing through Claremont, New Hampshire.
Image source: Univision
While the interview with Clinton was generally a friendly one, Salinas did challenge Clinton on a few key points including the current email scandal embroiling Clinton’s candidacy. Clinton repaid Salinas’ friendliness with deception, failing to disclose that last week she had, through her attorney David Kendall, surrendered thumb drive archives of copies of her State Department emails. Instead Clinton played partisan politics with her answer.
“MES: Let’s talk about a subject that seems that it’s very difficult to go away. And that’s the e-mail scandal. Even though you swore under penalty of perjury that you have turned over all e-mails that are related to any kind of, you know, federal record. Judicial Watch is still claiming that it’s not enough. Do you think that at the least that this has created the perception that you’re hiding something?”
“HRC: No, because you have to remember Judicial Watch is a partisan group that has been suing Democrats, me in particular, for twenty years. Anything that they can sue over to create partisan advantage, they do. The facts are very clear here. I did turn over all work-related e-mails in an effort to help the State Department make sure that their records were complete. And those are the facts. Now that doesn’t mean I will ever convince these partisans who are, you know, trying to make all sorts of allegations. But I think the American people understand that.”
“MES: Yeah, but some of the polls show that the majority of Americans want to see an investigation.”
“HRC: Well, there is an inquiry going on in the House of Representatives over Benghazi. And you know, the polls I’ve seen don’t show that. But indeed from my perspective the facts are very clear. And this has all been done accordance with the rules and the regulations in effect and, you know, I just trust the American people to sort through all of that stuff.”
The Univision interview was conducted on Tuesday, August 11.
In a court filing on Wednesday by the State Department reported by Politico, Clinton’s attorney David Kendall disclosed that on August 6 he had turned over to the Justice Department copies of Clinton’s State Department emails that had been stored on thumb drives and kept at his office.
“We have voluntarily provided to the Department of Justice on August 6, 2015, the .pst file containing electronic copies of the 55,000 pages of emails on a thumb drive (along with two copies), which had been securely stored in my possession, after receiving from the Department of Justice an assurance that it would maintain this file in an appropriately secure manner and the Department’s opinion that such maintenance would satisfy any preservation obligations I am under. Similarly, Platte River Networks is today providing to the Department of Justice the server and related equipment on which emails to and from Secretary Clinton’s clintonemail.com were stored from 2009-2013 and which PRN took possession of in 2013. This is following the Department of Justice’s assurances to us and to counsel for PRN that it would maintain this equipment in an appropriately secure manner. The Department also gave counsel its opinion that such maintenance would satisfy any preservation obligations we have.”
The State Department response was for a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. Clinton attacked Judicial Watch in her Univision interview as suing her over the emails for “partisan advantage.”
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton responded to Clinton in a statement released Wednesday. (Disclosure: Kristinn Taylor was employed by Judicial Watch from 1999 to 2004.)
“Hillary Clinton’s attacks on Judicial Watch for its success in suing for her State Department records under the Freedom of Information Act will not deter us from our nonpartisan work. Hillary Clinton has a nasty record of attacking and threatening those who try to hold her accountable to the law. It was Hillary Clinton who chose to conduct official government business on a separate email system. It was this decision by Hillary Clinton that placed classified information and the nation’s security at risk. In addition, it prevented government records from being properly searched as required by law in response to Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits. A federal judge has led the way in requesting answers from her under penalty of perjury. Mrs. Clinton has a problem with the truth and obeying the law – and that is why a federal judge has requested information from Mrs. Clinton, the State Department, and her closest advisors. Blaming Judicial Watch for the email mess she made is pathetic.”
A week after surrendering the thumb drive, Clinton’s home-brew server was turned over to the FBI Wednesday afternoon, according to a report by the Washington Post.
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