Earlier this month, conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch released a series of documents obtained via an FOIA request which appear to prove that Hillary Clinton knew her BlackBerry (BB) wasn’t secure when she and her staff moved into Mahogany Row (the nickname given to the set of offices reserved for senior officials in the Department of State).
E-mail exchanges between Senior Coordinator for Security Infrastructure Donald Reid and the NSA show Clinton was intent on obtaining a secure BlackBerry that she could use in restricted areas.
Although Clinton would of course be given a desktop computer on which she could safely conduct state business, Reid said the Secretary had become “addicted” to her BlackBerry during her ill-fated 2008 Presidential campaign. “The issue here is one of personal comfort,” an e-mail from Reid reads. “S [Secretary Clinton] does not use a personal computer so our view of someone wedded to their email (why doesn’t she use her desktop when in SCIF?) doesn’t fit this scenario … during the campaign she was urged to keep in contact with thousands via a BB … once she got the hang of it she was hooked … now everyday [sic], she feels hamstrung because she has to lock her BB up.”
When the NSA wasn’t receptive, long-time Clinton aid and BlackRock crony Cheryl Mills tried her hand at convincing security officials to find a work around for Clinton’s BlackBerry but she too was rebuffed. “The department’s designated NSA liaison, whose name was redacted from the documents, expressed concerns about security vulnerabilities inherent with using BlackBerry devices for secure communications or in secure areas,” AP recounts, adding that “Clinton began sending work-related emails through private accounts soon after, in March 2009.”
Or so the story goes. In fact, however, Clinton may have begun using the private server housed in her basement before March. And while there’s some ambiguity, that would seem to contradict statements she made under oath.
“Conservative legal watchdogs have discovered new emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server dating back to the first days of her tenure as secretary of State,” The Hill reports, referencing newly released messages turned up by Judicial Watch. “The previously undisclosed February 2009 emails between Clinton from her then-chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, raise new questions about the scope of emails from Clinton’s early days in office that were not handed over to the State Department for recordkeeping and may have been lost entirely.”
Just to clarify, this is a problem because Clinton’s campaign has contended that she did not use the personal account prior to March and the publicly released e-mails begin on March 18.
Well the FBI intends to find out, because as a new Washington Post piece (which you’re encouraged to read in its entirety) details, the Bureau now has 50 or so agents on the case.
While we can always hold out some hope that Clinton will one day be held accountable and that someone, somewhere will dispel with the notion that America’s political aristocracy is above the law, we can’t help but suspect that we’ll never see Hillary Clinton in black and white stripes – unless it’s a pantsuit.
(note: It would be ironic but somewhat apropos if Hillary were to be outed over this petty breach of protocol. But my guess is that the investigators are not really serious … and the stage is being set for her to win this fall. Possibly, Donald Trump’s campaign fiasco is part of the orchestration to get Hillary elected.
Those close to her know that she has been involved in sufficient crimes to put her away and out of sight … but that is par for the course in American politics … and there is little if any justice in the US Justice System. My preferred imagined scenario for politicians, including those running or sitting, is that some tragedy would incapacitate them, like a fitting disease or an act of God … then we wouldn’t be punished further by having to see them or read about them. -ed.)
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