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Editor’s Note – Since it was revealed last week that all of Hillary Clinton’s emails from her time as Secretary of State were on a private account that she kept in her home on her own server, the apologists have been trying to make it go away or minimize it.
The law and policies on such emails have been argued constantly since, but one problem of many for Clinton and her apologists is that she was harboring state secrets privately, outside of the control of archivists and security specialists. That constitutes a threat to national security at a minimum and could be a felony according to some legal analysts.
The utter disdain for the rules in the now famous “Clintonian” way should render her ineligible to ever hold federal office again, but unless the Department of Justice prosecutes her, she will likely walk away. She may be slightly singed, but that is nothing new for her. Scandals just seem to roll off her back like rain on a duck.
The deeper question really concerns Benghazi – why were her top aides running interference for her during the ongoing attack in Benghazi? Where was she? For that matter, we still do not know where the President was during those many hours.
Two years have passed since she stepped down, yet no one ever sought, nor knew about all those emails. She says she turned over 55,000 pages, but from what universe in total does that number come from? Will we ever know?
It is now true also that the White House found out last August that the Republicans knew about her email and her aides helped quash it, and the White House went along:
The White House, State Department and Hillary Clinton’s personal office knew in August that House Republicans had received information showing that the former secretary of state conducted official government business through her private email account — and Clinton’s staff made the decision to keep quiet.
Sources familiar with the discussions say key people in the Obama administration and on Clinton’s staff were aware that the revelation could be explosive for the all-but-announced candidate for president. But those involved deferred to Clinton’s aides, and they decided not to respond.
In the end, Clinton’s staff waited six months — until after the New York Times published a story on Tuesday about the email account and the possibility that it hampered public access to official records — to begin their response.(Read more here at Politico)
We are sure there will be at least one person and his committee probing deep – the subpoenas have been issued, now we wait to see what Trey Gowdy can reveal.
Emails show Clinton aides running interference during Benghazi attack
By Catherine Herridge – Fox News
Emails obtained through a federal lawsuit show that two top aides to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were running interference internally during the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.
The aides were Philippe Reines, widely described as Clinton’s principal gate-keeper, and Cheryl Mills, who has been at Clinton’s side for decades.
Cheryl Mills, left, walks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, Senator Patrick Leahy, and Hilda Solis, the U.S. Secretary of Labor as Clinton arrives at Caracol, Haiti, Monday, October 22, 2012. (Newscom)
The emails show that while receiving updates about the assault as it happened, Mills told then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland to stop answering reporter questions about the status of Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was missing and later found dead.
Also littered throughout the State Department emails, obtained by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, are references to a so-called Benghazi Group. A diplomatic source told Fox News that was code inside the department for the so-called Cheryl Mills task force, whose job was damage control.
The effort to stop Nuland from answering reporter questions also may have contributed to confusion over the nature of the attack. Clinton that night had put out the first statement wrongly linking the attack to a supposed protest sparked by an obscure, anti-Islam YouTube video – but that was never updated that night.
“Cheryl Mills was instrumental in making sure the big lie was put out there,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
Judicial Watch obtained the State Department emails through legal action. “What’s notable thus far is we received no emails from or to [Hillary Clinton],” he said.
“You have to wonder whether these aides went offline and were using secret accounts to communicate with her about Benghazi attack.”
The emails emerged as Clinton fields criticism over revelations that she used personal email during her tenure as secretary. She is now asking the department to make public thousands of emails she has turned over.
On Friday, the State Department spokeswoman was pushed to explain how they will review the Clinton emails under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, and what will be made public.
“We will use FOIA standards for the review,” spokeswoman Marie Harf said. “What we determine is appropriate under those FOIA standards will be public.”
Harf also was questioned on a State Department unclassified cable, obtained exclusively by Fox News. The cable shows in 2011, Clinton’s office told employees not to use personal email for government business, citing security reasons — while she carried out government business exclusively on private accounts.
“This isn’t her best practice guidance,” Harf said. “Her name is at the bottom of the cable, as is practiced for cables coming from Washington … some think she wrote it, which is not accurate.”
Nevertheless, cables sent under Clinton’s electronic signature carry her authority.
Mills, meanwhile, is a focus of the select congressional committee investigating the Benghazi attacks. During congressional testimony, retired Adm. Mike Mullen, who helped lead the Accountability Review Board investigation into the attacks, confirmed under cross-examination that he personally warned Mills that a witness would be damaging to the department.
Critics say it is more evidence the Accountability Review Board, or ARB, was deeply flawed.
Fox News’ Pamela Browne contributed to this report
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.
PLEASE SEE THE VIDEO OF CATHERINE HERRIDGE titled “Clinton Damage control“
The post Benghazi – Hillary, her apologists, and the gate-keepers appeared first on The SUA Blog | Stand Up America US.