Hillary Houdini escapes charges in classified email

Deny, deny, deny and destroy, destroy, destroy have been the foundation of Hillary and Bill Clinton’s rise to power.

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On Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey dismantled large portions of Hillary Clinton’s ongoing criminal investigation into her use of a private server while she was Secretary of State. Despite demonstrating that she mishandled classified information, failed to turn over all her work-related emails as required by the National Archive Act, set in motion perjury charges from Congress and destroyed evidence, as predicted by Hillary, the FBI Director Comey said his office would not recommend any indictments.

While the criminal investigation may be in Clinton’s review mirror, the fiery rhetoric Director Comey used to described Clinton’s extremely careless actions, provided volumes of fodder for the 2016 presidential election.

Testifying before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, Comey revealed new details about Clinton’s homebrew server. He told the committee that Clinton’s three-hour interrogation and testimony with the FBI “was not under oath or recorded, but it would be a crime to lie.”

Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) scolded the director and stated: “We believe that you have set a precedent and it’s a dangerous one. If your name isn’t Clinton or you’re not part of the powerful elite, Lady Justice will act differently.”

Earlier at an FBI news conference, Mr. Comey rebuked that statement but did say: “From the group of 30,000 emails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional emails were ‘up-classified’ to make them Confidential.”

“I see evidence of great carelessness,” Comey said. “But I do not see evidence that is sufficient to establish that Secretary Clinton or those with whom she was corresponding both talked about classified information on email and knew when they were doing it that it was against the law.” Yet in 2004 Comey went on the record for the Scooter Libby investigation and said, “As a general matter, we take issues of classified information very seriously.”

That last statement confounded committee members. Chaffetz reiterated, “Did Hillary Clinton give non-cleared people access to classified information?”

Comey simply replied, “Yes.” But, the director said he didn’t foresee any consequences regarding this issue.

Meanwhile, many pundits have accused the Republicans of continuing their 30-year “right-wing conspiracy” ploys against the Clintons. But it’s worth noting that Mrs. Clinton was the only target in this investigation because she was the only one who kept a private unencrypted email server in the basement of her New York home, the others used encrypted State Department devices.

Now that the FBI’s criminal investigation has concluded, the Department of State has reopened its internal investigation into the employees involved with the Secretary’s improper email practices. Those employees are likely to include her closest advisors Jake Sullivan, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin. If they lose their national security clearances, it would certainly make it difficult (but not impossible) for President Clinton to bring them to the White House.

According to The Associated Press, Clinton’s aides could receive “administrative sanctions” for their role in mishandling classified documents.

“Given the Department of Justice has now made its announcement, the State Department intends to conduct its internal review,” DOS spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. “Our goal will be to be as transparent as possible about our results while complying with our various legal obligations.”

While Mrs. Clinton may have dodged the DOJ bullet, the presidential hopeful will face perjury allegations as well as the American voters. The Washington Free Beacon put together a newsreel where Mrs. Clinton lied to the public at least 22 times (link here) and said she did not send or receive classified material on her private unencrypted or protected email server.

For those who have been following this email story and are well versed on the realities, a particularly hysterical read is the Clinton official website’s “facts about Hillary Clinton’s emails.” Their version of the facts could be used by the next agency taking a look into her truthfulness.

During the July 5, 2016 hearing FBI Director Comey said, “the truthfulness of Secretary Clinton’s testimony before Congress was not within the scope of the FBI’s investigation.” According to Director Comey the Department of Justice “requires a criminal referral from Congress to initiate an investigation into Secretary Clinton’s congressional testimony.”

On July 11, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) sent a letter to Director Comey requesting more information about the FBI’s investigation and sent a letter signed by more than 200 members of Congress demanding answers from the Director regarding numerous questions surrounding his decision to not recommend federal prosecution against former Secretary Clinton for mishandling classified information by using multiple private email servers and devices.

“The evidence collected by the FBI during its investigation of Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal email system appears to directly contradict several aspects of her sworn testimony.  In light of those contradictions, the Department should investigate and determine whether to prosecute Secretary Clinton for violating statutes that prohibit perjury and false statements to Congress, or any other relevant statutes.” The new investigation will focus on the marathon 11-hour committee hearing into the Benghazi terrorist attack, where Mrs. Clinton repeated several times, under oath, that she did not send or receive classified emails.

This negative publicity certainly plays into a new ABC/Washington Post poll that says 56 percent of Americans disagree with Director Comey’s decision to not indict Mrs. Clinton for mishandling classified information. Furthermore, those voters say her actions raise serious questions as to her fitness to become the next commander in chief.

On a final note, while Hillary Clinton may not have been good at keeping national secrets, she did a great job of protecting her confidential relationship with FBI Director Comey, her on again, off again inquisitor.

World Net Daily’s Jerome Corsi wrote an article detailing some of Clinton’s escapes from prosecution. “In 2004, Comey, then serving as a deputy attorney general in the Justice Department, apparently limited the scope of the criminal investigation of Sandy Berger, which left out former Clinton administration officials who may have coordinated with Berger in his removal and destruction of classified records from the National Archives. The documents were relevant to accusations that the Clinton administration was negligent in the build-up to the 9/11 terrorist attack.”

And like all political appointees, when they are not part of the party of power they return to private practice. “Berger, Loretta Lynch, and Cheryl Mills all worked as partners in the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson, which prepared tax returns for the Clintons and did patent work for a software firm that played a role in the private email server Hillary Clinton used when she was secretary of state,” Corsi explained.

The outcomes of Republican defendants appeared to have a different ending when Comey is involved. “After Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself in the Valerie Plame affair in 2004, Comey appointed as special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who ended up convicting “Scooter” Libby, a top aide to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, of perjury and obstruction of justice. The charge was based on the accusations of Plame and her husband, former ambassador, Joe Wilson – both partisan supporters of Bill and Hillary Clinton – that Libby outed her as a CIA agent.”

And remember Whitewater? James Comey was the Deputy Special Counsel for the Senate investigation looking into the conduct of then-President Bill Clinton. The investigation centered on an illegal loan that benefited the Clinton’s business partner. In that case, many business associates with Whitewater went to jail, but again, the Clintons escaped criminal prosecution.

While Republican’s will continue to push their “right-wing conspiracy” agenda, it sure looks like FBI Director Comey has had a successful career keeping the Clintons out of jail!