Both The State Dept & Director of National Intelligence Inspectors General (IGs) in Essence Are Calling Hillary Clinton a Liar: Her Private Emails Did Contain Classified Information!

Did Hillary Clinton lie when she said that her private emails contained NO Classified information or when she quibbled that the information was not classified at the time she sent it?  Don’t take my word for it but just read the statement signed and released on 24 July 2015 by the Inspectors General (IGs) of both the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Department of State (DoS) to see what they say in their own words.  In essence, both IGs have called Hillary a LIAR and contradict her accretion that she had “followed appropriate practices in dealing with classified materials.” Also, both IGs state unequivocally that Hillary’s “emails contained classified information when they were generated…” and “This classified information should never have been transmitted via an unclassified system.”  Note the IGs say the INFORMATION WAS CLASSIFIED WHEN THE EMAILS WERE GENERATED – NOT later classified after the fact! In my previous Blog article I highlighted how the Washington Post Fact checker had already discredited Hillary’s declaration that “Everything I Did on Email Was Permitted” (http://old-soldier-colonel.blogspot.com/2015/07/hillary-clinton-cheated-out-of-4th.html).  Then on 11 August, the ODNI IG informed Congress that at least two of Hillary's emails he reviewed were TOP SECRET and contained information that, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.  The question for the American public is: can a person that handles the Nation’s most sensitive classified information in such a cavalier fashion be trusted to run the entire Government?

 

On Friday/24 July, the same day that the IGs released their public statement, the Justice Department issued their own statement that they had received a “referral” by the ODNI IG of the potential compromise of classified information in connection with the private e-mail account that Hillary Rodham Clinton used while she was the secretary of state.

You’ll notice that in the above statement signed by both I. Charles McCullough III, The ODNI IG, and Steve A. Linick, the State Department’s IG, they found four (4) Classified emails in the “limited sample” of just 40 emails they reviewed so were required by Federal Law to make a referral to they FBI.  Extrapolating using simple math would mean that Ten Per Cent (10%) of Hillary’s emails contained classified information so it's expected that thousands of her messages contain information at the SECRET or TOP SECRET.

Executive Order (EO) 12356, The U.S. Classification of Information System, defines the three classification levels:

(1) "Top Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.

(2) "Secret" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security.

(3) "Confidential" shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security.

Hence, as a minimum thousands of her emails sent and maintained on her personal server in the basement of her unsecured residence in New York and transmitted in the clear over the public internet contained information that “could be expected to cause EXCEPTIONALLY GRAVE DAMAGE to the national security.”

When Hillary stated at her 10 March 2015 New York City Press Conference that: "I Did Not Email Any Classified Material To Anyone On My Email. There Is No Classified Material." she was once again lying through her teeth but I do believe her when she went on to say that: “So I'm certainly well-aware of the classification requirements ….” If you take her at her word that she was “aware of the classification requirements” than the logical conclusion can only be that she felt they did not apply to her when she sent those thousands of emails that contained classified information “which reasonably could be expected to cause  EXCEPTIONALLY GRAVE DAMAGE to the national security.”

Worse yet, that classified information “which reasonably could be expected to cause  EXCEPTIONALLY GRAVE DAMAGE to the national security” may “still exist on at least one private server and thumb drive that are not in the government’s possession,” according to the 24 July statement issued by both IGs.  Clinton’s private server and the thumb drive containing 30,000 e-mails she turned over to the State Department were still in the possession of her attorney, David Kendall, at the time of the IGs statement and were only turned over to the FBI on 11 August.

One thing that Hillary did get right was who she selected when she “lawyered-up” to avoid jail time for her compromise of classified information.  Remember David Kendall is the same attorney that represented GEN David Petraeus in his legal proceedings concerning his unauthorized release of classified information.  Even though Petraeus released the information to his biographer/mistress who possessed a Top Secret security clearance, she did not have a “need to know” nor was she acting in her capacity as a reserve Army Military Intelligence officer.  The information which was not properly marked or identified as classified was contained in handwritten notebooks and none of the information made it into the public domain but the release to her was still a security breach for which he was punished.  Although the Obama Administration has been really tough on criminals convicted of disclosing classified information, the General was sentenced to just two (2) years probation and a $100,000 fine.

Hillary’s breach was far more serious and damaging in that Intelligence Community professionals are confident that the Chinese and Russian government cyber professionals thoroughly compromised Hillary's home-grown server in the basement of her New York house. They are also confident that at least three other governments successfully hacker her. Not only was her "clintonemail.com" domain name a little obvious but they were also tracking many of her key subordinates that also exclusively used their clintonemail.com accounts to communicated with her through her private server.  Also, the information was transmitted in the clear over the internet and she gave the information to some people who had NO clearances at all such as Sidney Blumebthal.  Although Hillary’s breach was far more serious, using the same Obama Administration’s lenient treatment for his appointed minions one would expect her to get off with just a fine and probation but no jail time at worst.

(Maybe Congress should subpoena the Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies for Hillary’s emails including the 30,000 missing ones? This might even reveal what the ones she turned over actually contained before she edited them to remove anything embarrassing or criminal!)

Although Hillary suffers from “Clinton Syndrome” (The psychological disorder rendering the sufferer incapable of being truthful) she appears to be invoking the “I was too stupid to know the information was classified” defense.  It's novel but rarely works, especially for someone who believes she's smart enough to be President. One thing for certain, her favorability and trustworthiness ratings have plummeted since this controversy began last April and one can only imagine how the bottom might fall out of her candidacy if she has to campaign from jail! 

The Statement from the ODNI and State Dept IGs is posted above and below I’ve also posted the ODNI IG 23 July 15 Memo to the chairmen and ranking minority-party members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees which complains that his "request for State to give the intelligence community a copy of all the e-mails had been rejected …."  Hopefully the IGs can now obtain all the emails from the FBI.