State Department reopens Clinton emails probe

State Department reopens Clinton emails probe

Published July 07, 2016 Associated Press


DEVELOPING: The State Department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and top aides.

Spokesman John Kirby says the emails probe is restarting now that the Justice Department isn't pursuing a criminal prosecution. The State Department suspended its review in April to avoid interfering with the FBI's inquiry.

Kirby set no deadline for the investigation's completion.

Clinton was secretary of state until early 2013.

Most of her top advisers left shortly thereafter.
But Kirby said this week former officials can still face "administrative sanctions." The most serious is loss of security clearances, which could complicate Clinton's naming of a national security team if she becomes president.

Beyond the Democratic front-runner, the probe is most likely examining confidants Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan and Huma Abedin.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016...ils-probe.html

State Department reopens Clinton emails probe: Internal investigation launched again as Republican senators call for Hillary and Huma to be banned from seeing secrets after FBI's devastating verdict

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Huma Abedin and other top Clinton aides could have a tough time getting a security clearance in the future

A group of 10 senators that include Marco Rubio sent a letter to the secretary of state asking him to suspend Hillary Clinton's clearance

'There is simply no excuse,' for her email setup, 'which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation'

They also want State to expand the ban to her top aides, including Huma Abedin, now the vice chairwoman for Clinton' presidential campaign

House Speaker Paul Ryan is likewise calling on the nation's spy chief to strip Clinton of her access to classified government information

FBI Director said Tuesday the bureau wouldn't recommend prosecution even though she was' extremely careless' with highly classified information

Republicans grilled him today on Capitol Hill about the investigation - they argued that Clinton is being held to a separate standard

By FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 15:52 GMT, 7 July 2016 | UPDATED: 02:45 GMT, 8 July 2016

The State Department has reopened its probe into Hillary Clinton's email scandal, as Republican senators put pressure on officials to restrict her security clearance.

Even Clinton's top aides - such as Huma Abedin - could have a tough time getting clearance in the future as a result of the email scandal tied to the former secretary of state's secret server.

'I’d tell them that "you’ve got a fight on your hands,"' Bill Savarino, a lawyer who is a specialist on the issue, told the New York Times.

A group of Republican senators are accusing Hillary Clinton of 'grossly negligent' behavior and are asking Secretary of State John Kerry to suspend not only Clinton's security clearance but her top aides as well.

'There is simply no excuse for Hillary Clinton’s decision to set up a home-cooked email system which left sensitive and classified national security information vulnerable to theft and exploitation by America’s enemies,' they said in a letter to Kerry on Thursday.

The senators recited FBI Director James Comey's assessment that Clinton, a former secretary of state, and her top aides were 'extremely careless' with their handling of sensitive information.

As such, none of them of them should be able to access classified materials, the 10 senators said.

'We believe that is clear from Director Comey’s statement and the FBI investigation that the State Department should immediately suspend the clearances of Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan, and other former State Department employees for security violations if they still maintain them.'

The State Department started its original probe in January after declaring 22 emails from Clinton's private server to be 'top secret'. It was suspended in April so as not to interfere with the FBI's inquiry.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the probe is restarting after the Justice Department's announcement Wednesday that it will not bring any criminal charges.

'We will aim to be as expeditious as possible, but we will not put artificial deadlines on the process,' Kirby said.

'Our goal will be to be as transparent as possible about our results, while complying with our various legal obligations.'

Kirby wouldn't say anything more about the precise information officials are evaluating. But when the probe was launched almost six months ago, officials said it pertained particularly to a set of emails that were upgraded to one of the nation's highest classification levels.

One question they said they were investigating was whether any of the emails were classified at the time of transmission.

Among the senators accusing Clinton of 'grossly negligent' behavior is Marco Rubio. The Florida senator was set to retire from government service after failing to secure the GOP nomination for president but decided at the last minute to run for reelection.

Other signatories include Tom Cotton of Arkansas, David Perdue of Georgia, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Ron Johnson of Wyoming.

The senators told Kerry in the their letter that Clinton's 'actions were grossly negligent, damaged national security and put lives at risk.

'Failure to impose any sanctions for these clear violations of State Department procedure undermines the integrity of the State Department’s system for handling classified information and sends the wrong message to the Department’s employees.'

House Speaker Paul Ryan is likewise calling on the nation's spy chief to strip Clinton of her access to classified government information.

Ryan, who receives top level information as speaker and who got classified briefings as Mitt Romney's vice presidential running mate in 2012, said in a separate letter to Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper that Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, should be barred from receiving classified information based on the FBI's findings.

'As a former vice presidential nominee, I am keenly aware that Secretary Clinton is set to begin receiving classified intelligence briefings after the Democratic National Convention,' Ryan said.

In other instances individuals who put national security in dangers are 'subject to security or administrative sanctions.’

'Given the FBI’s findings, denying Secretary Clinton access to classified information certainly constitutes appropriate sanctions,' Ryan said. 'This is necessary to reassure the public that our nation’s secrets are secure.'

Ryan sent a separate letter to Comey requesting he release all of the FBI's findings from its investigation.

'The American people deserve to know exactly what your investigation uncovered and why the FBI came to the decision to recommend that no criminal charges be brought against Secretary Clinton,' the GOP leader said.

The letter served as Ryan's formal request that Clinton's security access be revoked after saying he would make the ask on Tuesday.

At his weekly news conference this morning Ryan said Clapper has an 'obligation' to block Clinton from gaining access to national secrets.

'In three weeks when she comes out of the convention she is going to get unfettered access to the most sensitive classified information our government has? No way,' Ryan declared.

'So I really believe, that if we have someone who has so recklessly mishandled sensitive classified information, the kind of stuff I get as Speaker of the House...I think that we should think this through, and I think the DNI has an obligation, especially given what we just learned...that she should not get that classified information.'

The House Speaker admitted that aside from pressing Clapper to restrict Clinton's access top secret information, there's nothing else he, or Congress, can do.

'I don't know if we even have the ability to change that or not. My guess is we don't,' he stated.

Ryan told Fox News' Megyn Kelly on Tuesday: 'What bothers me about this is that the Clintons really are living above the law.

'This is one of the reasons why people are so dissatisfied, so upset about government. They think that people live by a different set of rules, and the Clintons, they take the candle on this one.'

That was the mantra of Republicans on the House's Oversight Committee today as they drilled Comey under oath.

'There doesn't seem to be any consequence' for Clinton, Committee chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz said. 'It wasn't just an innocent mistake. This went on for years.'

Congressman Jim Jordan, a former chair of the committee, argued that when Comey said he considered the 'context' of the Clinton case, most residents of his district did not take that to mean that it would have been only the second gross negligence charge in 100 years.

Jordan said 'a lot of folks' took that to mean that she is governed by a separate set of rules given the the fact that she is former first lady, senator, secretary of state, she's a major party's presidential nominee, and her husband, Bill, last week met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on a plane.

Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican, issued an angry statement Tuesday saying Comey's announcement that the bureau wouldn't recommend prosecution 'defies explanation' and will 'set a terrible precedent.'

'No one should be above the law. But based upon the director's own statement, it appears damage is being done to the rule of law.'

Ryan has clashed at times with Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump, but is nevertheless supporting him as he says he has an obligation to as party leader.

Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who also supports Donald Trump and signed the letter, told 'CBS This Morning' on Wednesday, 'The system is rigged if Hillary Clinton faces no consequences whatsoever.'

He noted that normally, a person who engaged in mishandling of classified material would be subject to 'security or administrative sanctions.'

Cotton said that in 'plain English' this means 'they would lose their job and lose their security clearance.'

A spokesman for Clinton, Brian Fallon, raised a counter challenge on Wednesday.

'Every House Republican who joins in partisan stunt about Clinton's intel briefings should have to say if they think Trump is fit to get them,' Fallon said on Twitter.

State Department spokesman John Kirby refused to say Tuesday whether Clinton or aides with whom she transmitted classified information over a private server retained their security clearances. He said State doesn't comment on individual security clearances.

'The department will determine the appropriate next steps following a decision by the Department of Justice,' he said.

Late Wednesday the Attorney General said in a statement that the law enforcement agency would not bring charges against Clinton or any other State Department staffers with knowledge of her email setup.

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GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted the move as part of a 'rigged system'

Clinton ran a private server run out of her home, using it exclusively for her email while leading the State Department, despite government rules on preserving and archiving material generated by government work.

Comey stunned the political world when he delivered a surprise statement at FBI headquarters Tuesday and announced he would not recommend charges be brought.

Yet he cataloged a series of missteps by Clinton, noting that there was no 24-hour security on her unusual private server, that she used the account when overseas and at risk of intrusion, and that people she communicated with got hacked.

'Although we did not find clear evidence that secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws,' Comey said, 'there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.'

Comey said the FBI determined that before Clinton deleted tens of thousands of her 'personal' emails, her attorneys deleted several work-related messages. The lawyers didn't read them all but searched keywords to determine which of them might qualify as government records.

Clinton has yet to personally comment on the email scandal since Comey made his stunning announcement. But campaign spokesman Brian Fallon declared it 'resolved' Tuesday.

'As the Secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved,' Fallon said.

After Lynch said Wednesday the case was closed, Fallon tweeted: 'With the AG accepting Director Comey's recommendation, this case is resolved, no matter Republicans' attempts to continue playing politics.'

State Department reopens Clinton emails probe: Internal investigation launched again as Republican senators call for Hillary and Huma to be banned from seeing secrets after FBI's devastating verdict

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10/18/2019

38 people cited for violations in Clinton email probe