So, what to do about Hillary?

Now that the election is over, what do we do about Hillary and her email scheme?

Congressional Clinton probes will go forward post-election, GOP lawmakers say

At least four congressional investigations into Hillary Clinton’s personal email use and mishandling of classified information are expected to go forward even after the former secretary of state’s election loss last week, Republican lawmakers tell Fox News.

The probes, which cover allegations that Clinton lied to Congress about her email practices in October 2015 and that government records were destroyed, are ongoing and not dependent on the election’s outcome, two senior Republican senators said.

“I still don’t have the information I need,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told Fox News. Johnson said the work of his committee, with jurisdiction over government records and the mishandling of classified information, would be careful not to disrupt President-elect Donald Trump’s priorities.

“I think it’s one of the messages of this election that the public is disgusted when they see double standards, when they think people in high places, high government officials can get away with what ordinary citizens can’t,” he said. “So, I just think it’s extremely important to follow this thing through and get all the information. Make it public.”

A spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said answers, not the political calendar, are driving investigators.

Continuing with the investigations into her exclusive use of an illegal, private email system designed to hide her activities while SecState from Congress and the American people, and the quid-pro-quo/pay-to-play allegations regarding the Clinton Foundation and the State Department, certainly seems worthwhile, but is it really? Here’s Andrew C. McCarthy’s take –

Will Obama Pardon Hillary? Should He?

White House press secretary Josh Earnest raised some eyebrows on Wednesday when he engaged on the question whether President Obama would pardon Hillary Clinton before leaving office. Earnest did not indicate that the president had made any commitment one way or the other, but the fact that he is clearly thinking about it is intriguing.

The question primarily arises because there is significant evidence of felony law violations. These do not only involve the mishandling of classified information and the conversion/destruction of government files (i.e., the former secretary of state’s government-related e-mails). It has also been credibly reported that the FBI is investigating pay-to-play corruption during Clinton’s State Department tenure, through the mechanism of the Clinton Foundation — the family “charity” by means of which the Clintons have become fabulously wealthy by leveraging their “public service.” Thus far, Mrs. Clinton has been spared prosecution, but we have learned that the e-mails aspect of the investigation was unduly limited (no grand jury was used); and the legal theory on which FBI director James Comey declined to seek charges is highly debatable, even if it has been rubber-stamped by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

So, if you’re a law and order type, like me, you’re probably cringing, like me, at the prospect that she could be pardoned – in effect, sweeping everything about this under the rug – thus proving without a doubt that there is a two-tiered “justice” system, one for the so-called elites, and one for everyone else.

If President Legacy doesn’t pardon her (perhaps in retribution for her not covering his rear end by losing, thus putting his “legacy” in peril), would President Elect Trump do so after he is sworn in? Let’s check in with Jazz Shaw on that –

So I guess we’re seriously discussing a pardon for Hillary Clinton now

Lock her up!

How many times did you hear that during the endless campaign of 2016? I lost count long ago. With the President Elect not tipping his hand at this point as to whether or not there will actually be a special prosecutor looking into Hillary Clinton’s “situation” we have no guidance as to how we should proceed. But as long as the possibility exits, plenty of pundits are speculating on the possibility that Barack Obama might want to issue a full and complete pardon to Clinton before he leaves office. Not too long ago I would have scoffed at the idea, but in what has already been one of the strangest years in American politics on record I’m no longer quite so sure. [Emphasis in the original]

After citing Andrew C. McCarthy’s article linked to above, he continues –

I’ve been mulling this one over for a couple of days and it seems to me that it’s a double edged sword for both the Republicans and the Democrats. Right up front I absolutely agree with Andrew’s statement in the linked article that, there is significant evidence of felony law violations. (And he explains the details very well.) If we look at this from an unbiased, law and order perspective, you can certainly make the argument that a full investigation is called for and a trial if the results indicate such is required. This is essentially the argument in favor of going after her. But this is one of those cases where you simply can’t extract the politics from the equation.

Arguments against pursuing such a course of action seem to be centered on the political fallout and potential blow back from Democrats in Congress and among their rank and file voters. That’s probably overstated. It’s not as if the Democrats are lining up to “work with the new President” in any meaningful way and most of Hillary’s voters weren’t going to be helping us out in the midterms anyway. But it could certainly build on the perception of Trump as a bully who is seeking to punish his enemies via the power of his office and that might turn off some of the voters in the middle. [Emphasis in the original]

I too have been mulling this over the last couple of days, but I differ slightly with Jazz here, in that, if Trump does push for a Special Prosecutor, I think blow back from Democrats, both in Congress and the rank and file, is something to be taken into consideration, if you also consider the outrage machine quaintly known as the MSM that would be in full throat, spilling vast quantities of ink. But I do agree that voters in the middle would look askance at Trump – with the accusations coming from the outrage machine quaintly known as the MSM that Trump is being the big, bad bully that they always said he was.

So, what to do about Hillary? Since I think this is now a six of one, half dozen of the other, damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, I have no idea … nope, I got nothin’.

I do think that something needs to be done, if for no other reason than to change the perception of a two tiered “justice” system, but exactly what, and how to do that unknown what? Like I said, I got nothin’.

How about you? If you could finish this sentence, what would you say? “I think Hillary should …”

Hillary in denial, shifts blame for loss to Comey

Clinton tells fundraisers FBI Comey letter sank presidential bid

Hillary Clinton has offered a couple of private but candid explanations about why she lost her White House bid, telling high-dollar fundraisers Saturday that FBI announcements about a second probe into her emails from her time as secretary of state were too damaging.

Clinton said, “Our analysis is that Comey’s letter raised doubts that were groundless and baseless…” and “stopped our momentum,” a DNC fundraising source who was on the call told Fox News.

The finger pointing blame game continues apace, as Hillary is in complete denial as to the real reason she was not elected, with FBI Director James Comey squarely in the cross hairs, as their “analysis” outlined above, shows that his letters, and his letters alone are the reason she did not get elected.

Nothing mentioned about:

Her private email system perhaps being illegal, and thus very troubling to a large segment of the electorate;
Her inability to appear spontaneously human, therefore coming off robotic;
Her continuous swiveling as she pandered to whichever group she happened to be speaking to at the moment, often countering what she had just said at a previous “rally”;
Her obvious “IT’S MY TURN!” sense of entitlement;
Her overt condescension to half of the electorate in calling them “deplorable” (which became a huge rallying cry for Trump supporters);
Her constant lies – about anything and everything, both big and small;
People becoming convinced that she, and her DNC/Media enablers were doing whatever they could to cheat her into the office.

Yeah, none of that factored into why she lost. It was all his fault because he wrote two letters to Congress (granted, they were both outside “normal protocol”, but what was done was done). And yet, it wasn’t Comey who set up the illegal server which led to all of this, it was Hillary who had that done. It wasn’t Comey who systematically went about keeping records out of the public’s, and Congress’s, view – again, illegally – hiding her activities with the Clinton Foundation while she was SecState. She, and her co-conspirator minions, did that.

Nope. As usual, none of that was Hillary’s fault, it was someone else who was at fault.

Except, it wasn’t.

PUNT!

FBI’s Comey tells Congress email review completed, decision not to prosecute Clinton stands

FBI Director James Comey said Sunday that the agency has reviewed all of the Hillary Clinton emails recently discovered in an unrelated case and that his conclusion in July not to prosecute Clinton after the FBI’s original investigation into her use of a private email server still stands.

Comey informed Congress on Oct. 28 that the agency would in the unrelated case review additional emails related to Clinton’s time running the State Department from 2009 to 2013.

“Since my letter, the FBI investigative team has been working around the clock to process and review a large volume of emails,” Comey said Sunday in a follow-up letter to Congress. “During that time we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hilary Clinton as secretary of state. Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusion.”

A Department of Justice spokesperson said that agency and the FBI “dedicated all necessary resources to conduct this review expeditiously.”

When asked where the email investigation stands after Comey’s letter, a senior law enforcement official close to the probe described the matter to Fox News as “closed.”

Wow, the FBI must have some really powerful software to be able to get through all 650,000 (or so) emails that were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. Seems almost magical … oh, wait. My bad. They were using teams from their CART office, as I previously wrote about, working in 16 hour shifts, to sift through all of those AND determine A) if there were any duplicate emails already found on Clinton’s server (yes, there were), and B) if there were new emails, 1) were any of them work related (pertaining to Clinton’s term as SecState) and 2) did any of them contain classified information.

According to this report in the NY Post, [n]early all of the new e-mails — which were found on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin — are duplicates of messages the FBI reviewed while investigating Clinton’s use of the server, NBC News reported.

Some contain classified information, but they do not change the total number of classified documents found by the feds, a senior law-enforcement official told NBC.

Others hadn’t been seen previously by the FBI, but they didn’t involve government business, the official said.

All of that, accomplished in eight days. Rather remarkable, considering that we are talking about a federal government agency, but I digress.

This was one scenario that I didn’t envision when I was writing my previous post suggesting that we may be headed for a Constitutional crisis – I didn’t think it through far enough, I must admit, even though everything I wrote was pure speculation … sigh … anyway.

Earlier I tweeted ::PUNT::. I haven’t changed my mind. I was of the opinion that Comey punted back in July, and he’s now saying that he’s not changing his mind on his July decision after this remarkably fast review, and so I’m not changing my mind, either.

Guess we’ll have to wait until tomorrow night to see whether the “Court of Public Opinion” agrees or disagrees with Mr. Comey. Regardless of that outcome, this isn’t going away, no matter the wishful thinking of her supporters. Of course things could have been different:

She didn’t have to have a private email system to hide all of her dealings from Congressional oversight while SecState, and then lied about it when caught out;

She didn’t have to be corrupt, and use her position as SecState to enrich herself, her husband and her daughter through pay-to-play schemes, schemes that we are learning about daily, thanks to Wikileaks;

She didn’t have to transmit classified information on her illegal, private, home brewed email system, and then lie repeatedly about it;

She didn’t have to wait to turn over her work related emails to the State Department, making them ask her for those, instead of turning them over upon leaving the agency as the law requires;

She didn’t have to withhold over thirty thousand emails from the State Department, and then make repeated false statements to the press, Congress, and the FBI (a federal offense) that those emails were not work related (since proven to be false by the FBI), but rather were about yoga, and Chelsea’s wedding, among other things, and hence “personal”;

She didn’t have to repeatedly state – in writing – “I don’t recall” during sworn testimony in the Judicial Watch deposition, as well as during the FBI interview (where she claimed that her head injury made it difficult to remember things, thus proving that she’s physically unfit).

She didn’t have to do any of that, but she did. She could have done everything above board, in an honest, open, transparent way, but she chose not to, She has brought all of this on herself, and if her name was anything other than Clinton, she would be sitting before a grand jury, facing perhaps several indictments. Instead, people are voting for her to be the next President …

Are We Headed For A Constitutional Crisis? Updated.

UPDATE – Well, the one thing I didn’t take into consideration – at all, which was a big mistake on my part – happened Sunday. FBI Director Comey punted again, just like he did in July, which means just about everything I wrote below is now moot. I’m leaving it up though as a “teaching moment”, both to myself and to anyone else that is thinking about (or is) blogging, and that would be to think things through as far as you can before you embarrass yourself …

Original post follows –

Maybe.

It depends.

It depends on a number of things happening.

It depends on what we, as a voting body, do this coming Tuesday.

It depends on what is found on a certain laptop, in a certain investigation. Actually, in two investigations.

Let’s look at this starting with the on-going investigations – plural. One investigation is, ICYMI, whether or not Hillary Clinton, during her term as Secretary of State sent and/or received classified material through her private, illegal, non-secure home-brew email server(s). As you may recall, during his now famous (infamous?) press conference back in July, FBI Director James Comey told all of us that yes, classified material went through her private, illegal, non-secure home-brew email server(s), but that she had no intent to harm US National Security, and because she had no intent to cause any harm, no reasonable prosecutor would seek to indict her, irrespective of the fact that the pertinent statute doesn’t require that there be intent. There has been a tremendous amount written on this subject, including by yours truly (mainly in a different venue than this), both in praise, and vilification, of Director Comey’s decision. More on that decision later.

The other investigation, which was first reported by Fox News at the beginning of this year, but largely ignored until they couldn’t any more by the MSM, due to the negative nature in regards to their “favored one”, is about the investigation into the pay-to-play allegations leveled at the Clinton Foundation, the allegations being that donors to the Foundation were given “special access” to Hillary Clinton, and by extension the US Government, while she was Secretary of State, and that those donations were in fact bribes that enriched not only Hillary, but especially Bill as well.

It has been reported (originally by the WSJ, but a subscription is required, so no link – sorry.) that the DoJ has tried to either slow walk both investigations, or to even halt both investigations, and as a result, there is a feud between FBI investigators who want to see these investigations proceed to their natural conclusion no matter what that is, and DoJ attorneys who, as Lynch loyalists – and by extension, Clinton loyalists – want all of this to just go away. Unfortunately for the DoJ, and fortunately for We the People, several Congressional Committee Chairs have said that they will be investigating all of this no matter what happens this coming Tuesday, which is what I want to explore now.

This Tuesday, those of us who are eligible to vote (if you’re dead, please stay in the ground – this election is weird enough already), if we decide to vote, have the unenviable position of having to choose between two people who are the least liked candidates in modern memory to be running for the Presidency of the United States. Much has been written by many, including by yours truly, decrying these choices as the awful choices that they are, each candidate being declared to be unfit for the office that they seek, for a multitude of reasons. Only one candidate, however, is under not just one, but two, FBI criminal investigations (they are most certainly not “security reviews” – the FBI does not do “security reviews”), and that candidate is Hillary Clinton.

So, what happens after Tuesday, after all of the votes have been counted?

One of two things may occur. Either the FBI will be investigating a private citizen (who will probably be pardoned by the current occupant of the WH, effectively ending the investigation where she is concerned), or the FBI will be investigating President-Elect Hillary Clinton. No matter what the current occupant of the WH does in regards to a pardon, if she wins the election Tuesday, in my opinion we are headed for a Constitutional crisis. Remember Comey’s decision in July? At the time, I was stunned. I felt sure that they were going to indict her, and eventually we would be rid of this horrid, horrid woman. Imagine my disappointment.

I think I now understand why he made that decision, with information that has come to light since that decision. Information such as what Andrew C. McCarthy of NRO has detailed (see link above), and the big one – that the current occupant of the WH had communicated with Clinton, using an alias, and sending it to her via her private, illegal, non-secure home-brew email server(s), despite telling the American people that he learned about her private, illegal, non-secure home-brew email server(s) from the news. Comey knew that if he went after Clinton, he would also have to go after the current occupant of the WH, which would trigger a potential Constitutional crisis right there. As a secondary consideration, Comey had to know that if he did push for an indictment that it would be “career suicide”. So, he punted. Kicked the can down the road. Deferred action. Hoped that nothing new would come up …

Oops.

The bombshell revelation that Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of long time Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who is being investigated for sexting with a minor girl, had approximately 650,000 emails on his laptop, tens of thousands of which are known to have gone through Clinton’s private, illegal, non-secure home-brew email server(s), kicked that can right back down the road in front of God and everybody, making it impossible to ignore, despite every attempt by the MSM to do just that. By following through on his promise during his Congressional testimony to notify Congress of any new developments in the case (his decision also lit a firestorm of criticism as several on the Left have called for his resignation, with Harry Reid even going so far as to laughably insinuate that Comey had violated the Hatch Act, which he has not), his decision has caused many, including me, to wonder “What’s next?”, hence this post.

To me the “What’s next?” is, if Trump wins Tuesday, Clinton will get an immediate pardon, stopping any and all investigations of her personally (but not necessarily the Foundation), and keeping her out of prison, but also, I think, effectively removing her from public life, thus no Constitutional crisis. However, a Trump victory is not a sure thing. If Clinton wins?

All bets are off.

See above.

Friday Emailgate update

Emailgate. It ain’t over, folks. Not by a long shot.

In spite of the almost manic attempt of the Left and their media allies to deflect and distract from the fact that these two investigations of their “chosen one” are on-going, guess what? They are still on-going.

Also, in spite of the almost manic attempt by some in the DoJ to derail the investigations into Clinton’s exclusive use of a private email system while she was SecState and the pay-to-play scandal involving the Clinton Foundation, thanks to Clinton’s long time aide, Huma Abedin’s hoarding habit, and her husband, Anthony Weiner’s inability to keep his hands out of his pants and off of his phone at the same time, and the feud that has apparently erupted between the FBI investigators (who want to take the investigation to the end) and the DoJ lawyers (who are loyal to Loretta Lynch, and by extension, Clinton, and don’t want this to go anywhere for obvious reasons), we now know that there is mounting evidence – against whom is still unknown at this time – that will almost surely result in an indictment, or indictments, being handed down.

So, what happens if Clinton is elected? Will the investigations stop? Gregg Jarrett of Fox.com has laid out some scenario’s of the possibilities –

She could resign before or after inauguration, leaving President Tim Kaine sitting behind a desk in the Oval Office.

President Obama could pardon her before he departs that same office.

Clinton, as president, could try to invoke broad constitutional immunity from prosecution, delaying her criminal trial until after she leaves office. Or she could pardon herself. 

Yeah, you read that last part right – she could pardon herself. But, that would forever lay to rest any further political aspirations, such as a second term, that she may have, and with her lust for power, you just know that would gall her to her rotten core. Even if she did pardon herself, a Republican led House could (and probably would if she were to be so arrogant as to pardon herself) still bring her up on impeachment charges.

As for the investigations stopping if she’s elected? That won’t happen – they will continue, as Bret Baier explained in the video above. The evidence is mounting for both cases, including the fact that new emails are on the Abedin/Weiner laptop that are not duplicates of emails previously released (whether those are significant or not remains to be determined).

The other thing to consider here is that it is being reported that there is a 99% certainty – certainty – that Clinton’s unsecured email server was hacked by foreign operators, thereby exposing all of that classified material that she falsely claimed was not there, despite her assertion to the contrary (after all, there were Secret Service agents at her house, so the server(s) must have been safe, right?).

One of the more ludicrous claims being made, is being made by President CoverHisAss, that all she did was make “an honest mistake” –

The words “honest” and “Clinton” are like oil and water. They do not mix, they are not compatible together, they are polar opposites. Hillary simply cannot be honest. It’s just not in her. She’s a congenital liar, as William Saffire so eloquently pointed out in 1996!

She is criminally unfit to hold office – any office.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next bombshell(s) in the continuing Emailgate saga?

Bret Baier: FBI Sources Believe Clinton Foundation Case Moving Towards “Likely an Indictment”

Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier reports the latest news about the Clinton Foundation investigation from two sources inside the FBI. He reveals five important new pieces of information …

1. The Clinton Foundation investigation is far more expansive than anybody has reported so far and has been going on for more than a year.

2. The laptops of Clinton aides Cherryl Mills and Heather Samuelson have not been destroyed, and agents are currently combing through them. The investigation has interviewed several people twice, and plans to interview some for a third time.

3. Agents have found emails believed to have originated on Hillary Clinton’s secret server on Anthony Weiner’s laptop. They say the emails are not duplicates and could potentially be classified in nature.

4. Sources within the FBI have told him that an indictment is “likely” in the case of pay-for-play at the Clinton Foundation, “barring some obstruction in some way” from the Justice Department.

5. FBI sources say with 99% accuracy that Hillary Clinton’s server has been hacked by at least five foreign intelligence agencies, and that information had been taken from it.

Check out the two videos at the link.

Also, in this related article, [t]he FBI’s investigation into the Clinton Foundation that has been going on for more than a year has now taken a “very high priority,” according to sources within the FBI, as they look into possible pay-to-play schemes between the State Department during Clinton’s term as SecState, and the Clinton Foundation.

The investigation into the Clinton Foundation has been a parallel investigation into the on-going email server investigation, which according to Andrew McCarthy of NRO and the compartmentalization and separation between the two has hampered the investigation into the email server case, which he questions seeing as how they are related. Perhaps the Weiner laptop will be what breaks down the wall, and the two investigative teams can begin to cooperate.

In related news Catherine Herridge reports the FBI is using over-lapping shifts of analysts from their Computer Analysis and Response Team, or CART to quickly sift through the 650,000 emails on the laptop using special software, and that those folks will be working 16 hour days, checking to see if any of Abedin’s emails contain classified information.

With only days to go before the election, if you are a Clinton supporter you have to ask yourself one question if you are honest with yourself, “Can I vote for someone who may potentially be indicted?”. If you don’t care about the rule of law, you’ll pull the handle/punch the hole/color in the circle for her anyway, laws and ethics and morality be damned. But if you do care for the rule of law, can you in good conscience, cast your vote for her? I think your answer has to be “No, I can’t vote for her.”

Wednesday Emailgate update

FBI never asked Clinton aides for all their devices

The FBI never asked Hillary Clinton’s top aides to turn over all the computers and smartphones they used while Clinton was secretary of state, an omission that is now triggering questions from Republican lawmakers.

While the FBI made a concerted effort to obtain all the computers that were used as Clinton’s private server and ultimately asked two of Clinton’s lawyers for laptops used to review her email messages, investigators never requested or demanded all equipment her top staffers used for work purposes during her four years at State, a source familiar with the investigation told POLITICO.

“No one was asked for devices by the FBI,” said the source, who requested anonymity.

The decision left the FBI at least partially dependent on the aides’ attorneys’ decisions about which messages were work-related and therefore might have contained classified information the agents were looking for. Those messages were turned over to State in response to its request last year.

GOP lawmakers say the decision not to demand the aides’ electronics, or even to ask for them, raises doubts about how the FBI and prosecutors handled the probe.

“The more we learn about the FBI’s initial investigation into Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server, the more questions we have about the thoroughness of the investigation and the administration’s conclusion to not prosecute her for mishandling classified information,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told POLITICO on Tuesday.

This entire investigation was going nowhere, really, from the beginning because of one salient fact – President Anonymous and Hillary Clinton communicated with each other via her illegal, private, home brewed email system before he denied knowing about it before learning about it through media reports “just like everybody else”.

That’s why no grand jury was ever formed. That’s why no subpoena’s were ever issued, let alone requested. That’s why the odd side deals and immunity grants were made. That’s why this case was closed.

That’s why the revelation that there are upwards of 650,000 stored emails on a laptop shared by Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife, Huma Abedin, of which thousands (possibly more than 10,000) of emails are known to have gone through Clinton’s email server is so important, and that is why Senator Grassley’s letter to FBI Director Comey is important as well, as Grassley asks Comey to explain just what really happened in the investigation of Clinton’s email system and also the investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Grassley has requested that all of the questions be answered by Comey no later than November 4th.

The following is my opinion only, based on pure speculation, which should be taken with a large grain of salt, honestly. I have no crystal ball, or any “secret knowledge” – I just have time to think about stuff, roll it around in my brain and see if anything remotely logical plops out. Ready? Here goes.

If Comey replies that his investigators were frustrated or impeded by DoJ officials through denial of subpoena’s; that the DoJ refused to form a grand jury; that DoJ officials told FBI investigators to back off in any way, this will possibly cause a constitutional crisis of greater magnitude than Watergate ever was. It could, might, maybe, possibly force Clinton to step down – either as candidate for President, or from the office itself if elected. This all depends, of course, on how Comey responds to Sen. Grassley.

We have between now and November 4th to find out.

New Emailgate information revealed

Oh, man … where to begin?

As I posted yesterday, FBI Director Comey sent a letter to various members of Congress generally stating that because of information from an unrelated case, they were re-opening the case concerning Clinton’s use of a private email server during her (entire) term as Secretary of State. Naturally, this landed like a bomb in that it came so close in relation to the election. As of my original post on this, what new information the FBI had warranting the reopening of this case was not precisely known by anyone outside of the FBI investigation, but various reports since last night have revealed that information, and it’s a true shocker.

The new information is that Huma Abedin’s (one of Clinton’s top aides) estranged husband Anthony Weiner, who is being investigated for (insert the obligatory allegedly) sexting with a 15 year old girl, apparently had thousands of Clinton emails on the device he used to engage in the (insert the obligatory allegedly) sexting, because Huma had also used that same device to download those Clinton emails so she could print them for Clinton, and then apparently, simply forgot to delete them. Now, whether any of those new emails the FBI found have classified information or not, is not known at this time, as the FBI hasn’t looked at them, because they are outside of the scope of the investigation into Weiner’s activities, and they will need to get a search warrant to look at them. Remember – in order to obtain a search warrant, there needs to be a grand jury.

In an ironic (and idiotic, imo) twist, Allahpundit reports that Rush is pushing the idea that this story has been pushed to distract from the WikiLeaks dumps of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta’s emails, apparently saying that this move is supposed to help Clinton? According to someone I follow at Twitter, Just Karl, he thinks Rush knows Trump is still going to lose, so he’s still working the “rigged” scenario. Possible, but just how Rush came to that conclusion is beyond me … of course, imo, Rush lost pretty much all cred with me because of the oxy use, but that’s just me. YMMV.

In yet another ironic twist, several “leading” Democrats, who in July hailed Comey’s decision to close the case against Clinton, now are excoriating him for sending the letter to Congress, and are calling on him to A) release the emails, and B) divulge whatever information they have uncovered in this on-going investigation, echoing Clinton’s own call for the new emails to be released.

There’s only two little problems that my non-lawyerly mind can see with this, A) the FBI needs to determine if any of the thousands of emails contain classified information before any of them can be released to the public, and they can’t do that until they look at them, and they can’t do that until they get a new search warrant, and B) this is an on-going investigation (into Weiner), and the FBI does not divulge any information regarding an on-going investigation. For a real lawyers take on this seemingly never ending scandal revolving around Clinton, read this excellent piece by Andrew C. McCarthy at NRO.

Now, there has been some rather breathless speculation that Clinton’s chances are doomed, and that these new revelations will propel Trump to the White House, and I must admit that I got a little breathless myself when I first learned last night that the case was going to be re-opened (not that Clinton’s chances are doomed, and that these new revelations will propel Trump to the White House – wanted to make that clear), thinking that maybe Comey was doing this because he wanted to “atone” for his dereliction, but I don’t think it’s so much an “atonement”, as maybe it’s just his way to mollify those in the FBI and DoJ that were gobsmacked by what he said back in July. As a minor side note to this, apparently an obscure PAC has filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against FBI Director Comey. The complaint accuses Comey of interfering in the election. Like that’s gonna work.

This has been quite the unexpected whirlwind (hence the term “October surprise”, eh?), hasn’t it? Will this prove to be Clinton’s undoing, elevating Trump to the Presidency, or will this, in the end, not really matter as to the effect on the election? As of today, we have ten more days to find out, and they may be the longest ten days of our lives. I think we can all agree on that, at least.

Coincidence, or were the wrong 33,000 emails deleted?

Emails show close Clinton allies in dark, shocked over ‘insane’ server setup

Some of Hillary Clinton’s top advisers were in the dark about the scope and depth of her controversial email system as the scandal broke in March 2015, with even her now-campaign manager professing ignorance about the private system at the time, according to emails released Thursday by WikiLeaks.

One close ally, Center for American Progress leader Neera Tanden, was still fuming months later, pressing now-Campaign Chairman John Podesta on who gave Clinton permission to use the system.

“Do we actually know who told Hillary she could use a private email? And has that person been drawn and quartered?” Tanden wrote in July. “Like whole thing is f—ing insane.”

The tenor of the emails belies the assuring tone Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and her campaign took as they publicly downplayed the controversy in the months after it broke. The emails showing Hillaryland’s initial reaction to the news were discovered in a batch of more than 33,000 hacked from Podesta’s account and subsequently posted to anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks.

While some of Clinton’s closest aides, particularly those who worked with her at the State Department, such as Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, appeared to be well aware and deeply involved in her email setup, others apparently were not.

Salty tongued Neera Tanden has seemed, to me, to be the only person associated with Clinton that has been even slightly honest in this whole sordid mess.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has his take on this as well, a portion of which is below (mainly for the way he expressed it), but make sure you read the whole thing.

Tanden called the scandal a “Cheryl [Mills] special,” and wondered why the Clintons didn’t air all of this out themselves after leaving the State Department. She then answered her own question. “I guess I know the answer,” she wrote to Podesta, “they wanted to get away with it.”

For the most part, though, they did. The FBI mysteriously discovered a need to find intent in a statute (18 USC 793f) that specifically does not require it, and the Department of Justice happily concurred. The same people who called Hillary’s e-mail “f****** insane) and had no idea how deep the rabbit hole actually was spent the last 19 months insisting that there was no rabbit hole at all. They continue to insist that Hillary Clinton has been the most transparent Secretary of State in the history of Secretaries, in the history of States, and in the history of “ofs” even after ripping their fellow Clintonistas for hiding the scandal until it exploded in their faces. That worked, too, at least with the media and voters, who picked up on their transparency arguments and in many cases downplayed the significance of the classified-information spillage — and hardly mentioned the corruption of important checks and balances on executive-branch agencies.

If nothing else, this serves as a reminder that this was a big dea, it was “f****** insane,” and that no one at all got “drawn and quartered” or even reprimanded for it.

Closing thought to chew on. When this entire Emailgate scandal first erupted, we were all told that Hillary had turned over “all” of her work related emails (which we later found out was not true — surprise!), after having her lawyers go through all of them, and then deleting the remaining 33,000 emails, as they were “not work related” (which we, again, later found out was not true — surprise!). Fast forward to this month, and from stage left, enters a new actor in this sad, sordid national melodrama, WikiLeaks who “gifts” us with what is purported to be the hacked emails of John Podesta (who has yet to state that these aren’t genuine), head of the Clinton campaign. And, just how many of Podest’s email has WikiLeaks said they’ve “acquired”? 33,000?

Coincidence, or were the wrong 33,000 emails deleted?

Emailgate updates, plus an update

Update: Make that three articles of note.

‘We Need to Clean This Up’: More Evidence Obama Lied about Hillary’s Private E-mails

WikiLeaks has released e-mails showing Hillary Clinton’s advisers knew there was a problem when President Obama denied knowledge of Clinton’s private e-mail system.

There was panic in Camp Clinton when President Obama falsely told the public he had not known about then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s use of private e-mail until he heard about it “through news reports.”

Read the rest.

Original post follows.

Two more articles to add to the ever growing list in the still on-going Emailgate scandal. First up is a good opinion piece from Fox News‘ Gregg Jarrett.

Gregg Jarrett: The perpetual cloud of dirt and scandal that hovers over Hillary Clinton

“Pig-Pen” and his perpetual cloud of dirt.

It follows him wherever he goes and engulfs whatever he does. The beleaguered character in the comic strip “Peanuts” cannot seem to rid himself of the dirt, despite his best efforts. At times, he seems oblivious to the cloud. Or in denial.

Remind you of Hillary Clinton? Metaphorically, that is.

The dirt cloud of scandal has followed Clinton incessantly for years. Not just a single, isolated scandal… but several. Travelgate, Whitewater, cattle futures, Benghazi, private email server, Clinton Foundation, Wall Street speeches, you name it.

It’s one ignominious incident after another. And all of them are of her own making.

Which, of course, she blames on others, most famously being a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that was “out to get her” (well, kinda, sorta, yeah – duh!)

Clinton tends to stretch the bounds of propriety, dangling her foot over the legal lines.

Yeah, by leaps and bounds. I have never seen a public personae push so hard at stretching the bounds of propriety as she has, and suffer absolutely no consequences! It’s just … surreal.

Two more things from this, and then we’ll get to the other article.

Recall Dr. McCabe and her husband, FBI Deputy Director McCabe?

Her latest scandal kicks up dirt on the FBI for its bewildering (see also, “stupefying”) decision to recommend that Clinton not be criminally prosecuted under the federal Espionage Act for mishandling classified documents and jeopardizing national security as Secretary of State. It seems that Clinton’s close friend shoveled truck-loads of money to the wife of the FBI deputy director overseeing the agency’s investigation of Clinton.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe was the money man. Through political groups he controls, he saw to it that Dr. Jill McCabe received more than $ 675,000 for her state senate race, according to The Wall Street Journal. It just so happens that her husband, Andrew McCabe, is second in command at the FBI and, as such, likely played a key role in allowing Clinton to escape criminal prosecution. No one has yet proven that Clinton’s fingerprints are on the bags of money. But her longtime friend and ally, Gov. McAuliffe, doesn’t deny he engineered the cash.

If that isn’t a quid-pro-quo scenario … proof or no, it still has the stench.

Last but not least, Gregg asks a question. I think I know the answer.

All along Clinton seemed confident she would not be criminally charged. Did she know something we didn’t know?

Yes, she did. She knew, because a certain individual (let’s call him President CoverHisAss) that had emailed her at her private server email address, and then LIED about knowing about her illegal server, that nothing would befall her. I think that is the precise message delivered by AG Lynch to Bill Clinton in that “spontaneous, coincidental, we were talking about grand kids, but no media, or recording devices, were allowed” meeting on the tarmac.

Make sure you read the entirety of Gregg’s piece. I just wanted to add my humble 2 cents worth.

The second, related article –

‘We need to clean this up’: Clinton aide cried foul on Obama’s email denial

One of Hillary Clinton’s top aides urged colleagues to “clean this up” after President Obama claimed in March 2015 he only learned of Clinton’s private email system from news reports — a statement the aide pointedly challenged by noting the president “has emails” from her non-department address.

The directive from Cheryl Mills, one of the Democratic presidential nominee’s most trusted aides, was revealed Tuesday in the newest batch of Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s emails posted by anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks. It is one of several showing how Clinton’s inner circle scrambled to correct the record after Obama’s initial remarks.

The hacked Mills message stems from a discussion on March 7, 2015, the night Obama told CBS News he found out about Clinton’s email system “the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.”

“We need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov,” Mills wrote to Podesta just before midnight.

President CoverHisAss knew she had a home brew email server and was using that exclusively, yet lied to the American public on national TV about it, and the “Clinton Team” went into cover up mode to not only cover her ass, but President CoverHisAss’s ass as well, which is how she and her “team” all avoided jail time.

He’s just as complicit as the rest.