Newly released Justice Department e-mails reveal that a lawyer for Hillary Clinton contacted DOJ top brass demanding a phone call “ASAP” after then-FBI Director James Comey reopened the investigation into Clinton’s private e-mail server in October 2016.
Days later, Comey closed the investigation again.
The e-mails also show that the Justice Department discussed a quid pro quo with the State Department to downplay the e-mail scandal, Fox reported.
Clinton lawyer pressured FBI
Two years after Clinton was exonerated by the Justice Department, conservative watchdog Judicial Watch has been hounding the Justice Department for answers on Clinton’s misuse of a private e-mail server when she was secretary of state. Judicial Watch obtained a new batch of e-mails through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit which reveals the dramatic chain of events set off by Comey’s Oct. 28 letter to Congress announcing his decision to reopen the investigation.
The same day that Comey fired off his missive, Clinton lawyer David Kendall e-mailed FBI General Counsel James Baker seeking a phone call “ASAP” with top brass to get answers about Comey’s 11th-hour letter. “Please call me ASAP – about Comey letter,” Kendall wrote.
Baker called Kendall back and forwarded his e-mail to top FBI officials including Comey, key agent Peter Strzok, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. In his e-mail, Baker said that Kendall complained that Comey’s letter was “tantalizingly ambiguous” and “inchoate and highly ominous” in a way that made Clinton look bad. The e-mail chain shows that Kendall’s demand was answered with a conference call that Strzok set up. “OK. I will set up the bridge. 10:00 am?” Strzok responded to Baker. Page chimed in, “1 would be great. Thanks.”
Quid pro quo
The e-mails further show Page discussing a quid pro quo offer from the State Department to have the classification on one of Clinton’s emails hidden in exchange for more legal attache positions and movement abroad for FBI agents. Fox initially reported in October on the lobbying efforts by a top State Department official, which were apparently rebuffed.
“Jason Herring will be providing you with three 302s [witness reports] of current and former FBI employees who were interviewed during the course of the Clinton investigation,” Page wrote. “These 302s are scheduled to be released to Congress in an unredacted form at the end of the week, and produced (with redactions) pursuant to FOIA at the beginning of next week.”
She added, “As you will see, they describe a discussion about potential quid pro quo arrangement between then-DAD in IOD [deputy assistant director in International Operations Division] and an Undersecretary at the State Department whereby IOD would get more LEGAT [legal attaché] positions if the FBI could change the basis of the FOIA withhold re a Clinton email from classified to something else.”
Rigged?
One can only guess what was discussed on the call, but Republican critics have said that the top brass of the DOJ and FBI have a troubling connection with the Democratic party that may have amounted to a failed election conspiracy to thwart Trump’s candidacy. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton lauded the e-mail release as further proof that the agencies, sometimes referred to as part of the “Deep State,” rigged the election for Clinton.
“It is big news that, just days before the presidential election, Hillary Clinton’s personal lawyer pressured the top lawyer for the FBI on the infamous Weiner laptop emails,” Fitton said. “These documents further underscore that the fix was in for Hillary Clinton. When will the Justice Department and FBI finally do an honest investigation of the Clinton e-mail scandal?”
For her part, Clinton has blamed Comey’s decision to reopen the investigation for her election loss. But critics of the FBI and DOJ see a pattern of anti-Trump bias at the agencies, evidenced in texts exchanged between Strzok and Page — including one where Strzok wrote that they would “stop” Trump from becoming president — as proof of just the opposite.
Comey initially exonerated Clinton in July of 2016 before opening the probe again after discovering a new batch of e-mails on the laptop of Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former lawmaker and husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin. On Nov. 6, days after Kendall’s Oct. 28 email to the DOJ, Comey again recommended no charges against Clinton after his agents reviewed the material from Weiner’s laptop.
The FBI determined that there were no new classified e-mails, but in fact, 18 classified emails from Abedin were found. Moreover, the FBI may have rushed the analysis to get it done before Election Day, as a later investigation reported that the FBI did not look at all 700,000 odd e-mails, but used a computer program to select a few for review.
Clinton’s email saga isn’t over yet, though she and the supportive media would like to think so. A federal judge ordered further discovery in December to determine whether Clinton deliberately used her private server to avoid FOIA suits.
No comments: