After finally helping convince Hillary Clinton to address her private email scandal, Robby Mook, the 35-year-old whom the New York Times reports is in line to manage Clinton’s presidential campaign, has reportedly “blocked out the crisis” and has is focused on launching Clinton’s campaign in early April.
Apparently, Clinton’s press conference last week that left more questions than answers was enough for Mook.
A majority of Americans, in a new CNN/ORC poll, though, think Clinton did something wrong by using a private email account, including 27% of Democrats, 53% of independents, and 74% of Republicans.
It may be difficult for Mook to “block out” the crisis as Republicans and the mainstream media are ramping up efforts get Clinton’s server and answers to lingering questions–like if Clinton signed a separation statement upon leaving agency, as is required of all federal government employees.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) is reportedly set to launch an investigation into Clinton’s emails. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who chairs the House Select Benghazi Committee, said he may take legal action to force Clinton to hand over her private email server. The Associated Press has filed a lawsuit against the State Department to get access to Clinton’s emails.
Clinton admitted last week that she deleted more than 30,000 emails that she alone deemed to be “personal” and may have committed a felony if she signed the State Department’s separation agreement and did not hand over all of her work-related emails. After Clinton’s team initially said emails were deleted without having been read, Clinton’s team backtracked this weekend, saying “every” email had been read before being deleted.
Clinton and the State Department have ducked questions in recent days about whether Clinton signed the OF-109 separation form upon leaving office as Clinton was required to do. The OF-109 form that Clinton was supposed to have signed states,”I have surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the government acquired by me while in the employ of the department.”
When Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki for an update on the matter on Monday, Psaki replied, “I don’t have an update on this, Matt. We’re still working on it.”
Lee noted that “the human resources department presumably has a file on every employee. It can’t be that difficult.”
“I don’t think former secretaries are standard employees,” Psaki then said. “We’re looking to get an answer. I don’t have an answer today.”
Lee then asked, “where do these forms, once they’re signed, go? They don’t go into the ether, like so many other e-mails seem to have.”
“Where in the building do they go? Psaki replied, trying to stall.
“No, I do not know if she signed that. And it would be irresponsible to — for me to guess,” Gowdy said. “The responsible thing to do is to ask her and ask the State Department to produce a copy of it. And if she did not sign it, ask her why she did not sign it. And if she did sign it, we’ll go over the document with her.”
Gowdy added that if public pressure does not compel Clinton to turn over her private email server, then the House may sue to get access to it.
“If it becomes an issue for her, if the public believes it is reasonable for her to turn over that server which contains public information to a neutral, detached arbiter, not Congress but a retired judge or an archivist or an inspector general, then she’ll be forced to do so,” he said. “Otherwise, the House as an institution, may be forced to go to court to try to get access to that.”
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