Hillary Clinton Swears She Has Turned Over All Emails; Top Aides Refuse

Over the weekend, Hillary Clinton signed a statement and submitted it to federal court, swearing that she has turned over all emails that qualify as federal records. However, Clinton’s top aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin have thus far refused to sign such statements, and on Monday the watchdog group Judicial Watch informed the judge that Mills is evidently planning to destroy federal records, in what the JW’s urgent response described as “blatant disregard” for the federal court order.

Clinton’s sworn declaration of compliance reads as follows:

I, Hillary Rodham Clinton, declare under penalty of perjury that the following is true and correct:

1. While I do not know what information may be “responsive” for purposes of this law suit, I have directed that all my e-mails on clintonemail.com in my custody that were or potentially were federal records to be provided to the Department of State, and on information and belief, this has been done.
2. As a result of my directive, approximately 55,000 pages of these emails were produced to the Department on December 5, 2014.
3. Cheryl Mills did not have an account on clintonemail.com. Huma Abedin did have such an account which was used at times for government business.

“Mrs. Clinton’s declaration fails to comply with both Judge Sullivan’s court order and the State Department’s request,” Judicial Watch wrote in response.  “Clinton does not certify she turned over all federal records and provides no information on the extent that Abedin and Mills used her server.”

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan’s July 31 order specified that Clinton, Abedin, and Mills were required to “confirm, under penalty of perjury, that they have produced all responsive information that was or is in their possession as a result of their employment at the State Department.”

Also, all three were ordered to “describe, under penalty of perjury, the extent to which Ms. Abedin and Ms. Mills used Mrs. Clinton’s email server to conduct official government business.”  The deadline for compliance was August 7.  Abedin and Mills have yet to comply as of August 11.

Judicial Watch filed its urgent response on Friday after Mills’ attorney informed the State Department, “Following our production on August 10, 2015, we have instructed [Ms. Mills] to delete any and all electronic copies [of potential federal records] in her possession.”

Even by the usual standards of Democrat Party lawlessness and corruption, that’s astounding. We’ve given you everything we feel like handing over, so we’re going to go ahead and destroy the rest. What, is Mills running out of space on her eight dollar thumb drive? Or are her electronic storage media going to be destroyed as thoroughly as Hillary’s email server no doubt has been, after Clinton deleted half the records covered by subpoena because she decided they were merely “personal correspondence?”

Judge Sullivan responded to Judicial Watch’s request within the hour, issuing an additional order on Friday evening, directing the government to “request that Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Ms. Huma Abedin, and Ms. Cheryl Mills i) not delete any federal documents, electronic or otherwise, in their possession or control, and ii) provide appropriate assurances to the Government that the above-named individuals will not delete any such documents.”

The third-party nature of these orders (the judge orders the State Department to request Clinton, Abedin, and Mills to do certain things) provides plenty of wiggle room for the slippery Clinton syndicate to maneuver through. Hillary is doubtless confident that all data which could put her in the dock for perjury has been thoroughly destroyed… and if not, she has good reason to believe that members of the Clinton royal family are immune to perjury charges, doesn’t she? It’s interesting that her aides seem somewhat less confident of their own protection.

Judicial Watch notes the astonishing fact that, prior to their lawsuits and Judge Sullivan’s orders, the State Department had never officially asked Clinton, Abedin, or Mills about any of this secret-server skulduggery:

Letters produced yesterday [August 9] show that, on July 31, the State Department, for the first time, demanded that Mills and Abedin “return all copies of potential federal records in your possession.” The State Department did not provide correspondence demanding Mrs. Clinton return all copies of potential federal records. Despite the court’s July 31 order for immediate disclosure, the State Department and its Justice Department attorneys took six days to disclose the 13 letters, which total 19 pages.

Prior to August 5 court-ordered letters, the State Department had asked no questions of Clinton, Mills, and Abedin about Mrs. Clinton’s separate email system or classified material.

Judicial Watch reports that it has “nearly 20 federal lawsuits that touch on Mrs. Clinton and her staff’s use of secret email accounts to conduct official government business.” The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit prompting Judge Sullivan’s dramatic actions pertains to Huma Abedin’s highly unusual working arrangement with the State Department, under which she appears to have falsely claimed that she never took vacation time, and even demanded payment for the leave time she didn’t use.

She was also given a highly unusual special exemption from conflict-of-interest laws to collect State Department pay while simultaneously holding lucrative positions for private-sector employers, one of which was the notorious Clinton Foundation. The exemption was created for the purpose of bringing indispensable, world-renowned experts from the private sector into government service to offer invaluable skills, but Abedin started as a State Department employee and went the other way. The idea that she had invaluable one-of-a-kind expertise to offer Secretary of State Clinton doesn’t pass the laugh test, especially when considering how Clinton’s disastrous SecState tenure went down.

Judicial Watch hammered the GOP leadership, along with all of the usual suspects, for leaving it alone to do all the heavy lifting in the Clinton email scandal: “The Republican leadership in Congress is inexcusably AWOL on its constitutional oversight responsibilities.  The liberal media both support Hillary Clinton and are cowed by her notorious intimidation tactics. And the Obama administration is, at best, a co-conspirator in this scandal. The Obama administration is looking for that poor dentist that allegedly shot a lion but the FBI can’t bother to secure Hillary Clinton’s email that has classified information.”

“The destruction of federal documents in the face of a court order is par for the course for a Clinton-related scandal,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, after Judge Sullivan issued the order to prevent Clinton, Abedin, and Mills from destroying any more documents in their possession. “If not for the swift action of Judicial Watch’s legal team and an alert federal judge, there is no telling what important public information would have lost forever.  The Obama State Department, Hillary Clinton, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin should heed the court’s orders to preserve government records or face severe legal consequences.”

Fitton wasn’t terribly impressed with the sworn statement Hillary submitted to the court: “Mrs. Clinton doesn’t want to tell the whole truth about her email system.  I’m a sure the court will have more questions for her.  This declaration raises more questions than it answers and shows contempt for the court.  We will be seeking appropriate relief with the court.”