Hillary Clinton’s BlackBerry

Hillary Clinton doesn’t like to answer tough questions. In fact, she doesn’t like to be questioned at all about anything. For many years a compliant news media has allowed her to escape scrutiny. But times are changing.

Let’s not lose sight of the basic fact that it was a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that forced Mrs. Clinton to do what no other congressional committee, FBI, or Justice Department investigation has been able to do – submit information, under penalty of perjury, about her email system.

Others are running with what JW has uncovered. At a press conference, Ed Henry of Fox News asked Mrs. Clinton about her private email server and how it affected her official work during her time as secretary of state. She didn’t like it.

Here’s a snipped from the exchange:

Henry: “Isn’t leadership about taking responsibility?”

Clinton: “Look, I take responsibility,” Clinton said. “This didn’t turn out to be convenient at all and I regret that this has become such a cause celebre. But this does not change the facts and no matter what anybody tries to say, the facts are stubborn …” What I did was legally permitted.”

Let’s all remember she said this.

It was over four months ago, on March 2, 2015, that The New York Times reported then-Secretary Clinton used at least one non-“state.gov” email account to conduct official government business during her entire tenure as the secretary of state. It also was reported that Secretary Clinton stored these records on a non-U.S. government-issued server at her home in Chappaqua, New York.

Now there’s another new twist.

At a recent hearing, the State Department admitted to Judge Emmet G. Sullivan that it had made no efforts to coordinate with the FBI in the obvious task of asking for information responsive to inquiries by the court and Judicial Watch. After some pointed questioning from the judge, the State Department conceded to the court that it has an affirmative obligation to produce records from the devices currently in the custody of the FBI. The judge then ordered the State Department to do so.

The court gave a written order for the State Department to produce a report to the court on its progress by September 20. A hearing was set for October 1, 2015. The court also ordered:

For the reasons stated by the Court at the August 20, 2015 status hearing, and as agreed to by Defendant’s counsel, the State Department is hereby ordered to request that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inform it about any information recovered from Mrs. Clinton’s server and the related thumb drive that is: (a) potentially relevant to the FOIA request at issue in this case; and (b) not already in the State Department’s possession. The State Department shall file a status report, no later than Monday, September 21, 2015 at 12:00 p.m., informing the Court of the following: (1) the process agreed upon between the FBI and the State Department for the sharing of information relevant to this lawsuit; (2) the status of the Inspector General of the State Department’s report regarding Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private server; and (3) a timetable for the completion of any ongoing searches related to this lawsuit. Signed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on August 20, 2015. (lcegs4)

I wholeheartedly agreed with Judge Sullivan when he stated: “We wouldn’t be here today if the employee [former Secretary Clinton] had followed government policy.”

The State Department had asserted in its most recent filing with the court that the State Department did not issue personal computing devices to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and possibly destroyed the Blackberries of her aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills:

[The State Department] does not believe that any personal computing device was issued by the Department to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and has not located any such device at the Department. [The State Department] believes that Ms. Mills and Ms. Abedin were each issued BlackBerry devices. [The State Department] has not located any such device at the Department … Because the devices issued to Ms. Mills and Ms. Abedin would have been outdated models, in accordance with standard operating procedures those devices would have been destroyed or excessed.

State did identify the “state.gov” email accounts of Mills, Abedin and two other former officials, but stated that Clinton “did not use a state.gov account.”

The filing follows the recent court order, which granted Judicial Watch’s request for a hearing on Thursday, August 20, 2015, at 12:00 p.m. The hearing had previously been scheduled for September. State sought a one-week extension from the court, and the judge denied it (the court changed the time of the hearing to 1 p.m.)

The questions just keep popping up. Every time the State Department tries to justify its stonewalling, one more bit of information arises. If the State Department was not providing secure email devices to Mrs. Clinton, who was? Best Buy? Target? Mrs. Clinton clearly did whatever she wanted, without regard to national security or federal records keeping laws. We have arrived at a key turning point where the Obama administration’s obstruction of the courts and our Freedom of Information Act litigation must end. The court and the American people are weary of their legal gamesmanship. We are fighting for the public’s right to know what Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin and others were sending and receiving during their 4 years running the State Department.

These developments come in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The lawsuit was reopened because of revelations about Hillary Clinton’s email records. 

Leadership Summit to Focus Attention on Corruption of Obama Administration  

At a time when America’s open records laws face an unprecedented assault, Judicial Watch’s inaugural Leadership Summit will focus attention on the corruption inside the Obama administration. This event is scheduled for Monday, September 14 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill. Please join us for a full day of panel discussions and a special luncheon featuring a well-known keynote speaker. The Leadership Summit on Washington Corruption and the Transparency Crisis will highlight the actions of figures like Hillary Clinton who pose a serious threat to our country’s future. Speakers will include Fox News analyst Andy McCarthy, conservative Congressman Rep. Louie Gohmert, former federal prosecutor Joe diGenova, and Steve Bannon, Executive Chairman of Breitbart News. Join us!