PHILADELPHIA – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s missing emails could be “used to extort her” and “threaten her” if they are not released before the general election.
Giuliani said he would be surprised if the Russians have not hacked Clinton’s emails since they were on a private server in the basement of her home that was less secure than the Democratic National Committee’s recently hacked email server.
Giuliani described himself as somewhat of a cybersecurity expert since he is the global chairman of Greenberg Traurig LLP’s cybersecurity and crisis management practice.
“That server of hers was less secure than the DNC server that was hacked, considerably less secure – even just the defenses that were available back then are less than the defenses that are available today,” he said at an event held by the Republican National Committee during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
“So, Secretary [sic] Comey said he wouldn’t be surprised if our enemies were able to get sensitive national security information because of Hillary Clinton’s extremely careless use of her server. I will tell you there is no doubt our enemies did it,” he added.
Giuliani said someone is holding Clinton’s missing emails and they should be released before the November election.
“If they are not released before the election they can be used to extort her. They could be used to influence her. They could be used to threaten her. I was a prosecutor for most of my life. She did not destroy 35,000 emails because they contained notes to Chelsea about her dresses. She destroyed 35,000 emails because they contain incriminating information,” he said.
“The fact that they keep it secret gives them the ability to extort and threaten her should she become president of the United States because the statute of limitations hasn’t run on the investigation of the Clinton Foundation, which is ongoing.”
FBI Director James Comey said in a press conference earlier this month that Clinton used several different servers and devices over the years, and her lawyers sorted through the email to determine which ones included State Department business. About 30,000 emails were given to State in 2014. Comey said the FBI also recovered “several thousand work-related emails” not turned over by Clinton’s legal team.
“We found no evidence that any of the additional work-related e-mails were intentionally deleted in an effort to conceal them in some way. Our assessment is that like many e-mail users, Secretary Clinton periodically deleted e-mails or e-mails were purged from her system when devices were changed,” Comey said. “Because she was not using a government account or even a commercial account like Gmail, there was no archiving at all of her e-mails.”
Giuliani said former President Bill Clinton purposely did not mention the Clinton Foundation during his address at the convention on Tuesday.
“There’s a good reason he didn’t mention the Clinton Foundation because the Clinton Foundation is under investigation, and in my view it’s a racketeering enterprise to help the Clintons get tremendous amounts of money and then do favors for the people who give them the money and then keep all their political hacks on their payroll and fly around the world in far better style than you or me,” he charged.
Giuliani said he “guarantees” Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails contain incriminating information about connections between the Clinton Foundation and the “hundreds of millions” the Clintons have been getting over the years, as well as the “favors she was doing” as secretary of State while Bill Clinton was raking in the cash.
As an example, Giuliani cited Clinton contacting the IRS and asking the agency to take it easy on UBS, a large bank in Switzerland.
“I believe that you will see the nexus between those two things in those 35,000 emails that have been destroyed,” he said.
During a press conference today, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
Later, Trump tweeted that he was referring to Russia or any country turning them to the FBI.
“The release of those emails to the FBI would be the proper channel and Mr. Pence also spoke out on this issue today as well. And it was a very important point he mentioned – that there should be serious consequences because while everyone is concerned about the substance of the emails, which is a very valid point that should be discussed, as far as the hack as well, we don’t know who did it,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) said.
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