The rabbit hole is getting deeper and blacker for Hillary Clinton’s emails. On Monday, the FBI refused to cooperate with a court-ordered inquiry delving into Clinton’s emails and her private server.
The FBI says they won’t even confirm that they are investigating Hillary Clinton and her emails and therefore, won’t be telling the judge anything about what they have.
Judicial Watch, which along with Citizens United has taken the lead in forcing Clinton’s emails into the open, says no one really knows a) if Clinton’s private server was ever handed over; b) if indeed a server was handed over whether it is the actual server used by Clinton; and c) whether any copies of the server or emails exist at this point.
Is the FBI even conducting an investigation?
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan had ordered the State Department to talk with the FBI and see what sort of information could be recovered from Mrs. Clinton’s email server, which her lawyer has said she turned over to the Justice Department over the summer.
“At this time, consistent with long-standing Department of Justice and FBI policy, we can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation, nor are we in a position to provide additional information at this time,” FBI General Counsel James A. Baker wrote in a letter dated Monday — a week after the deadline the Justice Department had set for the FBI to reply.
Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest law firm that is pursuing at least 16 open records cases seeking emails from Mrs. Clinton and her top aides, said at this point it’s not even clear what Mrs. Clinton provided, since all that’s been made public at this point are the former secretary of state’s public comments and some assertions, made through her lawyer, to the State Department.
Judicial Watch is prodding the courts to try to delve more deeply into Mrs. Clinton’s emails, and the group said a number of questions persevere about both Mrs. Clinton and top aides such as Huma Abedin, who did public business on an account tied to the server Mrs. Clinton maintained.
“We still do not know whether the FBI — or any other government agency for that matter — has possession of the email server that was used by Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Abedin to conduct official government business during their four years of employment at the State Department,” Judicial Watch said.
“We also do not know whether the server purportedly in the possession of the FBI — an assumption based on unsworn statements by third parties — is the actual email server that was used by Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Abedin to conduct official government business during their four years of employment at the State Department or whether it is a copy of such an email server. Nor do we know whether any copies of the email server or copies of the records from the email server exist,” the group said in its own court filing Monday afternoon.
The emails sent and received by Clinton aides might land one or all of them in jail. Clearly classified information was stored on the unsecured private server.
Judicial Watch did release more than 50 pages Monday of emails it obtained from Ms. Abedin’s account on Mrs. Clinton’s server, and said it was clear she was talking about “sensitive” topics that shouldn’t have been discussed on an insecure account.
Many of those were details of Mrs. Clinton’s movements overseas, such as hotels she was staying at.
“These emails Judicial Watch forced out through a federal lawsuit show that Huma Abedin used her separate clintonemail.com account to conduct the most sensitive government business, endangering not only her safety but the safety of Hillary Clinton and countless others,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
If even the courts can’t light a fire under the FBI, it’s doubtful that anything will. And unless there are leaks from the investigation — if there is one — it is probable we will remain in the dark about what, if anything, is found on those servers. Of course, this benefits Clinton enormously because with no new information coming out, the scandal fades into the background of the campaign, and Hillary can continue to dismiss questions on the subject.
A very fortuitous — and convenient — set of circumstances.
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