FBI Interviews Huma and Other Clinton Aides as Part of Email Probe

(Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP, File)

The Clinton email saga may soon be coming to a climax, as the FBI’s investigation into her private email server nears completion.

Members of Hillary’s inner circle, including her longtime adviser Huma Abedin, have provided interviews to federal investigators in recent days, and while U.S. officials say the FBI has not yet found evidence to prove that Clinton willfully violated the law, investigators will soon be on her doorstep.

Advertisement

Via CNN:

In recent weeks, multiple aides have been interviewed — some more than once, the officials said. A date for an FBI interview of Clinton has not been set, these officials said, but is expected in the coming weeks. Abedin has cooperated with the probe, the officials said. Lawyers for Abedin declined to comment. The officials say the interviews of Clinton and her aides would be a routine part of an investigation like this.
The probe remains focused on the security of the server and the handling of classified information and hasn’t expanded to other matters, the officials said. Spokesmen for the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment. The Clinton campaign has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment. David Kendall, an attorney for Clinton, had no comment.

FBI investigators may be particularly interested in the emails that appear to show Clinton instructing an aide to tamper with classification markings. 

PJ Media’s Andrew McCarthy reported in January that the FBI was “focusing on the three top Clinton aides at the State Department — chief-of-staff Cheryl Mills and deputies Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan — as the potential culprits who carried out Clinton’s suspected scheme to defeat classified information protections.”

Advertisement

An already reported string of email exchanges between Clinton and Sullivan is particularly damning in terms of Clinton’s intent and knowledge: Clinton directed her aide to “Turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send non-secure.”

In plain English: “Clinton instructed Sullivan to convert a classified document into an unclassified email attachment by scanning it into an unsecured computer and sending it to her without any classified markings.”  This, McCarthy noted, appears to be “gravely criminal.”

Another former Clinton employee, Bryan Pagliano, who helped set up her private server, was also interviewed by the FBI under an immunity agreement.

While law enforcement sources told CNN that investigators found “no sign” that the notorious Romanian hacker “Guccifer” breached Clinton’s server, Guccifer has stated in interviews with Fox News and NBC that he easily hacked into her server and found evidence that others had broken into it, too.

“It was like an open orchid on the Internet,” Marcel Lehel Lazar, aka Guccifer. said.

“As far as I remember, yes, there were up to 10 like IPs from other parts of the world. You see the numbers only but you can tell by the numbers the region of the world,” he told Fox News in another interview.

Advertisement

Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, said in a statement: “These FBI interviews are another reminder of the gross negligence Hillary Clinton displayed as Secretary of State.”

A recent filing by the Department of Justice contained a key phrase that suggests that a criminal prosecution may be in the works for the Democrat front-runner.

Judge Andrew Napolitano explained at Reason:

One of the 39 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits brought in connection with Mrs. Clinton’s email scandal was filed recently by Jason Leopold, a reporter for Vice News. He seeks copies of the emails Clinton tried unsuccessfully to wipe clean from her server, as well as copies of communications between the DOJ and Mrs. Clinton.

The DOJ moved to dismiss his lawsuit, and in support of its motion, it filed a secret affidavit with the court, signed by an FBI agent familiar with the bureau’s investigation of Mrs. Clinton. In its brief filed the day before Mr. Clinton made his silly speeding prosecution analogy, the DOJ — which also once worked for him — characterized the secret affidavit as a summary of the investigation of Mrs. Clinton. The DOJ argued that compliance with Leopold’s FOIA request would jeopardize that investigation by exposing parts of it prematurely.

In the same brief, the DOJ referred to the investigation of Mrs. Clinton as a law enforcement proceeding.

That was the first public acknowledgment by the DOJ that it is investigating criminal behavior — a law enforcement proceeding — and it directly contradicts Mrs. Clinton’s oft-repeated assertions that the FBI investigation is merely a routine review of the State Department’s classification procedures.

Advertisement

According to CNN, FBI officials say they expect to complete the probe in the next few weeks and then turn over the findings to the Justice Department, which will make a final decision on whether to bring charges against anyone.

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement