The Patriot Post® · Clinton's Secret Communication Subterfuge
“It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.” —Thomas Jefferson (1785)
Editor’s Note: For the latest information on Clinton’s duplicitous email communications, see Clinton Email Tags.
Pundits right and left are insisting that Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations may be in trouble. Most argue that her secret email server scandal is driving down her credibility and that is why her socialist fringe opponent, 73-year-old Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, was running a close second.
But questions about her “private email server” and whether that self-spun web of lies will ensnare her, are not the only thing threatening Clinton’s candidacy. Nor is it her abysmal record as first lady, senator and secretary of state.
Fact is, Democrats are discontent with their establishment candidate, and that’s what’s driving up Sanders’ stock. If this theme sounds familiar, it’s because that’s precisely the same discontent driving Donald Trump’s stock to new highs. It’s not so much that Democrats trust Sanders or Republicans trust Trump; it’s that the message of these two outliers resonates with grassroots voters on their respective ends of the political spectrum. Those voters perceive, accurately, that their party leaders have no spine and are accomplishing nothing good.
An editorial in the uber-leftist rag Daily Kos — Three Big Reasons Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President — aptly sums up why the Left rejects her “establishment candidate” standing: “She has zero record of accomplishment. She’s a terrible role model for women. And she’s kind of dumb.”
The difference between Democrats and Republicans is that when it comes to the general election Demos will vote for any braying jackass or jenny with a “D” by their name, no matter how much baggage they have in tow. When it comes down to it, they don’t give a sh*t about all the scandals; they’ve been cultivated to believe they are dependent on government, and they will vote for what they believe is their entitlement!
The irrevocable fact is, as Mitt Romney accurately (if inartfully) claimed in 2012, “There are 47% of the people who will vote for the [Democrat], no matter what … who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That’s an entitlement, and the government should give it to them. And they will vote for [the Democrat] no matter what.”
Republicans, on the other hand, will divide and conquer themselves, and if Trump breaks ranks to run as an independent, enough conservatives will follow him right down a rat hole to ensure the White House will be in Democrat hands for at least four more years. Can the nation survive another term of the Obama/Clinton failed domestic and foreign policies undermining Liberty and free enterprise? Make no mistake, the Clinton campaign is banking on Donald Trump, and they and their Leftmedia advocates are doing everything they can to promote Trump.
So, about that email server, will that subterfuge stick to Clinton?
Despite her claims that “What I did was legally permitted..,” she was obligated by law to “ensure that Federal records sent or received on such [non-government email systems] are preserved in the appropriate agency record-keeping system.” In fact, a 2011 directive from Clinton’s office to all DoS employees included this instruction: “Avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts.”
Indeed, it is now increasingly likely that Clinton, having deleted more than 30,000 emails from her communications server, will face criminal charges. Those charges range from perjury and felony possession and dissemination of classified documents, to felony obstruction of justice. The latter could result in felony charges, as Clinton directed the erasure of all those emails even though she was fully aware that all documents pertaining to her tenure as Secretary of State were subject to subpoena by the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
Though Clinton claimed, “I’ve never had a subpoena,” Rep. Gowdy corrected the record, noting, “[S]he was personally subpoenaed the moment the Benghazi Committee became aware of her exclusive use of personal email and a server, and that the State Department was not the custodian of her official record. For more than two years, Clinton never availed herself of the opportunity, even in response to a direct congressional inquiry, to inform the public of her unusual email arrangement designed to evade public transparency.”
For the record, in regard to felony possession and dissemination of classified documents, recall if you will, the prosecution of Gen. David Petraeus. In April of 2015, Gen. Petraeus, former commanding general of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, who then served as Obama’s CIA director, entered a guilty plea after admitting he inadvertently made classified material available to his biographer. Though that biographer, former Army Major Paula Broadwell, held security clearances, and none of the classified material was made public, it was just the same, a serious breach of security protocols. Petraeus resigned from the CIA over the matter in 2012 and avoided a felony conviction by plea agreement. He was sentenced to two years probation and required to pay a $100,000 fine.
And regarding the statute pertaining to obstruction of justice, 18 U.S.C. § 1519, It specifies felony charges for anyone who “knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry” in any official account or record “with the intent to impede, obstruct, or influence the investigation or proper administration of any matter.” Notably, its further specifies, “or in relation to or contemplation of any such matter or case,” which is precisely why Clinton maintained that private server.
That statute, part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, for which then-Senator Hillary Clinton voted “yes,” includes penalties of up to 20 years in prison.
Despite her claims that “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,” and “There is no classified material,” now that another 300 emails have been recovered from “lost” State Department servers that appear to have classified content, felony counts may be coming.
Of course, the real reason then-Secretary of State Clinton routed all her email communication through a private server in a closet of her New York home was not as she claimed: “I thought it would be easier to just carry one device for my work and for my personal emails instead of two.”
The private email server ensured she could protect her communication from public scrutiny, thus protecting her future political ambitions. Or so she thought.
When challenged about the server, Clinton now insists, “I won’t pretend that this [email scandal] is anything other than what it is — the same old partisan games.” (Shades of that “vast right wing conspiracy”!)
She added, “There is an unfortunate tendency to try to make partisan a tragedy in Benghazi, which I just fundamentally disagree with. I don’t think it’s right, and I will not participate in it. … I won’t get down in the mud with them. I won’t play politics with national security or dishonor the memory of those who we lost.”
Ah, yes, the Benghazi cover up — a case study of how Clinton “played politics with national security and dishonored the memory of those who we lost.” I encourage you to review the details of Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi lies.
Fact is, she spit on the graves of four Americans in order to protect Obama’s 2012 re-election bid. She lied, claiming the attack on our embassy was inspired by an obscure Internet video rather than a well-planned and executed al-Qa'ida assault on the anniversary of 9/11. When challenged about this fabrication, she replied in testimony before the Senate, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
Recall that at the time Obama was continuously crowing about how al-Qa'ida was “on the run.” Given that his domestic economic and social policies had been an abject failure, all he had to frame his 2012 campaign upon were the patently false claims of victory in Iraq and the defeat of al-Qa'ida.
Everything Clinton did to protect Obama’s 2012 election was to ensure her own 2016 ambitions, and the false narrative about Benghazi is a key case in point.
Having control over her communications about the Benghazi charade is one incriminating example of why she wanted her email maintained on a private server. It provided her the ability to erase half of the 60,000 emails contained therein, before she “voluntarily surrendered” that server to federal authorities. Clinton claimed, “In order to be as cooperative as possible, we have turned over the server.” But in reality never plays well in the media when a bus full of FBI agents shows up at a presidential candidate’s home with a search warrant.)
As to the thousands of communications she had already deleted prior to turning over the server, I can assure you that Clinton did not write 30,000 emails about her yoga sessions or where to get the best price on fluorescent pantsuits.
She insists, “We turned over everything that was work related — every single thing.” In other words, she erased “every single thing” that might be detrimental to her 2016 campaign. Fact is, she withheld emails related to Benghazi, which were later “discovered” and turned over by her black bag advisor Sidney Blumenthal, who has been a close Clinton confidant for years. And for the record, who is “we” to whom Clinton refers? Who reviewed 60,000 emails, who determined what to erase and who erased and reformatted her server drives?
The State Department is now reporting that hundreds of Clinton’s “recently found emails” among the 5% of those examined thus far, probably contain classified information, prompting veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward to register his views on the erased emails.
According to Woodward, “[This] reminds me of the Nixon tapes: Thousands of hours of secretly recorded conversations that Nixon thought were exclusively his. … 60,000 emails and Hillary Clinton has said 30,000 of them, half, were personal and they were deleted. Who decided that? What’s in those emails? … The big question about Hillary Clinton is, who is she? … The answers are probably not going to be pretty.”
As you recall, it was Woodward and fellow Post reporter Carl Bernstein who unraveled the 1972 attempted burglary of the DNC’s Watergate headquarters, ultimately determining that knowledge about the cover-up of that break-in extended right to President Richard Nixon. In that case, Nixon erased 18 minutes of more than 3,700 hours of Oval Office conversations related to discussions about Watergate. That’s 18 minutes versus Clinton’s erasure of 30,000 emails – and undoubtedly, buried in those emails, is evidence of her complicity in the Benghazi coverup, among other elicit activities.
Ironically, in 1974 a young attorney named Hillary Rodham was a member of the impeachment staff advising the Democrat-controlled House Committee on the Judiciary on the precedents for impeachment. A year later, Rodham would marry the Great Prevaricator, Bill Clinton, who himself would go on to dodge an impeachment conviction as effectively as he dodged the draft.
Nixon famously proclaimed, “I’m not a crook.” Clinton should try that one on for size!
In March of 2015, Clinton declared, “I think that the – the use of that server, which started with my husband, certainly proved to be effective and secure.” (That comment leaves one pondering what did Bill Clinton keep off the record?) But the fact is, Clinton’s definition of “effective” is that which enables subterfuge, and clearly she knew her server was not secure.
Notably, in 2011, long before anyone knew she maintained all of her email communications on a private insecure system in her home, she delivered an address, “Internet Rights and Wrongs: Choices & Challenges in a Networked World.” In that address, Clinton outlined the risks to even the most secure communication systems: “Hackers break into financial institutions, cell phone networks, and personal email accounts. So we need successful strategies for combating these threats…”
After her remarks, she was asked, “Do you use your BlackBerry a lot? … Are you good at it?” She responded, “I do,” and added, “I have a lot of security restraints on what I can and can’t do.”
Apparently not.
Regarding the newly found classified emails, Clinton attempted to make light of matters, saying, “You may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account. I love it. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves.” When asked about wiping the email server drive, she deflected the question this snarky response: “What, like with a cloth or something?”
Those standup bits went over as well as when Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a giant “reset button” prop with “Peregruzka” stamped on the front, which actually translated as “overcharged.” That epic fail is a fitting metaphor for Clinton’s colossal failures as at the helm of State, including the reemergence of Russian tyranny, the politically motivated collapse of Iraq and the unmitigated rise of the Islamic State under Clinton and Obama.
As for where this email investigation will lead, Clinton concludes, “We’ll see how this all plays out.” Thus far, from Little Rock to Chappaqua, Hillary’s non-stick teflon surface has proven effective at shedding criminal charges. Of course, shen learned from a master evader, Bill. But she may have finally met her match in South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor who now heads the House Select Committee on Benghazi. If he pins Clinton with felony charges related to her email server lies and subterfuges, those charges will stick.
If felony charges are filed, let’s just hope another ancient establishment candidate like Joe Biden steps in, and not another younger more vibrant candidate like Elizabeth “Honest Injun” Warren, who would, despite her own proclivity for falsehood, be a much more formidable candidate than Biden alone.
And the best evidence that the administration is concerned that felony charges may be justified is Obama’s endorsement of Biden, by way of his spokesman Josh Earnest, a day after Biden held a powwow with Warren.
According to Earnest, “The president has indicated that his view that the decision that he made…to add Joe Biden to the ticket as his running mate was the smartest decision that he has ever made in politics. And I think that should give you some sense into the president’s view into Vice President’s aptitude for the top job.” Earnest added, “The vice president is somebody who has already run for president twice. So I think you could probably make the case that there is no one in American politics today who has a better understanding of exactly what is required to mount a successful national presidential campaign.”
No doubt Biden’s meeting with Warren was to reach an accord that he would serve one term with her as his Veep, if she stayed out of the 2016 primary. A Biden/Warren ticket would be far more competitive than either Clinton or Sanders at the top of a ticket.
Recall that in February, Biden advocated for an Obama third term: “I call it sticking with what works!” By “what works,” he must have meant duping voters in presidential campaigns because the in the midterm elections, Obama’s Democrat Party Policies have suffered resounding defeat. That notwithstanding, in July, Obama himself asserted: “I can not run again. I actually think I’m a pretty good president – I think if I ran I could win. But I can’t.”
However, a Biden/Warren ticket is a third Obama term!
And on the subject of Obama and Clinton’s email server subterfuge, recall that in March 2015, Obama was asked when he first learned about the offline servers. He responded, “Uh, the same time everybody else learned it — through news reports.” However, it turns out, according to Clinton emails released by the FBI, that when she was secretary of state, Obama emailed her private account using a pseudonym – yet another strand in the Obama/Clinton web of lies.
Of note, Bill Clinton was vacationing with the now-rich and famous Obamas at their exclusive Martha’s Vineyard in August. The White House press corps released photos of Bill and Barack golfing — which I am sure Clinton hoped would be a subtle shot over Biden’s bow to keep clear of Hillary’s ‘16 primary. But maybe he was cutting a deal for another executive pardon regarding classified documents in a top government employee’s home. Recall if you will, among all those last-minute political pardons issued by Clinton the day before leaving office, one was for his former CIA director John Deutch, who, it was discovered in 1996, had classified documents on an unsecured laptop at his residence.
Bill is fond of reading passages from literature to his friends. Here is one from Scottish historian and writer Sir Walter Scott: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!” Those words sum up both Clinton legacies.
Pro Deo et Constitutione — Libertas aut Mors
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis