The Patriot Post® · IG Confirms Clinton's Email Violations

Well, the already feverish Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders feud should grow even more exciting. The State Department’s Office of Inspector General has released its “Evaluation of Email Records Management and Cybersecurity Requirements” for secretaries of state. According to the report, “Department employees must use agency-authorized information systems to conduct normal day-to-day operations because the use of non-Departmental systems creates significant security risks.” However, the reports states, “Secretary Clinton never demonstrated … that her private server or mobile device met minimum information security requirements.”

There’s an important reason for the security protocols. From the report: “On January 9, 2011, the non-Departmental advisor to President Clinton who provided technical support to the Clinton email system notified the Secretary’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations that he had to shut down the server because he believed ‘someone was trying to hack us and while they did not get in i didnt [sic] want to let them have the chance to.’ Later that day, the advisor again wrote to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, ‘We were attacked again so I shut [the server] down for a few min.’ On January 10, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations emailed the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning and instructed them not to email the Secretary ‘anything sensitive’ and stated that she could ‘explain more in person.’”

But last year Clinton claimed “the system we used was set up for President Clinton’s office. And it had numerous safeguards. It was on property guarded by the Secret Service. And there were no security breaches.”

The report also says that “sending emails from a personal account to other employees at their Department accounts is not an appropriate method of preserving … emails that would constitute a Federal record,” and Clinton “did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.” Moreover, “[O]fficials, … did not — and would not — approve her exclusive reliance on a personal email account to conduct Department business, because of the restrictions in the FAM and the security risks in doing so.”

Naturally, the Clinton camp is trying to brush it off. According to Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon, “As this report makes clear, Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email was not unique, and she took steps that went much further than others to appropriately preserve and release her records.” It’s true that others are mentioned in the report. But the report also clarifies, “By Secretary Clinton’s tenure, the Department’s guidance was considerably more detailed and more sophisticated. Beginning in late 2005 and continuing through 2011, the Department revised the FAM and issued various memoranda specifically discussing the obligation to use Department systems in most circumstances and identifying the risks of not doing so. Secretary Clinton’s cybersecurity practices accordingly must be evaluated in light of these more comprehensive directives.”

Recall that in March 2015, Hillary Clinton claimed, “I fully complied with every rule that I was governed by.” Bottom line: Clinton is a serial liar. Of course she’s guilty — probably of felonies, perjury and obstruction of justice. But be careful what you ask for. As Mark Alexander has written, if Clinton is indicted, the most likely replacement will be Biden-Warren — which he believes will be a far more formidable ticket — and it will not emerge until the Democratic National Convention.