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An Arsenal Of Smoking Guns In Clinton Email Scandal
Townhall.com ^ | September 4, 2015 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 09/04/2015 5:47:47 AM PDT by Kaslin

Every time the State Department pulls out a new fistful of Hillary Clinton emails like Richard Dreyfuss yanking a license plate out of a shark's belly in "Jaws," someone declares that there's "no smoking gun!"

I've written before about how shouting "there's no smoking gun!" is a non-denial denial. Ask a cop. When a murder suspect immediately exclaims, "You have no indisputable evidence I murdered my boss!" instead of, "I didn't do it!" it's a good sign that the suspect thinks he covered his tracks, not that he's innocent.

Fellas, if your wife asks if you're having an affair, respond by saying, "You have no proof!" See if she takes that for a denial.

But here's the thing. There is a smoking gun. In fact, there's a whole smoking arsenal.

The problem is that the standards for what counts as a smoking gun keep changing.

Nearly everything Clinton has said in her defense regarding her secret server has been a lie. Among the minor lies: her claim that she set up the server so she could use a single device. She had two. Her claim that the State Department was saving her emails to staff. It wasn't until 2010. Her claim that she erased tens of thousands of emails because they included, among other things, her email correspondence with her husband. Bill Clinton doesn't use email.

Hillary Clinton said she never solicited email from her lugubrious political hatchet man, Sidney Blumenthal. The latest emails show that she was in near-constant contact with him, encouraging him to keep his various reports coming. Blumenthal was barred from getting a job at the White House, so Clinton set him up at her charity-cum-super PAC, the Clinton Foundation.

The more important lie: She said she never received or sent classified information. "I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material."

Note: This was not an off-the-cuff statement. She said this while reading from notes and after consulting with her campaign team and her lawyers in a ballyhooed press conference in March at the United Nations.

And it was a lie. When the inspectors general of the State Department and the Intelligence Community confirmed in July that she had sent classified material, Clinton "clarified" her carefully prepared lie by saying that what she meant was none of the emails she sent or received were marked classified at the time.

This left out the fact that the whole point of the secret server was that it was hidden from the officials whose job is to designate documents as classified (and to keep it all hidden from Freedom of Information Act requests and congressional oversight). It's like setting up an illegal still and then claiming none of the moonshine you sold was marked "illegal."

But the deceit goes deeper. Most people can be forgiven for not understanding the difference between classified documents and classified information. A classified document is marked "Top Secret" or some such. But people who work in government understand that lots of information is classified simply by virtue of the kind of information it is.

My National Review colleague Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, has been setting his head on fire trying to get the mainstream media to take note of this fact. He points out that according to an executive order issued by President Obama, all "foreign government information is presumed to cause damage to the national security" and is therefore presumed classified. Clinton routinely ignored this rule. That's not just my opinion. A study by Reuters found that "Clinton and her senior staff routinely" ignored these rules.

"Here's my personal email," Clinton told Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who then proceeded to convey numerous private conversations he had with foreign leaders.

The Washington Times reports that Clinton's unsecured emails contained spy satellite information about North Korea's movement of its nuclear assets. This sort of information is universally recognized as top secret and is normally subjected to draconian safeguards. There is no way Clinton didn't know this.

All of these -- and many other -- facts would have counted as "smoking guns" if they were divulged immediately after Clinton's U.N. press conference. But Clinton, with the help of her praetorian defenders in the media, keeps moving the goalposts.

Still, all of this ignores the biggest smoking gun of them all: her illicit server. It's sitting in plain view, its smoke visible to anyone with eyes to see.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 09/04/2015 5:47:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Here is a woman that has a blood trail from Arkansas thru the White House, in the Senate, and all over the world, and she’s free...

And then there is a woman that sits in a jail cell because she is exercising her religious beliefs, a freedom that all Americans have a right to do ....

What is wrong with this picture? Are we the American people so stupid we are going to let this happen or is it because we just don’t care anymore?


2 posted on 09/04/2015 5:52:03 AM PDT by HarleyLady27 ("It's the hard working, tax paying citizens of the United States that are suffering...")
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To: All
THIS JUST IN The NY Post reports that Hillary's longtime aide, Cheryl Mills, was grilled for hours behind closed doors before Rep Trey Gowdy's House committee investigating Benghazi.

Mills’ appearance followed the release of 7,000 pages of ­e-mails from Clinton’s private server — many were to and from Mills and heavily redacted. “She has made ­every effort to answer questions and be as helpful as possible, and has encouraged her aides to do the same, " said Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill.

===============================================

Later, Rep Westmoreland, a commiitte member, was interviewed by Fox's Greta. He said Mills tried the "I dont remember " gambit until she was shown emails centering on the line of questioning. That seemed to "refresh" her memory, Westmoreland commented.

Although the Benghazi commiitte was given 7,000 of Hillary's emails, Westmoreland observed that the commiitte does not know if they have all the revelant documents (due to Hillary's assertions that she deleted many emails).

============================================

The hydra-headed Clinton retinue flit around w/ scads of tax dollars money.....(a) one head in the Clinton Foundation, (b) one head in the US govt sucking up tax dollars, (c) one head in Hillary's endless campaigns, and, (d) the "do-goodism" head sniffing out lucrative self-serving opportunities.

Mills is part of the serial cover-ups, financial legerdemain, greed, and naked buck-raking lead by the Clintons.

The constant drumbeat of lurid revelations indicate Clinton imperiled US ntl security, and used the State Dept in tandem w/ the nefarious Clinton Foundation in a huge money-laundering operation.

These activities fueled the Clintons’ affluent lifestyle and their political ambitions.

Thankfully, dear, dear Lanny (Lapdog) Davis is still a "true believer" (/sob).

3 posted on 09/04/2015 6:06:31 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Kaslin

Her tech aide is not going to plead the fifth for nothing.


4 posted on 09/04/2015 6:18:13 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: Liz
We've only seen this movie, what, a dozen times by now.

Anybody that thinks the political class is ever going to haul these #$%^&*s before a bar of justice is delusional- hell, this woman has a better than 50/50 chance to be the next president.

5 posted on 09/04/2015 6:19:40 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: HarleyLady27

Don’t forget about the Muslims who refuse to drivetheir trucks when they are laden with liquor and are supported by the NLRB.


6 posted on 09/04/2015 6:24:14 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (This is a wake up call. Join the Sultan Knish ping list.)
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To: Pietro

I’d rather not-—but I do tend to agree w/ you WRT her presidential chances.

Seems to me...the way she keeps rolling along scandal after scandal...that the conniving Clintons apparently have the 2016 vote locked-up.

Then again...she never thought she’d be running against Donald Trump.


7 posted on 09/04/2015 6:27:24 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Kaslin

Ambassador Stevens would like to see Hillary’s e-mails.


8 posted on 09/04/2015 6:37:36 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Kaslin

Obama has already settled the matter. He is not going to do anything. He will collect money from the Clinton’s and move along. Why no one questions Obama about his lack of Prosecution is stunning. We are no longer a Republic. The GOPe is fully complicit.


9 posted on 09/04/2015 6:43:44 AM PDT by DrDude (Does anyone have a set of balls anymore?)
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To: Liz
Then again...she never thought she’d be running against Donald Trump.
”The Donald” seems to have a knack for setting up tar babies and cheering his opponents on as they kick them.
The more JEB insists Trump’s comments are unfair, the more significance he gives Trump’s zingers.

It’s starting to appear that JEB will run himself right out of contention that way . . .


10 posted on 09/04/2015 8:21:41 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Nice circumlocution.


11 posted on 09/04/2015 8:36:24 AM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz
Nice circumlocution.
”I’m not sure that word means what you think it means . . ."

12 posted on 09/04/2015 9:56:58 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: Gaffer

IF she runs—she will be crushed, If she is crushed, she will be sent to prison. My guess she will take her own life rather than be arrested.


13 posted on 09/04/2015 11:45:43 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
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