Hillary’s email scandal gets worse and worse

Hotair ^ | 03/04/2015 | Noah Rothman

[SeekAndFind]

In his latest piece, National Review’s Charles Cooke related a choice exchange he had with a former Clinton White House staffer who attempted to defend Hillary Clinton’s role in this latest scandal involving her determination to avoid using an official and secure email address, as is mandated by law.

“It’s ‘worth remembering,’ a former Clinton administration staffer assured me quickly on Twitter, ‘that Hillary didn’t have email until she was in her forties. She was clueless.’” Cooke wrote. “‘I just mean,’ he added, desperately, that “she’s no dummy — except possibly with computers — where she kinda is.’”

So the Democratic Party’s anointed 2016 nominee who, we are assured, possesses the intellect and the acumen of a transformative political figure born to shatter glass ceilings devolves into timid and irrational Neanderthal when confronted by technological marvels like electronic mail? It’s not especially convincing, but at least it is a defense.

As reporters go digging into this most recent Clinton controversy, however, it turns out that that the former secretary of state may have possessed a touch more technological prowess than her supporters initially led the public to believe. At least, those around her were savvy in their pursuit of a parallel email system that was apparently designed to evade federal oversight.

“Hillary Clinton created her own private email system that she exclusively used as secretary of state, ignoring ‘very specific guidance’ from the White House by not even creating, let alone using, a government email account,” The Daily Beast revealed on Wednesday citing a bombshell Associated Press investigation.

America’s gentle but technologically enfeebled grandmother-in-chief was, in fact, operating email servers and an internet domain that were run out of her family home in Chappaqua, New York. “The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official physically running her own email would have given Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, impressive control over limiting access to her message archives,” The AP reported. “It also would distinguish Clinton’s secretive email practices as far more sophisticated than some politicians, including Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, who were caught conducting official business using free email services operated by Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.”

This little trick was not only evasive and quite probably illegal, but also unique to Clinton. It is going to prove increasingly difficult for the former secretary’s defenders to back her behavior while preserving their own integrity. When figures like Karl Rove and Sarah Palin ran afoul of the press as a result of lost emails or the use of private accounts to conduct official business, the reaction from the political class was anything but muted.

Operating her own server would have afforded Clinton additional legal opportunities to block government or private subpoenas in criminal, administrative or civil cases because her lawyers could object in court before being forced to turn over any emails. And since the Secret Service was guarding Clinton’s home, an email server there would have been well protected from theft or a physical hacking.

But homemade email servers are generally not as reliable, secure from hackers or protected from fires or floods as those in commercial data centers. Those professional facilities provide monitoring for viruses or hacking attempts, regulated temperatures, off-site backups, generators in case of power outages, fire-suppression systems and redundant communications lines.
…
It was unclear whom Clinton hired to set up or maintain her private email server, which the AP traced to a mysterious identity, Eric Hoteham. That name does not appear in public records databases, campaign contribution records or Internet background searches. Hoteham was listed as the customer at Clinton’s $1.7 million home on Old House Lane in Chappaqua in records registering the Internet address for her email server since August 2010.

Hillary Clinton had to know that this would someday come to light. She must have been aware that her scandalous behavior would one day jeopardize her political future and, as a result, her political party’s viability. Moreover, as the AP reported, her use of unsecure email servers might have endangered American diplomatic security had she ever communicated anything of a sensitive nature via email, though we may never know if she did for sure. And the most charitable claim one could make in Clinton’s defense is that all of this was done merely to preserve Clinton’s sense of privilege and self-entitlement.

Relax, the Clinton camp assures the public. We have all of the former secretary’s emails on file, and they can be provided at your request. According to The New York Times, that’s simply not true.

In 2012, congressional investigators asked the State Department for a wide range of documents related to the attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. The department eventually responded, furnishing House committees with thousands of documents.

But it turns out that that was not everything.

The State Department had not searched the email account of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton because she had maintained a private account, which shielded it from such searches, department officials acknowledged on Tuesday.

With the news growing rapidly worse for Team Clinton, Media Matters for America founder and former pro-Hillary Super PAC board member David Brock appeared on MSNBC to douse the flames of controversy lapping at Clinton’s heels. In that effort, Brock spent most of his time attacking the “sloppy” reporting at The New York Times, the credulity of Times’ reporters, and even the hosts of the program of which he was a guest.

This is a scandal, and the Clinton camp’s determination to dig in and avoid contrition at all costs is only making it worse. What makes this truly damaging for Clinton is that the media does not have to translate this controversy to the public. Every American understands plainly what conditions might lead someone to conduct official business on a private email account that is free from oversight, and none of them are virtuous. The public understands intuitively the ramifications of this disreputable behavior, and Clinton’s defenders are only throwing gasoline on the fire by attacking the integrity of those responsible for investigating this episode.

[Gaffer]

Mr. Eric Hoteham (or whoever it is that set this stuff up) had damn well better have a backup plan and a dead-man switch to keep himself alive.

A smart IT guy who valued his life would have set something up to receive downloads of all the emails somewhere she don’t know about.

[maggief]

http://twitchy.com/2015/03/04/what-a-coincidence-eric-hotehams-po-box-is-the-same-as-the-clinton-foundations/

What a coincidence! Eric Hoteham’s PO Box is the same as the Clinton Foundation’s

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/ClintonFamilyIRS2002.pdf

+++++++++

There’s another record floating around under the name Eric E. Hoteham

veromi.com

Hoteham, Eric E
Chappaqua, NY

[dsrtsage]

Hitlery not only has a “D” after her name, but is also married to the rapist and chief, thus not a single thing will come of this

[liberalh8ter]

Are we to believe there was never ONE email exchange between Shillary and the administration that would have made it abundantly clear she wasn't using a government email address? Not one of the people in the smartest and most transparent administration recognized that .Clintonemail.com was a problem? I have MANY bridges for sale.

[SamAdams76]

The notion that email is "difficult" for anybody in the year 2015 is ludicrous. Maybe I could understand some 80-year-old shut-in housewife who never left the home in 40 years but not somebody who has been in public life since the 1980s.

Typically a novice with email would stick to what was provided by the employer. But Hillary using a private email address with her own email server belies a level of sophistication - and willful intent to conceal.

This is not "Bambi in the woods."

[cuban leaf]

this proves that one can be far too devious for ones own good

---

Seems to be her MO.

Imagine if the internet and FreeRepublic had been in common use during Clinton’s presidency...

[Red Badger]

Hillary Clinton created her own private email system that she exclusively used as secretary of state, ignoring ‘very specific guidance’ from the White House by not even creating, let alone using, a government email account,”

I don't recall..................I have no memory of that episode................I can't remember...................WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE??????.........................

[Virginia]

The quote from her aide reminds me of Phil Hartman’s Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer:

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me! Sometimes when I fly to Europe on the Concorde, I wonder, am I inside some sort of giant bird? Am I gonna be digested? I don’t know, because I’m a caveman, and that’s the way I think! When I’m courtside at a Knicks game, I wonder if the ball is some sort of food they’re fighting over. When I see my image on the security camera at the country club, I wonder, are they stealing my soul? I get so upset, I hop out of my Range Rover, and run across the fairway to to the clubhouse, where I get Carlos to make me one of those martinis he’s so famous for, to soothe my primitive caveman brain.

[Liz]

“Hillary created her own private email system used exclusively to conduct secretary of state business.......ignoring ‘very specific guidance’ from the White House......not creating, let alone using, a government email account (required by law),” (SOURCE The Daily Beast citing a bombshell Associated Press investigation).

America’s putative first woman president ----a gentle but technologically enfeebled grandmother was operating email servers and an internet domain that were run out of her family home in Chappaqua, New York.

She's getting ready to roll into 2016 mode---- completely ignoring the reality that she conducted state business w/ one or more private email accounts and that she and the Clinton Foundation are recipients of millions of dollars in donations from foreign government while Clinton was Secretary of State—donations the State Department initially claimed were thoroughly vetted (found to be false).

The Internet domain used to facilitate Hillary's decepions was registered around the time Obama announced Hillary's nomination for secretary of state.

Gawker reported Sidney Blumenthal was communicating with on an account that appeared to belong to Clinton at the "clintonemail.com" domain.

The content of some of those emails was published by RT.com. Examining the domain registry information (below) for "clintonemail.com" reveals that the domain was first created on January 13, 2009 -- one week before Obama was sworn into office, and the same time Clinton's confirmation hearings began in the Senate.

[Political Junkie Too]

The Clintotn's are no strangers to technology abuse to hide official acts. They are masters of it, not technology Luddites.

Paul Sperry, then the top investigative reporter at WorldNet Daily, reported in 2000 on how Bill Clinton purposely downgraded the telephone systems at the West Wing in order to hide calls going to/from specific telephones.

Sperry also reported on the missing White House emails of Al Gore, and how the entire email archive process was tainted, likely intentionally.

-PJ

[Buckeye McFrog]

‘that Hillary didn’t have email until she was in her forties. She was clueless.’”

oh, COME ON!!! My mother was nearly 60 when she discovered the internet, and she took to it like a duck to water.

[Liz]

The report we all want to see----dates and times of Hillary's official emails WRT to US policy issues for foreign govts---and the dates and times of those infamous foreign govt donations to the Clinton Foundation(s).

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

The Buckraking Clintons sucking up foreign donations is morally reprehensible----but the real problem is what exactly they are doing with the foreign monies once its in their Foundation's tax-exempt coffers.

It's becoming clearer why Bill Clinton used a shocking 21 phone nos and email addresses----because L/E knows multiple phone no's and emails is an indication of possible money-laundering and tax evasion.

REFERENCE: Court documents in Clinton pal, Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex investigation, show that Epstein had 21 private e-mail addresses and phone numbers listed for Clinton and Clinton factotum, Doug Band.

Epstein kept Bill Clinton on speed dial as reports surfaced about Clinton attending sex parties at Epstein's "Orgy Island." Lawyers perusing documents stumbled upon e-mail addresses and 21 phone numbers for the fun-loving ex-president and his personal aide, Doug Band, stashed away in Jeffrey Epstein’s electronic directory, according to court documents.

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

CASE IN POINT An earlier two-year federal investigation revealed an elaborate web to carry out multiple frauds.

The frauds used a sophisticated system of multiple telephone voice-mail accounts and post office boxes to avoid detection.

The schemes involved swindling $$$millions from individuals, from banks, insurance companies...... and the US government.

The frauds were carried out using non-existent people, fake identities, ID theft, fraudulent SS nos, and phony tax ID numbers.

The defendants faced a range of charges including racketeering, govt fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, wire fraud, making false statements and bank fraud.

[Reddy]

The msm news my husband had on did the same thing last night... They reported that Powell and condi Rice did the same thing. I yelled at the TV- IT WASNT A LAW WHEN THEY WERE IN OFFICE!!!

[Night Hides Not]

Good idea. Boehner and McConnell can't stop Obama, so let's train all of our artillery on Hillary.

"Train the artillery on Hillary!" Has a nice ring to it!

[aposiopetic]

IN the Clinton Home in upstate New York

In Westchester

[servantboy777]

She sent those emails....to someone. If she sent them to another person’s gubbamint account, they could be tracked.

[Liz]

WHOA-—bombshell.

http://twitchy.com/2015/03/04/what-a-coincidence-eric-hotehams-po-box-is-the-same-as-the-clinton-foundations/

What a coincidence! Eric Hoteham’s PO Box is the same as the Clinton Foundation’s

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/ClintonFamilyIRS2002.pdf

[PGalt]

Good job ‘fatman. Good post, Beast.

[cpdiii]

the email....and the domain....were stored...on a server In Chappaqua New York....a Clunton Residence.

I would suspect that server has since had an unfortunate boating accident right after the hard drive crashed and the server caught on fire.

But not to worry, I am sure the Chinese, and Russians have copies of all the email after they hacked her non secure domain.

[OKSooner]

There you guys go, playing rough with the girl again.