Free Republic

President Donald Trump on Friday removed a watchdog critical of personnel moves in the State Department. Trump informed Congress of the move in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, in which he gave no specific reason for firing State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. Trump wrote he “no longer” had full confidence in the State Department's inspector general.

The State Department’s inspector general is expected to brief staffers from several House and Senate committees on Wednesday afternoon about documents obtained from the department’s Office of the Legal Adviser concerning documents related to the State Department and Ukraine, sources familiar with the planned briefing told ABC News. Details of the briefing, expected to be conducted by Steve Linick, the inspector general at State, remain unknown. Linick is expected to meet with congressional staff in a secure location on Capitol Hill. The unusual nature and timing – during a congressional recess – of the briefing suggest it may be connected...

What’s the rush? Last night, Inspector General Steve Linick requested an “urgent” meeting with the chairs of several House committees regarding issues related to Ukraine. The State Department watchdog’s request appears related to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s rebuke to House demands for testimony and threats of legal action without following formal subpoena processes. It might also involve allegations of a conflict of interest.The Washington Post reported it last night in a passive voice: The State Department inspector general and two former state officials agreed to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told...

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton may soon have to answer questions about an estimated $6 billion in contract mismanagement, fraud and incompetence that happened under her watch at the Department of State. Non-profit government watchdog Cause of Action Institute (CofA) filed a Freedom of Information Act request Friday for records related to a March 2014 management alert issued by the department’s Inspector General (IG).

A former military adviser who worked for Hillary Clinton at the State Department says her “sloppy communications with her senior staff” could have undermined two counterterrorism operations. Bill Johnson, the department’s adviser to the special operations section of the US Pacific Command in 2010 and 2011, told Newsweek that secret plans to kill the head of a Filipino jihadi group and stop Chinese armaments being smuggled into Iraq both failed. “I had several missions that went inexplicably wrong, with the targets one step ahead of us,” said Johnson, who worked in Air Force special ops for more than 25 years...

First "Shocking" Deposition In Clinton Email Case Reveals She Did Not Use A Password **SNIP** He was asked about the inconvenience of the State Department’s passwords system, and he said that he eliminated her need for any passwords: A: She wouldn’t have had a password. Q: So the computer would have just been open and be able to use without going through any security features? A: Correct.

A State Department Information Resource Management staffer who raised concerns about Secretary Clinton’s email arrangement was told, falsely, that the system had been approved by Department legal staff. That staffer, and another staffer who raised similar concerns, was also told never to mention it again. Politico reports: “In one meeting, one staff member raised concerns that information sent and received on Secretary Clinton’s account could contain Federal records that needed to be preserved in order to satisfy Federal recordkeeping requirements,” the report noted. The staff member recalled that the director said Clinton’s personal system had already been reviewed and approved...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was supposed to have turned over all work-related emails to the State Department to be released to the public. But an agency audit found at least three emails never seen before - including Clinton's own explanation of why she wanted her emails kept private. The existence of these previously unreleased messages - which appear to have been found among electronic files of four former top Clinton State Department aides - renews concerns that Clinton was not completely forthcoming when she turned over a trove of 55,000 pages of work-related emails. All three emails cited in...

Then there’s the troubling matter of EmailGate, the long-running scandal that this column has covered in great detail. That Ms. Clinton and her senior staff misused email during her tenure as secretary of state has long been crystal-clear. Refusing to use government email for government work was a violation of policy, while Team Clinton’s routing of said emails through a private server, then putting classified information on it—including above top secret information from the Intelligence Community—looks like a violation of several federal laws. Early denials from the Clinton camp tried to make the entire matter go away, insisting there was...

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is doubling down on his push for a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton's email practices while secretary of State in the wake of a top watchdog report. "I just have to say the conduct of the former secretary demonstrates why people just don't trust her," the Senate's No. 2 Republican said Thursday. "Her intention has been to obstruct the public's right to know." Cornyn's comments come after the State Department inspector general said that Clinton took steps to make sure her personal email account wasn't "accessible" while she was secretary of State. Cornyn said the...

Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email and server stored in her home was, in fact, unique. She left the State Department without turning over any emails, and only did so after she was contacted by the department’s lawyers, ...

Report finds she kept hacker attacks on her server SECRET, failed to hand over emails Blistering report: Hillary Clinton ignored official guidance and never sought approval when she used mobile devices to access her private email server She also failed to report several instances of hackers trying to infiltrate it State Department inspector general said cyber officers inside State would have refused any request because of security fears Probe into violation of ethics rules was hamstrung when Clinton and her senior aides including Huma Abedin refused to be interviewed Clinton, the IG wrote, was expected to surrender all her emails...

The State Department watchdog, in an extensive and detailed report, accused Hillary Clinton of flouting federal records rules and cybersecurity guidelines with her exclusive use of personal email for government business while secretary of state. The forthcoming inspector general audit, a copy of which was obtained Wednesday by FoxNews.com, faults Clinton and her predecessors for poorly managing email and other computer information. The report says the department was “slow to recognize and to manage effectively the legal requirements and cybersecurity risks associated with electronic data communications.” It cites “longstanding, systemic weaknesses” related to communications that started before Clinton's tenure. But...

HILLARY CLINTON’S use of a private email server while secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 has been justifiably criticized as an error of judgment. What the new report from the State Department inspector general makes clear is that it also was not a casual oversight. Ms. Clinton had plenty of warnings to use official government communications methods, so as to make sure that her records were properly preserved and to minimize cybersecurity risks. She ignored them. The 83-page report declares that “beginning in late 2005 and continuing through 2011,” the department revised its Foreign Affairs Manual and “issued various...

Hillary Clinton and her presidential campaign have habitually derided and dismissed serious developments pertaining to her national security-compromising email scandal, preposterously seeking to cast the entire imbroglio as witch hunt-style machinations of partisan Republicans. Thus far, this "vast right-wing conspiracy" has entailed several left-leaning media outlets, the Obama-appointed intelligence community Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As Katie wrote earlier, Team Hillary must now add another highly unlikely source to its roster of ignominy: The Inspector General serving as a nonpartisan watchdog at...the very government agency she led for four years. The new, damning report directly refutes a...

One of the two big dominoes in the Hillary Clinton email controversy toppled today: The State Department's inspector general released its report on the email practices of Clinton and a number of other past secretaries of state. (The other major domino is, of course, the FBI investigation into Clinton's decision to exclusively use a private email server while serving as the nation's top diplomat.) The report, which you can read in its entirety here, badly complicates Clinton's past explanations about the server and whether she complied fully with the laws in place governing electronic communication. And it virtually ensures that...

A state department inquiry has accused Hillary Clinton and other former US secretaries of state of poorly managing email security. Mrs Clinton failed to comply with rules on records, the department's inspector general found, and used private email for official business without approval.

Busted. At this point, the Hillary Clinton email scandal is so bad that it’s getting difficult to find new ways for it to get any worse. However, the State Department has managed to do so. According to the results of a newly released internal audit, Hillary basically ignored the agency’s well-codified security regulations. ...And thanks to “comprehensive directives” it’s clear she knew exactly what she was doing..

A report by the State Department’s inspector general has concluded that Hillary Clinton did not comply with the agency’s policies on records, Politico is reporting. The report was released to lawmakers on Wednesday. It also revealed that Clinton and her top aides chose not to cooperate with the inspector general’s review, though current Secretary of State John Kerry and several predecessors were interviewed. A copy of the report was obtained by POLITICO. While it concludes there are “longstanding, systemic weaknesses” with State Department records — weaknesses that “go well beyond the tenure of any one Secretary of State,” it specifically...

Hillary Clinton disregarded various State Department guidelines for avoiding cybersecurity risks, an internal audit found Wednesday, faulting her and past secretaries of state for weak information management. The inspector general's 78-page analysis, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, cites "longstanding, systemic weaknesses" related to the agency's communications. These started before Clinton's appointment as secretary of state, but her failures were singled out as more serious. Despite guidelines to the contrary and never seeking approval, Clinton used mobile devices to conduct official business on her personal email account and private server. She never sought approval from senior...