"Let me be perfectly clear America"
Posted on 07/12/2016 1:19:52 PM PDT by upchuck
A State Department official deleted emails that included information about a secret campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the country’s last election, according to a Senate investigatory committee that determined the Obama administration transferred tax funds to anti-Netanyahu groups.
The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations disclosed in a massive report on Tuesday that the Obama administration provided U.S. taxpayer dollars to the OneVoice Movement, a liberal group that waged a clandestine campaign to smear and oust Netanyahu from office.
OneVoice, which was awarded $465,000 in U.S. grants through 2014, has been under congressional investigation since 2015, when it was first accused of funneling money to partisan political groups looking to unseat Netanyahu. This type of behavior by non-profit groups is prohibited under U.S. tax law.
The investigation determined that OneVoice redirected State Department funds to anti-Netanyahu efforts and that U.S. officials subsequently erased emails containing information about the administration’s relationship with the non-profit group.
The disclosure comes amid a massive effort by Congress to reform the State Department’s email practices in light of former Secretary of State and Democratic presidential frontrunner’s Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified materials.
The Washington Free Beacon revealed early Tuesday that new legislation would ban all State Department officials from using private email accounts and servers, as well as mandate annual reports about the leak of classified information.
A senior State Department official admitted to congressional investigators that he deleted several emails pertaining to the administration’s coordination with OneVoice.
“The State Department was unable to produce all documents responsive to the Subcommittee’s requests due to its failure to retain complete email records of Michael Ratney, who served as U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem during the award and oversight of the OneVoice grants,” the report states.
Investigators “discovered this retention problem because one important email exchange between OneVoice and Mr. Ratney … was produced to the Subcommittee only by OneVoice,” the report continues. “After conducting additional searches, the Department informed the Subcommittee that it was unable to locate any responsive emails from Mr. Ratney’s inbox or sent mail.”
Ratney was ultimately forced to tell investigators that “[a]t times I deleted emails with attachments I didn’t need in order to maintain my inbox under the storage limit.”
While Ratney had the option to archive emails—as required by the department—he did not do this. Ratney claimed he was not aware of the rule, stating he “did not know [he] was required to archive routine emails.”
The deletion of the email chains appears to be a violation of the Federal Records Act, which mandates official records be archived for future disclosure purposes.
One source with intimate knowledge of the situation told the Free Beacon that the deletion of these emails is highly suspicious given the seriousness of the claims about the administration’s behavior.
“The Obama administration had the money, skills, and personnel to build a gigantic campaign infrastructure that was used to try to defeat the prime minister of an ally,” the source said. “But apparently they didn’t have what they needed to store the emails in which they did all of those things. That’s certainly a lucky break for the State Department.”
State Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for further information about the investigation and the deletion of emails.
This is impeachable.
Yep. But Congress will again do NOTHING.
Purged hell; everybody at, or associated with the state department should be publicly HANGED
How many Laws did Obama break this time ?
IMPEACH someone, anyone, before the GOPee loses the Senate to Schmukie. How many more outrages will be uncovered from this CORRRUPT MESS in the District of Corruption??
ping
How secret could it be when Obama openly campaigned against him?
“The deletion of the email chains appears to be a violation of the Federal Records Act”
Ask Hillary how seriously that’s enforced.
IRS, please tell me again why I need to keep my records for seven years?
There needs to be several hundred perp walks, including the lead criminal himself after he leaves office.
The only way a democrat will ever be convicted by congress is if 75% of them are true conservatives. Then 51 of them would have to be clean as a whistle.
A State Department official deleted emails that included information about a secret campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Thanks, KC_Lion
I want to know where in the H->! the State Dept’s missing $6 billion went.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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All that effort, US taxpayer money, and Barry failed.
This is impeachable.
******************
Add it to the list that started with Fast and Furious.
Without the melanin shield this clown would have been gone.
..Obama administration provided U.S. taxpayer dollars...waged a clandestine campaign...funneling money to partisan political groups...
No only did Nixon use taxpayer dollars, but it funded illegal activity.
This type of behavior by non-profit groups is prohibited under U.S. tax law.
Nixon was ousted for covering up the operation partly by erasing 17 minutes of WH tape.
U.S. officials subsequently erased emails containing information about the administration’s relationship with the non-profit group.
Taxpayer dollars, crime, cover-up. Where the HELL is Paul Ryno and the rest of his merry band of thieves? If I were a Republican in Congress, I'd be looking for some PAYBACK!
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