Posted on 03/31/2017 3:51:39 PM PDT by markomalley
Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would very much like to understand why Hillary Clinton and 6 of her closest "research aides" may still have access to classified State Department information despite FBI Director Comey's assertion that they were "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."
And, after sending numerous requests to John Kerry's State Department that 'shockingly' fell on deaf ears, Grassely has sent a letter to Secretary of State Tillerson asking why Hillary's security clearance hasn't yet been revoked given that "any other government workers who engaged in such serious offenses would, at a minimum, have their clearances suspended pending an investigation."
I have repeatedly asked the State Department whether Secretary Clinton and her associates had their clearances suspended or revoked to which the Obama Administration refused to respond. Recently, the State Department informed the Committee that six additional Secretary Clinton staff at State were designated as her research assistants which allowed them to retain their clearances after leaving the Department.
Director Comey stated that Secretary Clinton and staff were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” and “there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information…”
Any other government workers who engaged in such serious offenses would, at a minimum, have their clearances suspended pending an investigation. The failure to do so has given the public the impression that Secretary Clinton and her associates received special treatment.
Fox News corespondent Ed Henry covered the situation this morning on Fox and Friends:
“We’re learning from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley that she and six staffers in 2013 retained clearances where they still had access to top secret and classified information, Why? They were titled ‘research assistants.’ So the assumption on Capitol Hill is it was because she was writing her memoirs and saying, ‘Look, I still need access to this information in order to go through what happened in Syria, what happened with Russia. But obviously think back to what James Comey said in how Hillary Clinton handled classified information.”
“He obviously believes something needs to be done about this. The only positive for Chuck Grassley at this point is, there’s no longer a Democrat at the State Department, obviously. You got Rex Tillerson, so if you have these documents on why she retained these clearances, and for example does she still have a clearance today? A lot of former officials get to keep these clearances for years — when they’re consultants … some of them like to retain it because they say I was in the middle of all of these important issues. I need to keep abreast of it. Been then some of these folks in Washington — they say drain the swamp.”
Something tells us that the current State Department regime may be more responsive to Grassley's request for information.
The full text of Grassley’s letter can be read below:
* * *
March 30, 2017
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable Rex W. Tillerson
Secretary
U.S. Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Secretary Tillerson:
The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is the administrative body within the State Department that handles security clearance investigations, suspensions, and if needed, revocations. During the course of the Committee’s investigation into Secretary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information and the impact of her private server on the Freedom of Information Act, on February 16, 2016 then-Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Greg Starr met with Committee staff. Assistant Director Starr informed my staff that Secretary Clinton’s security clearance, and those of her staff, had not been suspended or revoked because Diplomatic Security was waiting until the FBI concluded its criminal investigation before beginning an administrative review. On March 24, 2016, Committee staff met again with Mr. Starr and asked the same questions and received the same responses. I have repeatedly asked the State Department whether Secretary Clinton and her associates had their clearances suspended or revoked to which the Obama Administration refused to respond. Recently, the State Department informed the Committee that six additional Secretary Clinton staff at State were designated as her research assistants which allowed them to retain their clearances after leaving the Department.
On July 5, 2016, Director Comey announced that “[a]fter a tremendous amount of work over the last year, the FBI is completing its investigation and referring the case to the Department of Justice for a prosecutive decision.”[2] Director Comey stated that Secretary Clinton and staff were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information” and “there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information…”[3] Director Comey said.
There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about the matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.[4]
However, Director Comey did not recommend criminal prosecution. In announcing that decision, he also noted that “[t]o be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions.”[5]
It is unclear what steps the State Department has taken to impose administrative sanctions.
Any other government workers who engaged in such serious offenses would, at a minimum, have their clearances suspended pending an investigation. The failure to do so has given the public the impression that Secretary Clinton and her associates received special treatment.
Please provide answers to the following questions:
Please number your answers according to their corresponding questions. I anticipate that your written response and the responsive documents will be unclassified. Please send all unclassified material directly to the Committee. In keeping with the requirements of Executive Order 13526, if any of the responsive documents do contain classified information, please segregate all unclassified material within the classified documents, provide all unclassified information directly to the Committee, and provide a classified addendum to the Office of Senate Security. The Committee complies with all laws and regulations governing the handling of classified information. The Committee is not bound, absent its prior agreement, by any handling restrictions or instructions on unclassified information unilaterally asserted by the Executive Branch.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation with this request. Please respond to this request by April 13, 2017. Should you have any questions, please contact Josh Flynn-Brown of my Judiciary Committee staff at (202) 224-5225. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Grassley
Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary
It is true that she was careless and reckless with classified data. But even if she wasn’t careless ... why would a former employee be allowed such access after they leave their employment?
Gee Senator, because she can and always has gotten away with crimes because people like you do nothing to stop her.
Send Hillary over to the Weiner residence and have her check the historical records on Weiner’s hard drive.
I’m sure he is up to the task.
Perhaps, the investigators at the NYPD could help her with the search.
Why is Trump giving her so many privileges?
Why hasn’t she been prosecuted?
And I ask Grassley why hasn’t the Assistant AG been confirmed? He delayed it until Comey spoke, well he spoke. In the meantime the Obongo holdover is still running the Russia BS.
Why hasn’t Hillary Clinton been prosecuted?
Clinton’s are above the law.
Yeah Grassley why does she? Did you ever wonder about all this or did it just hit you between the eyes right now?
“Why hasn’t she been prosecuted?”......
The BEST and most relevant question of them all.
Why are you bashing him he’s trying to do something about it?
Just wondering the logic :)
Crime, crime.. CRIME!!! FELONIES as a matter of fact. Enough of the "POTENTIAL VIOLATIONS" cr*p, Grassley. Hillary DID commit crimes and even the general public is aware of SOME of them.
At the time Sid was emailing Secy Hillary obsessively, Sid was employed by The Clinton Foundation...getting some 325,000 a year to protect Pres Bill's (gag) legacy....and stood to make zillions of dollars by Hillary's actions
Sid was not a govt employee.....so why did he have classified US govt info?
Sen Grassley needs to find out how classified US govt info was later found on Clinton Foundation computers.
CALL JUDICIARY COMMITTEE staff at (202) 224-5225.
PING
Stunning,isn’t it?
BACKSTORY American interests be damned. Cheryl Mills, Hillary's top aide, a govt employee, found time to run a side business.....the "BlackIvy Group," a consulting firm and property developer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
She's a Clinton crony from way back and Secy Hillary's top aide at the State Dept.
Cheryl is (cough) "developing" a privately-financed dry port that will be located 56 km outside of the Port of Dar es Salaam, and will use shuttle trains to take transit and upcountry cargo to and from the Port,” BlackIvy spokeswoman Erin Pelton confirmed to Breitbart News.
“BlackIvy is focused on in-land logistics, not operating seaports,” Pelton added, denying that BlackIvy is running into opposition from the Tanzania Ports Authority.
So how did the US-based "BlackIvy," a brand new firm with no discernible track record of building ports, manage to become an overnight player in the East African energy market?
It turns out Secy Clinton's cronies had help from a company called Symbion Power, which was created to profit off rebuilding efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan after the U.S. invasions. Symbion Power happens to be a very good friend of Hillary Clinton’s.
GAME ON Amb Wilson (Valerie Plame's hubby) teamed up w/ none other than Sid Blumenthal in a company called Symbion Power---an outfit seeking millions of dollars in contracts from an obscure State Dept government agency chaired by Hillary....the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC)
In September 2010, Hillary's MCC awarded Symbion $47 million tax dollars for (cough) 'power projects in Tanzania.'
EVER WONDER how much of the $47 million tax dollars got to Tanzania....after the players divvied it up among Blumenthal, Wilson, the Clintons, Obama?
<><> Did Mill’s BlackIvy Group donate to The Clinton Foundation? <><> Did the Clinton Foundation partner w/ her BlackIvy Group in some phony sub-Sahara scam “for the children?” <><> Did Hillary’s State Dept grant Mill’s Group tax monies? <><>Did any of the Sub-Sahara countries listed donate to the Clinton Foundation?
(cue laugh machine)
===================================================
FREEPER ACTION PROJECT--DO THIS NOW: demand the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) books be opened.
We demand to know the financial details and the scope and dimension of individuals connected to these outrageous State Dept giveaways.........govt parasites profiting at taxayers' expense.
CONTACT CONGRESS HERE--- http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
I read the article, and I don’t begin to see an answer to that very basic, simple question.
What am I missing?
It is truly bizarre.
I have asked the same question since the day the news of the private email server came out (years ago already).
The answer appears to be that there is one law for the rest of us, and no law for a Clinton.
I don’t understand it. Am I naïve? Stupid? How can this continue?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.