Clinton's initial claim for using a private email address was she didn't want to be burdened with carrying multiple mobile devices. But an email thread in November 2010 showed her saying “Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.”
Mrs Clinton also indicated that having a personal email was not unprecedented for a Secretary of State. But, again, that's misleading. While it's true that her predecessors used a private email address, they didn't refuse to speak to the IG nor did they keep a private server.
She also has continually claimed that she's the only SoS to have turned over all the emails from her tenure. Apparently she's discounting the 31,000 which were deleted off her server in four years.
Perhaps the most disturbing?
'We were hacked again,' IT person said in 2011 on Clinton's private email server. Clinton says she was never hacked. pic.twitter.com/rxQpbzX0AA— Ted Bridis (@tbridis) May 25, 2016
To recap: Clinton lied about having approval for the system. She lied about saying it was within the rules to use it, and that she had brought the server up to State Department security standards. Contrary to multiple statements from her team, not only did warnings arise about the use of that system during her tenure, those who raised the red flags were told to shut up about them. And despite assurances that Clinton would cooperate in reviews of her use of the private e-mail system, the IG report pointedly notes that “[t]hrough her counsel, Secretary Clinton declined OIG’s request for an interview.”
For someone who’s been insisting since the beginning that she was allowed to operate her own e-mail system, that refusal is stunning all on its own.
That also contradicts more recent Clinton statements. The FBI has begun to interview Clinton’s inner circle, a sign that the investigation is coming to a conclusion. Two weeks ago, Clinton told CBS News’ Face the Nation host John Dickerson that the FBI had not yet requested an interview, but that she would be “more than ready to talk to anyone, anytime.” The IG report clearly shows that as another lie, and if her attorneys kept her from talking with State Department investigators, it’s almost certain that she’d pass on an FBI “interview” as well.
Given that the Justice Dept. is so brazenly partisan, I'm skeptical AG Loretta Lynch will move forward with charges. But no amount of damage control by Clinton is going to assuage existing concerns regarding her trustworthiness. I guess the only question remaining is if GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump can seize this golden opportunity. Sadly, that's far from a sure thing.
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I have two thoughts: First, I wish everybody would quit picking on Hillary until AFTER she has the nomination. There will be plenty of time for that "untrustworthiness" seed to grow after that and it would be great if this election could be won without the #NeverTrump crowd. Second, I don't think she will be indicted simply because that would mean Obama would have made a mistake in appointing her, and he cannot be seen as ever making a mistake. Furthermore, and discovery would lead to the fact that Obama was complicit in the breach, receiving secret emails from her. Not gonna happen.
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