Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) told CNN Tuesday that it “seems like” the Federal Bureau of Investigation didn’t get around to fully investigating the actual relationship between the corruption-plagued Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation and the U.S. Department of State.
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Clinton has said that she turned over all the work-related emails in her possession, some 30,000 messages, after the State Department requested former secretaries of state to identify and provide copies of any messages they sent over a private email account.
On Friday Clinton scored a minor victory against Judicial Watch when a judge said she could answer questions from Judicial Watch lawyers in writing and did not have to be deposed. “We’re trying to work with the State Department here, but let’s be clear: They have slow-walked and stonewalled the release of these records”.
These additional emails will also be processed and released by the State Department, this time in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, – although when is yet to be determined. None were in the original batch of 55,000 emails turned over by Clinton to the State Department previous year. That’s likely to be true of Clinton Foundation e-mails too, as long as they didn’t involve State Department business.
Lawyers for the State Department and Judicial Watch, the legal group, are negotiating a plan for the release of the emails in a civil public records lawsuit before U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington.
As Clinton continues to face questions over the discovery of thousands of new undisclosed emails, Gowdy was asked for his thoughts on the controversy on Thursday’s edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom.
In a report from The Associated Press, it has been confirmed that more than half of the people Clinton met with as Secretary of State donated money to the Clinton Foundation. “This was simply evidence of the way the process works in that, you know, any secretary of state has aides who are getting emails or contacts by a broad range of individuals and organizations”. As in, my team of lawyers found all of the emails that were even tangentially tied to my day job as the nation’s top diplomat and turned them over to the State Department. She also says she wants to make sure there’s a focus on Zika prevention.
Taken together, the emails largely confirm what previous releases had already suggested – being a Clinton Foundation donor helped some individuals secure greater access to Hillary Clinton’s State Department than they otherwise would have.
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The 15,000 emails weren’t “just recently found”, and they are not all work-related. The FBI investigation concerned whether there were any violations of federal law on the handling of classified information, and whether there had been any hacking of the email server by foreign or hostile powers. “The information being sought is a crucial step in bringing greater transparency to Secretary Clinton’s “extreme careless” – I would call it dangerously reckless and grossly negligent – email practices”, said the senator who is facing a tough re-election race this year. “The truth is, she was using [the private email server] for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did”, Powell told People on Saturday. A representative for Wasserman’s office said that the forwarded email exchange never resulted in a visa.
