Archive for the ‘Hillary Clinton’ Category

GOP focuses on the Hillary Clinton email mess it doesn’t remember – MSNBC

For Donald Trumps critics, his Mar-a-Lago scandal has brought to mind the mess surrounding Hillary Clintons emails, and for good reason. Republicans and much of the political world spent years treating the Democrats email server protocols as one of the defining controversies of the era with many on the right calling for her prosecution for allegedly mishandling classified information.

Six years later, its the Republican who called for Clinton to be locked up who stands accused of mishandling classified national security information he took and wouldnt give back.

But in an unexpected twist, its Trumps allies who are also bringing up the story surrounding Clintons emails though the right doesnt appear to remember it quite as well as it should.

The Hill had this report, for example, on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at a far-right gathering earlier this week.

And you look at the raid and Mar-a-Lago, and Im trying to remember, maybe someone here can remind me about when they did a search warrant at Hillarys house in Chappaqua when she had a rogue server and she was laundering classified information, [the governor said].

DeSantis added, I dont remember them doing that. The point, of course, was to suggest that federal law enforcement treated Clinton with kid gloves, while being vastly more aggressive toward Trump.

But there are a few problems with the story the Florida governor was trying to remember. For one thing, the FBI didnt raid Mar-a-Lago. For another, Clinton didnt launder any secrets. While were at it, there was no need to execute a search warrant to obtain emails, since they werent printed out, and unlike Trump, the former secretary of state didnt make any effort to obstruct federal officials efforts.

But most importantly, the detail DeSantis conveniently overlooked was the fact the FBI, as part of its investigation into Clinton, really did take her email server. (A search warrant wasn't necessarily because the former cabinet secretary, unlike the former Republican president, voluntarily turned over what the FBI was looking for.)

As it turns out, DeSantis isnt the only one whos a little forgetful about the story the GOP claimed to care so much about. His fellow Florida Republican, Rep. Michael Waltz, told Fox News this week that Trump, after taking office, made a conscious choice to leave his 2016 opponent alone.

President Trump took that approach. He said, You know what, were not going to prosecute Hillary Clinton, Waltz said, as if reality had no meaning. The congressman added, [Trump] said, You know what, lets move on. Lets move forward. But they are just incapable of doing it when it comes to him.

For those of us who were awake during Trumps presidency, the truth is that the Republican repeatedly lobbied the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton, even as late as October 2020. He also reveled in lock her up chants before, during, and after holding office.

The idea that the former president magnanimously decided to give the Democrat a pass and moved on from the email flap is utterly bonkers and the exact opposite of what actually happened.

Perhaps most amazing of all was Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma who complained late last week that there was no media frenzy when Clinton kept 33,000 classified emails on her server.

In reality, there were 113 emails, and Mullin was only off by 32,887. As for the lack of media frenzy, Im not sure how much more news organizations couldve obsessed over Clintons controversy. Shortly before Election Day 2016, Gallup asked voters what word they most closely associated with the former secretary of state, and emails dominated to an almost cartoonish degree.

That was, of course, the result of relentless media coverage. The year after the election, Columbia Journalism Review found that between October 29, 2016, and November3, 2016 a six-day span that included early voting in much of the country the New York Times published as many cover stories about Hillary Clintons emails as it did about all policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election.

Taken together, Republicans have spent the last several days arguing that the Justice Department largely gave Clinton a pass; Trump chose to leave Clinton alone; and the media downplayed the significance of the entire Clinton email mess.

None of these claims reflects reality in any way and the most charitable explanation is that the same GOP voices who were obsessed with the email controversy just dont recall the events as well as one might expect given the circumstances.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

See the rest here:
GOP focuses on the Hillary Clinton email mess it doesn't remember - MSNBC

Jared Kushner Says Trump Wanted to Bury the Hatchet With Hillary Clinton After Spending All of 2016 Calling for Her Imprisonment – Vanity Fair

Remember when Donald Trump was running for president the first time and, outside of declaring Mexicans rapists and criminals, devoted his entire campaign to calling for Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted and sent to prison for her emails? And regularly encouraged the lock her up chants from his supporters? And told his opponent, at the second presidential debate, that if he was in charge of the country youd be in jail? His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would like people to know that after winning the election, he tried to be friends with HRC but she blew it.

The Hill reports that in his new memoir, Breaking History, which was described this week by The New York Times as nausea-inducing and like watching a cat lick a dogs eye goo, Kushner writes that the most divisive president in US history genuinely wanted to help the country unite in the days following the 2016 election. As such, Trump supposedly tasked Ivanka Trump with getting in touch with Chelsea Clinton to arrange a get-together with Bill and Hillary. The Ivanka outreach, Kushner says, was meant to convey that Trump had no intention of looking backward and hoped to have a cordial relationship with Hillary to unite the country. Recalls the former first son-in-law: He even told Ivanka to invite Hillary and Bill for dinner in the coming weeks.

What, pray tell, would Trump have said at this dinner, in order to convey that he was willing to bury the hatchet he spent the entire campaign swinging at Hillarys head? Kushner doesnt get into details but presumably something along the lines of, Hillary, you lost really, really big. And even though people, many people, are saying I should throw you in prison, which would be my right as King of America, Im not going to do that. Youre welcome, Hillary.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, that dinner never came to pass. While Kushner claims that Ivanka did make the call to Chelsea, days later Hillary backed [Green Party presidential nominee] Jill Steins challenge to the election, and Trump ended his outreach. Then he proceeded to spend the next six years insisting that Clinton was a criminal, a theme that got plenty of airtime during his second run for the White House, despite Hillary not actually being his opponent.

Rudy Giuliani: Trump didnt steal classified documents, he was just holding onto them for safekeeping

Read more:
Jared Kushner Says Trump Wanted to Bury the Hatchet With Hillary Clinton After Spending All of 2016 Calling for Her Imprisonment - Vanity Fair

Ex-official who investigated Hillary Clinton’s emails said there would be evidence if Trump declassified documents: ‘It can’t just be an idea in his…

President Donald Trump signing a bipartisan bill to stop the flow of opioids into the United States in the Oval Office of the White House on January 10, 2018, in Washington, DC.Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

David Laufmansaid there would be evidence if Trump declassified the Mar-a-Lago documents.

Laufman, a former DOJ official, investigated Hillary Clinton's handling of classified records.

Trump said he had a "standing order" to declassify, but ex-officials have pushed back on the claim.

A former Department of Justice official has pushed back on Trump's claim that he had broadly declassified all the documents held at Mar-a-Lago, saying if that were the case there would be evidence to back it up.

Trump made the claim after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida last week. The search was part of a Justice Department investigation into potential violations of three laws related to the handling of government records. Court documents showed that 11 sets of classified materials were seized during the search.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said he had a standing order to declassify documents that were removed from the Oval Office and taken to his residence. Presidential records, classified or not, are public property and by law are managed by the National Archives when a president leaves office.

David Laufman, a former chief of the Justice Department's counterintelligence division, dismissed the idea of the standing order or broad declassification.

"It can't just be an idea in his head," Laufman, who led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and handling of classified documents, told CNN. "Programs and officials would have been notified. There is no evidence they were."

Presidents have broad authority to declassify documents, but former Trump administration officials told CNN there is a process that is followed. The process typically involves documenting the declassification and notifying agencies, such as the CIA, NSA, or Defense Department.

Laufman had previously said the documents Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago were particularly "stunning" and "egregious" because of their level of classification. Court records showed that one set of documents was labeled "Sensitive Compartmented Information," the highest level of sensitivity a classified documentcan be designated.

Story continues

Former Trump White House officials also pushed back on Trump's claim that he had a "standing order" to declassify documents when they were transported. Two of Trump's former chiefs of staff, John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney, told CNN they'd never heard of such an order.

"Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given," said Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019. "And I can't imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it."

CNN spoke with a total of 18 former Trump administration officials, some unnamed, who all said they had never heard of such an order, with several laughing at the idea and suggesting Trump had made it up.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Follow this link:
Ex-official who investigated Hillary Clinton's emails said there would be evidence if Trump declassified documents: 'It can't just be an idea in his...

Bill Clinton turns 76: Former president, Hillary spotted in the Hamptons – Fox News

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been photographed in the Hamptons in New York ahead of Bills 76th birthday on Friday.

The couple was spotted walking along a beach with their security, while their daughter Chelsea jogged nearby.

HILLARY CLINTON RIPS BERNIE SANDERS AS SEXIST: I KNOW THE KIND OF THINGS HE SAYS ABOUT WOMEN

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were spotted walking along the beach in the Hamptons on Thursday, Aug. 18. The Clintons were followed by their security as daughter Chelsea was spotted jogging nearby. (Matt Agudo / Splash News)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Happy Birthday Dad! Looking forward to sharing happy memories (& cake!) with you for many years to come!" Chelsea Clinton later wrote Friday on Twitter.

"Happy birthday, @BillClinton," Hillary added in her own tweet, along with a heart emoji.

See original here:
Bill Clinton turns 76: Former president, Hillary spotted in the Hamptons - Fox News

Who’s above the law? How about Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton and BLM rioters, for starters – Washington Times

OPINION:

Recently, we have had to endure a series of reminders that no person is above the law from a batch of folks, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio.

But that is not really true, is it?

There are many, many people who are and have been, at least so far, above the law. Heres a very short list:

Hunter Biden, and the big guy, aka President Biden, assuming he really did profit from whatever Hunter was doing with the communist Chinese, the Ukrainians or the Mexicans.

The honorable Hillary Clinton.

The FBI agents who offered whatever wound up being necessary for the FISA court to issue warrants to surveil the Trump campaign in 2016.

BLM rioters/mostly peaceful protesters.

Mostly peaceful pro-abortion protesters, either picketing outside the homes of Supreme Court justices or tossing the occasional firebomb through the windows of a pregnancy center

The folks who gave you the wholly fabricated Steele dossier.

The 5 million people who have crossed the southern border in contravention of American law since Mr. Biden became president.

Everyone in the Bush administration who was absolutely certain and completely wrong about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Everyone in the Obama administration involved in the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen (Anwar al-Awlaki).

Everyone who has committed or is committing crimes that local district attorneys in places like New York City, Philadelphia and Los Angeles dont feel like prosecuting.

Medical professionals who perform gender-transition surgery on those too young to give consent.

The federal government teams at Ruby Ridge or the Branch Davidian ranch near Waco, Texas.

So, it turns out that quite a few people are above the law.

Maybe everyone who is busy telling us no one is above the law have other folks in mind.

For example, the legal system in the United States seems most concerned about the 500 or so remaining defendants from the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot. The Department of Justice is hiring more than 100 new prosecutors just to prosecute them.

The legal system is also paying close attention to American taxpayers, who are about to face the prospect of 87,000 new IRS agents.

Finally, the legal system seems especially interested in former President Donald Trump. It was so interested that someone (not sure who just yet) swore out an affidavit (not sure whats in it) for the warrant that allowed the FBI to execute a raid at Mar-a-Lago, looking for, depending on which version of the story you believe, special access program (nuclear weapons) secrets, some random things related to the Presidential Records Act, or something tenuously related to the Espionage Act.

Probably the best indication that all of that is completely or mostly fictive is that the raid took almost 10 hours. Trained law enforcement agents who know what they are looking for (the raid was originally said to be based on information from an inside source who knew where the documents in question were) dont usually take 10 hours to find it.

If retrieving misplaced or inappropriately removed nuclear secrets were the objective, it seems odd that the government took 18 months to get around to it, and even more unusual that Mr.Garland took a few weeks to decide whether or not to seek the warrant.

Given all this, it is small wonder that Mr. Trumps followers are skeptical of the idea that no one is above the law. The legal system itself like all other American institutions with the possible exception of their church and local law enforcement has proved to be a hollow and cynical shell. Federal law enforcement, rule of law and equal application of the law? Government? Schools? Medicine? The media? The military?

Consequently, federal officials telling pleasant fictions about no one being above the law only serve to highlight the distance between the elites and the people, between stated aspirations and ugly truths.

Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts The Unregulated podcast. He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.

View post:
Who's above the law? How about Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton and BLM rioters, for starters - Washington Times