JAMES COMEY - Clinton Emails

"On Clinton email revelations, ‘there was no good option’ for FBI, says James Comey" PBS NewsHour 5/1/2018

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Facing the storm over Hillary Clinton's email amid the 2016 election, James Comey said he and the FBI "were screwed honestly either way."  The former FBI director and author of “A Higher Loyalty” joins Judy Woodruff for part two of their interview, in which they discuss Loretta Lynch’s encounter with former President Bill Clinton and his decision to announce the reopening of the Clinton probe.

HILLERY CLINTON - The Email Scandal NOT

"FBI lifts legal threat over Clinton email server" PBS NewsHour 7/5/2016

COMMENT:  In my 22yrs in the U.S. Navy I had training and dealt with classified material up to, and including, Top Secret.  What is missing in all discussions on security classifications it WHO classifies a specific communication or document.  The originator of any communication or document is responsible for classifying it according to the rules, and those rules are many and obscure, and change (what is not-classified today may be Top Secret 2 days later).

In the case of emails, the original author is the responsible person.  So if Hillery Clinton received email that WAS NOT marked classified, she or her staff would likely NOT know.  Also, she or her staff, could originate an email with classified material because they were unaware that it should be classified, given the complexity and obscurity of the rules.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state, the FBI found no wanton wrongdoing to make criminal charges stick.  FBI director James Comey made that announcement today, chastising the Democratic presidential candidate and former top diplomat.  Judy Woodruff reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  For Hillary Clinton today, a recommendation and a rebuke from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  It came after a year-long investigation into her use of a private e-mail server when she was the nation's top diplomat.

JAMES COMEY, Director, FBI:  No charges are appropriate in this case.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  With those seven words, FBI Director James Comey all but lifted the legal threat to the Democrats' presidential nominee-to-be.  He said, in essence, investigators found no wanton wrongdoing to make criminal charges stick.

JAMES COMEY:  Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  But Comey also spoke in blistering terms about Clinton's use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state.

JAMES COMEY:  Although we didn't find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Clinton has acknowledged it was a mistake to use a private e-mail system, but she's asserted that classified material was never handled improperly.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), Former Secretary of State:  I didn't e-mail any classified material to anyone on my e-mail.  There is no classified material.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Today, however, the FBI found that 110 e-mails contained information that was classified when it was sent or received.  And the FBI also found it is — quote — “possible” that hostile actors got access to the secretary's account.

JAMES COMEY:  Any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position, or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.

"No charges, but will Clinton face political consequences for email scandal?" PBS NewsHour 7/5/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Despite the finding by investigators that Hillary Clinton's emails were handled in an extremely careless way, FBI director James Comey said they wouldn't recommend a criminal prosecution.  Judy Woodruff talks with Carrie Johnson of NPR; then gets reaction on the political fallout from Sean Spicer, chief strategist of the Republican National Committee; and Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.

"2 takes on the law used to judge Clinton’s email use" PBS NewsHour 7/6/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Both FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Loretta said they would not recommend or pursue charges against Hillary Clinton for her email practices as secretary of state.  To examine the law they used to make that decision, Judy Woodruff talks to Shannen Coffin, former counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney; and Stephen Vladeck of the University of Texas School of Law.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL - Secretary Hillery Clinton's eMail (again, and again, and again....)

COMMENT:  If you think ANY administrator, private company or government, keeps day-to-day tabs on policies that MAY effect them, you are delusional.

I would EXPECT that Secretary Clinton would have continued with the same policies regarding email as her predecessor, email policy was NOT her focus.

This is brought to you by the:  "Smear Hillary Clinton" campaign.

"Why Clinton's private email use is deemed more serious than predecessors'" PBS NewsHour 5/25/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The State Department's report condemning Hillary Clinton has brought the debate over her conduct as Secretary of State back to the forefront of the political landscape, and throws the race for the White House into uncharted territory.  Judy Woodruff talks to Rosalind Helderman of The Washington Post about the details of the report and why Clinton's violations are worse than her predecessors'.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  We take a closer look now at the State Department's inspector general report on Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server.

Rosalind Helderman of The Washington Post has been covering this ongoing story.

Welcome back to the program, Roz Helderman.

So, first, tell us, what would you say the main findings of this report are?

ROSALIND HELDERMAN, The Washington Post:  So, this was a report that looked at e-mail use by the past five secretaries of state, and it concluded that there have been systemic problems in how the State Department has gone about preserving public records over the course of the tenures of multiple secretaries of state.

However, it was particularly critical of Hillary Clinton and her use of private e-mail.  It said, for instance, that, that use did, in fact, violate department policies that were put in place to ensure compliance with the Federal Records Act, public records laws.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  And does it say that the rules, the guidelines were clear, should have been clear to Secretary Clinton and the people around her?

ROSALIND HELDERMAN:  One of the big takeaways of the report was that the guidelines had been not as clear as they should be going back over a number of years, and that in fact the guidelines and training on those guidelines have not kept up with the way that e-mail has changed the way that we communicate.

That said, the report does specifically say that the warnings about the risks of using private e-mail for public business and the discouragement from doing so have become much more numerous and pointed and descriptive while Secretary Clinton was in office.

And so, whereas her predecessor, Secretary Colin Powell was also criticized by the report for using private e-mail, the dangers of doing so might, perhaps, have been more clear to Secretary Clinton.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Well, I guess what I'm what I'm trying to get at is, is there any doubt that the people around Secretary Clinton — and I guess there's no way to know what she knew — but is there any doubt that the people around her knew that they were in violation of a set of guidelines?

ROSALIND HELDERMAN:  They have said that they didn't know that they were in violation.

And one interesting thing is, she and her aides have said that she wants to cooperate with all these inquiries, but, in fact, she didn't sit with an interview with the State Department's Inspector General, and a number of the top aides didn't respond to questionnaires, which makes it harder a little bit to know what they had in their minds while they were doing this.

SECURITY - eMail Domains

Just have to comment on paying attention to the domains you receive eMail from.

Got an eMail reminding me 'to confirm your account' on a site I never heard of.

The domain was "@zainiraq.net"

IRAQ.net!

Ya, like that's a safe site, .....NOT.

You need to pay close attention to eMail domains when the eMail looks suspicious or from a site you never heard of.

Suspicious eMail may even claim to be from a site you do deal with.  I and an eMail that claimed to be from AARP but the text didn't look right, it was from a domain ending in ".top"

If you get eMail that does look like it's from a site you deal with but has a link to update you account info, DO NOT use the link in the eMail.  If you deal with the site, you should have it bookmarked in your browser, use that to access the site.  Also, many sites will have a Support contact, you should copy the eMail and Headers, and paste that into their message system so they know someone is trying to spoof them.

All suspicious eMail domains should be added to your SPAM filter.  In my case, my eMail provider has a very good system for that.  Then your eMail client should also have a way to filter eMail domains.