Updated on June 9, 2017 at 10:53 PMPosted on June 9, 2017 at 2:35 PM
BY MARK DI IONNO
Columnist, The Star-Ledger
Grant Berardo wore his navy blue “TRUMP Make America Great Again” T-shirt to picture day last fall at Wall Township High School.
Nobody told him not to. And since he is only a junior, there was no picture-day dress code.
The proofs came back, with the picture the way he posed for it, Trump shirt and all. His picture day image is also used on the electronic student ID system, with Trump intact.
Ridgewood NJ, No happy hour for the Democrats on this one .Comey told the President in sworn testimony that he was not the target of the “Russia Collusion Probe’ in his own words ,”In that context, prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI’s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump that we were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him. We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on President Elect Trump’s reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the question, I offered that assurance.”
Comey admitted that when he asked Lynch if she was going to authorize him to confirm the existence of the Clinton email investigation, her answer was, “Yes, but don’t call it that. Call it a matter.” When Comey asked why, he said, Lynch wouldn’t give him an explanation. “Just call it a matter,” she said.
Comey also under oath admitted orchestrating leaks saying he asked a close friend of his Columbia law professor Daniel Richman to leak the content of his memos to the media with the hope of triggering the appointment of a special counsel.
Senator Marco Rubio gave us the money quote ,“This investigation is full of leaks left and right,” Rubio said. “We’ve learned more from the newspapers sometimes than we do from our open hearings for sure. You ever wonder why in this Russia investigation the only thing that’s never been leaked is the fact that the president was not personally under investigation?”
Liberal MSNBC host Chris Matthews even admitted Thursday the accusation that President Trump directly colluded with Russia to interfere in the U.S. election “came apart” following former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony in front of Congress.
Due to the testimony and previous “Fake News ” reports both CNN and ABC issues correction after Comey statements that contradicts the “Dan Rather-esq ” reporting .
President Trump stayed unusually silent on James Comey, his lawyer stressed Thursday that Comey’s testimony proved that Trump did not collude with Russia during last year’s election nor try to obstruct justice in the FBI investigation, going further to accuse the former FBI director of directing unauthorized news leaks designed to damage the president.
A 25-year-old Federal contractor was charged Monday with leaking a top secret NSA report — detailing how Russian military hackers targeted US voting systems just days before the election.
The highly classified intelligence document, published Monday by The Intercept, describes how Russia managed to infiltrate America’s voting infrastructure using a spear-phishing email scheme that targeted local government officials and employees.
It claims the calculated cyberattack may have even been more far-reaching and devious than previously thought.
The report is believed to be the most detailed US government account of Russia’s interference to date.
PLEASE NOTE: AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION OF RECENT EVENTS AND FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR PATRONS, KATHY GRIFFIN’S NOVEMBER 3RD PERFORMANCE HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
All Kathy Griffin ticket buyers will be issued a full refund. If you purchased your tickets on Ticketmaster please call 800-745-3000. If you purchased your tickets through another party, please contact them directly.
KATHY GRIFFIN FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2017 AT 8:00PM AT STATE THEATRE NEW JERSEY
A note on the New Brunswick theater’s Facebook page reads:
“Please note: After careful consideration of recent events and for the safety of our patrons, Kathy Griffin’s November 3rd performance has been cancelled. All Kathy Griffin ticket buyers will be issued a full refund. If you purchased your tickets on Ticketmaster please call 800-745-3000. If you purchased your tickets through another party, please contact them directly.
Trenton NJ, According to the states Attorney General’s office a New Jersey state trooper was charged today with allegedly tampering with or falsifying records to cover up the fact that he conducted improper stops of female drivers for the purpose of pressuring them to begin a personal relationship with him.
Trooper Eric Richardson, 31, of Camden, N.J., was charged today by complaint-summons with third-degree tampering with public records or information and fourth-degree falsifying or tampering with records. He will be suspended from his position as a state trooper as a result of the charges.
Richardson was investigated by the New Jersey State Police Office of Professional Standards, which uncovered separate incidents involving two young women whom Richardson allegedly pulled over and harassed about initiating a personal relationship. He allegedly stopped each of the women repeatedly. Richardson allegedly threatened to arrest one of the women if she did not share her phone number. He also allegedly attempted to ingratiate himself with the women by not impounding their unregistered vehicles, and, in one case, not arresting the woman on an active warrant. The alleged incidents occurred between August 2016 and January 2017. Richardson allegedly communicated with the women on social media and via text using numbers he obtained.
The ongoing investigation has revealed several alleged violations by Richardson, including:
telling dispatchers and recording in the official computer dispatch log that he stopped a man on Dec. 23, when in fact he stopped one of the women he allegedly was harassing; and
falsely reporting in the official dispatch log on Jan. 3 that he stopped to aid a motorist, when, in reality, he allegedly stopped the second woman to ask her if she still had the same phone number. He allegedly deactivated the dashboard camera in his car during some of the stops.
Third-degree charges carry a sentence of three to five years in state prison and a fine of up to $15,000, while fourth degree charges carry a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is considered innocent until proven guilty.
The case is being prosecuted by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. Because the charges are indictable offenses, they will be presented to a state grand jury for potential indictment.
Emails also show Abedin providing government plane and hotel reservations to Chelsea Clinton for trip to Germany while employed at Clinton Foundation
Abedin tells Band that she has ‘hooked up’ people from the Russian American Foundation with ‘the right people’ at the State Department
June 2,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, JudicialWatch today released 2,078 pages of documents revealing more instances of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sending and receiving classified information via an unsecured email server. They also show Clinton’s daughter Chelsea and others involved with the Clinton Foundation receiving special favors from Huma Abedin, the former secretary’s deputy chief of staff.
The records were obtained in response to a court order from a May 5, 2015, lawsuit filed against the State Department (JudicialWatch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00684)) after it failed to respond to a March 18, 2015, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking: “All emails of official State Department business received or sent by former Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin from January 1, 2009 through February 1, 2013 using a non-‘state.gov’ email address.”
The new documents included 115 Clinton email exchanges not previously turned over to the State Department, bringing the known total to date to at least 432 emails that were not part of the 55,000 pages of emails that Clinton turned over to the State Department. These records further appear to contradict statements by Clinton that, “as far as she knew,” all of her government emails were turned over to the State Department.
On December 6, 2010, Secretary Clinton shared classified information with non-U.S. government employees Justin Cooper, then-aide to President Clinton who helped manage Hillary Clinton’s unsecure email system, and Clinton Foundation director Doug Band (neither of whom held security clearances). The email instructs her aide Oscar Flores to “print for Bill” (presumably Bill Clinton). The email exchange, which involved allegations of the theft of foreign aid by Bangladeshi banker and major Clinton Foundation donor Muhammad Yunus, started with an email from an unidentified person to State Department official Melanne Verveer, who forwarded her exchange on to Hillary Clinton, who then sent it on to Flores, Cooper and Band.
Yunus was accused of embezzling $100 million from the Grameen Bank he founded and was removed from it, although the charges were never proven, and Yunus reportedly returned the money. Subsequently, Clinton’s State Department was accused of threatening IRS action against the Bangladesh prime minister’s son in an attempt to stop a Bangladesh government investigation of Yunus.
In a similar instance on March 14, 2011, State Department official Maria Otero emailed Clinton information about the Grameen Bank/Foundation that was again deemed classified as Confidential by the State Department and redacted under FOIA exemption B1.4(D) – “Information specifically authorized by an executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy … Foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources.” Clinton then responds to Otero using her HDR22@clintonemailcom account and copies Abedin on Abedin’s unsecure email account, [email protected].
In May 2010, Ben Ringel, whose donations to the Clinton Foundation JudicialWatch previously documented, asked Abedin to intervene in an employment dispute on behalf of a USAID employee. Abedin agreed, telling Ringel to forward the woman’s documents to her official State Department email account.
In a May 21, 2011, email exchange sent to Abedin’s unsecure account, then- Ambassador Princeton Lyman sent information relating to his conversation with South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit that is also redacted and classified as “Confidential.”
On July 17, 2012, Abedin forwarded to her private email account for printing a call briefing sheet for Clinton’s upcoming call with Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan, which was classified Confidential and redacted under FOIA exemption B1.4(D).
The new Abedin emails also reveal additional instances in which Clinton’s then- scheduler Lona Valmoro forwarded the former secretary of state’s detailed daily schedule to top Clinton Foundation officials.
The new emails also reveal a number of favors that were requested and carried out.
In May 2010, Abedin tells Band that she has “hooked up” people from the Russian American Foundation with “the right people” at the State Department after Abedin received a request from Russian American Foundation Vice President Rina Kirshner, forwarded by Clinton Foundation donor Eddie Trump (no relation to President Trump).
On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 9:41 PM, Huma Abedin <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Rina – wanted to connect on meeting at state department. Eddie trump passed on your email. Will be in touch soon.
From: Rina Kirshner Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:29 AM To: Huma Abedin Subject: Re: Eddie Trump/Doug Band
Ms. Abedin,
Just wanted to follow up and express our gratitude. I was contacted today by Ms. Christina Miner who invited us to be part of the US-Russia Cultural Sub-Working Group meeting next week. Thank you very much for all your assistance – if there is any way we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Rina Kirshner
From: Huma Abedin [[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 12:19:12 PM To: Doug Band Subject: FW: Eddie Trump/Doug Band
fyi – we hooked her up with the right people here
The Russia-American Foundation was staffed by Clinton political supporters and operatives, received over $260,000 in grants for “public diplomacy” from the Clinton State Department, and its leadership was supportive of Obama’s Russia policies.
In July 2011, when Chelsea Clinton, using the alias Diane Reynolds and the email address[email protected], was planning to fly to Germany to see the U.S. women’s soccer team play, her travel agent asked Abedin to confirm that Chelsea’s travel costs could be placed on her parents’ credit card. In response, Abedin tells the agent that she can “stand down” from making arrangements to get Chelsea to Germany, as Chelsea and Bari Luri, Chelsea’s Clinton Foundation chief of staff, would be made part of the “official delegation” going to the match and she would “fly on official govt plane both ways and they will take care of hotels and all transportation.” Chelsea was a fully employed Clinton Foundation executive at this time.
In July 2011, Clinton tells Abedin that she doesn’t wish to fly on the same airplane with Michelle Obama on their way to Betty Ford’s funeral: “I’d be honored to speak. Is it ok that we and Mrs. O take two separate planes?”
A December 15, 2012, email chain shows that a committee of Clinton staffers, including Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, Jake Sullivan and Philippe Reines, was required to draft a “doctors statement” as to why Hillary supposedly fainted due to “dehydration,” causing her supposedly to hit her head and suffer a “concussion” in December 2012. The same committee then prepared a “discharge statement” when Hillary was released from the hospital.
“These shocking new Clinton emails show why the Justice Department should reevaluate, reopen, or reinvigorate Clinton, Inc. investigations,” said JudicialWatch President Tom Fitton. “The casual violation of laws concerning classified material and noxious influence peddling show the Clinton State Department was ‘corruption central’ in the Obama administration. No wonder Clinton’s allies in the State and Justice Departments had been slow-walking and hiding these emails.”
Ridgewood NJ, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate pact. In a decision that spurns pleas from corporate executives who stood to gain , world leaders who would access US tax payer funds and even Pope Francis who warned the move imperils a global fight against climate change proving “Climate Change ” is religion not science .
“The Obama-negotiated accord imposes unrealistic targets on the U.S. for reducing our carbon emissions, while giving countries like China a free pass for years to come,” the White House said.
President Trump once again defended US Taxpayers who would fund the so called “Paris Accord” , pointing out the the many instances where the accord sought to redistribute and strip America’s wealth and industry to the rest of the world and imperil
the US economy.
The President also went to great lengths pointing out how the “Paris Accord” would reduce America’s sovereignty giving outsiders control of US domestic agenda .
‘New York Magazine’ interview displays stunning arrogance
By Michael Sainato • 05/26/17 5:03pm
On May 26, New York Magazine published an interview with Hillary Clinton conducted by Bernie Bros and Obama Boys shill Rebecca Traister. Throughout the interview, Clinton reveled in the various scapegoats and excuses that have been cyclically cited by her and her loyal supporters since her embarrassing loss to Donald Trump. The article cited negative reactions to Clinton stating in a previous interview that she took full responsibility for the election, only to also claim if the election was October 27, she would be president. Those reactions weren’t incited by her invocation of the Comey letter; they were incited by her refusal to reflect on her campaign’s shortcomings. Her campaign largely ignored many of the states that swung the election, and her insistence that the Comey letter killed her chances to win fails to acknowledge that she was under an FBI investigation because of her own conduct. The New York Times‘ Nate Cohn published an article on May 8 noting that there are reasons to be skeptical of the so-called Comey effect. However, for Clinton and her supporters, it’s more convenient to rely on the same pollsters who predicted she would win the election.
Ridgewood NJ, President Trump’s first proposed budget shows respect for the people who pay the bills. The administration’s “Calvin Coolidge style” proposal reverses the damaging trends from previous administrations by putting our nation’s budget back into balance and reducing our debt through fiscally conservative principles, all the while delivering on President Trump’s campaign promise not to cut Social Security retirement or Medicare. The budget’s combination of regulatory, tax, and welfare reforms will provide opportunities for economic growth and creation.
Trump Budget Facts:
President Trump’s budget is designed to put the taxpayer first, create jobs, and build economic growth.
President Trump’s budget finally balances the Federal budget and turns the deficit into a $16 billion surplus by 2027.
President Trump’s budget makes national defense a top priority by increasing defense spending by $54 billion.
President Trump’s budget increases funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs by $4.3 billion.
President Trump’s budget puts Americans’ safety first by providing $2.6 billion in increased funding for border security.
President Trump’s budget balances the budget and makes no cuts to either Medicare or Social Security retirement.
President Trump’s budget provides national paid family leave for the first time in the history of this country.
President Trump’s budget helps American families by implementing the first national paid family leave initiative.
President Trump’s budget saves the American people billions of dollars through welfare and regulatory reform.
President Trump’s budget sees a decline in debt as a percentage of GDP every year in the budget window.
Report: Girl in Weiner sexting case lied to damage Clinton
BY MALLORY SHELBOURNE – 05/22/17 08:37 AM EDT 2,669
The teenage girl who had exchanged sexually explicit text messages with former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) lied about her age and political motivations to harm Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, according to a report by the investigative news site WhoWhatWhy.
In a report published Monday, the website said the girl who exchanged the messages with Weiner was closer to 17 and not 15, as initial reports said. That also puts her above the age of consent in North Carolina, which is 16.
In addition, she and her family were also not Clinton supporters, as the girl claimed in a letter published by BuzzFeed, according to social media posts unearthed by the website. The report also says the girl initiated the contact with Weiner.
The website suggests this could mean that Weiner was the target of a politically motivated plot.
Journalists’ brains show a lower-than-average level of executive functioning, according to a new study, which means they have a below-average ability to regulate their emotions, suppress biases, solve complex problems, switch between tasks, and show creative and flexible thinking.
The study, led by Tara Swart, a neuroscientist and leadership coach, analysed 40 journalists from newspapers, magazines, broadcast, and online platforms over seven months. The participants took part in tests related to their lifestyle, health, and behaviour.
Why liberal conspiracy theories are flourishing in the age of Trump.
Updated by Zack Beauchamp@[email protected] May 19, 2017, 8:30am EDT
President Donald Trump is about to resign as a result of the Russia scandal. Bernie Sandersand Sean Hannity are Russian agents. The Russians have paid off House Oversight Chair Jason Chaffetz to the tune of $10 million, using Trump as a go-between. Paul Ryan is a traitor for refusing to investigate Trump’s Russia ties. Libertarian heroine Ayn Rand was a secret Russian agent charged with discrediting the American conservative movement.
These are all claims you can find made on a new and growing sector of the internet that functions as a fake news bubble for liberals, something I’ve dubbed the Russiasphere. The mirror image of Breitbart and InfoWars on the right, it focuses nearly exclusively on real and imagined connections between Trump and Russia. The tone is breathless: full of unnamed intelligence sources, certainty that Trump will soon be imprisoned, and fever dream factual assertions that no reputable media outlet has managed to confirm.
Twitter is the Russiasphere’s native habitat. Louise Mensch, a former right-wing British parliamentarian and romance novelist, spreads the newest, punchiest, and often most unfounded Russia gossip to her 283,000 followers on Twitter. Mensch is backed up by a handful of allies, including former NSA spook John Schindler (226,000 followers) and DC-area photographer Claude Taylor (159,000 followers).
There’s also a handful of websites, like Palmer Report, that seem devoted nearly exclusively to spreading bizarre assertions like the theory that Ryan and Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell funneled Russian money to Trump — a story that spread widely among the site’s 70,000 Facebook fans.
For all the outrage over what President Trump might have told the Russian ambassador last week, aggressive journalism — and ambitious leaks — may have done the worst harm on Tuesday.
Monday’s stories on what Trump told his Russian guests noted that he’d given details that might help them figure out how Washington had gotten the intel.
Trump’s intel disclosure to Russia put spy in danger: report
But the New York Times reported Tuesday that Israel was the source.
And then ABC disclosed even more sensitive specifics: An Israeli spy inside ISIS had uncovered the active plot to bring down a US-bound jet with a laptop bomb able to evade airport security.
This info is said to have been provided on condition that Washington not reveal who came up with the goods. And we’d like to hope that the leaks to the Times and ABC are disinformation to obscure the true source.
Brooklyn NY, In the last few weeks prosecutors in two major U.S. cities have ordered staff not to charge illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes because it could get the offenders deported. You can’t make this stuff up. Officials elected by law-abiding citizens to protect, defend, uphold and enforce criminal laws are bending the rules to protect those in the country illegally. This is a huge step beyond offering illegal aliens sanctuary and constitutes a violation of the oath these public officials have taken.
Brooklyn, New York District Attorney Eric Gonzalez was the first to issue the order creating two sets of rules involving local crimes. The goal, according to a statement issued by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, is “minimizing collateral immigration consequences of criminal convictions.” Taxpayers in the busy New York City borough are also paying for two immigration attorneys to train all staff on immigration issues and advise prosecutors when making plea offers and sentencing recommendations. The idea is to avoid “disproportionate collateral consequences, such as deportation, while maintaining public safety.” Gonzalez, the Brooklyn District Attorney, says he’s committed to equal and fair justice for all Brooklyn residents—citizens, lawful residents and undocumented immigrants alike.
Brooklyn’s chief prosecutor insists that this outrageous new policy doesn’t compromise but rather compliments his agency’s goal of enhancing public safety and fairness in the criminal justice system. Under the old system in which all violators of state crimes were treated equally undocumented immigrants faced harsh immigration penalties as a result of criminal convictions, Gonzalez said, even for minor offenses. “Now more than ever, we must ensure that a conviction, especially for a minor offense, does not lead to unintended and severe consequences like deportation, which can be unfair, tear families apart and destabilize our communities and businesses,” Gonzalez said. “In Brooklyn, we have been proactive in protecting immigrants from fraud and hate crimes and now, with the unprecedented hiring of immigration attorneys and the implementation of this policy, we continue to lead on this important issue.” The head of a local open borders group celebrated the new rules, asserting that “misdemeanors and low-level offenses often trap immigrants who are unfamiliar with the legal process and potentially expose them to harsh double punishment of being deported and ripped from their families.”
Under Brooklyn’s new policy lawyers in the prosecutor’s office may consider “alternative offenses the defendant can plead to as well as reasonable modifications to the sentence recommendation.” As an example, the District Attorney’s directive says that a plea to a misdemeanor trespass may be offered instead of a misdemeanor drug offense. Illegal aliens may also be offered a plea for a lesser offense “in light of the disproportionate immigration consequences a higher level offense may result in,” according to the new rules. The District Attorney’s office recognizes however, that there “may be times when crafting an immigration-neutral disposition would be very difficult and there may be stumbling blocks that cannot be overcome in certain cases.” At the end of the new policy document, the office charged with investigating and prosecuting crimes to improve public safety recognizes that many violent felonies come attached with “inevitable” collateral immigration consequences.
A few weeks after Brooklyn proudly disclosed its policy, prosecutors in Maryland’s largest city joined the bandwagon, albeit more quietly. There was no public announcement or celebratory press conference but a local newspaper got ahold of an internal memo sent by Baltimore’s Chief Deputy State’s Attorney instructing prosecutors to think twice before charging illegal immigrants with minor, non-violent crimes. The chief deputy, Michael Schatzow, used similar language in the memo, writing that the Trump administration’s deportation efforts “have increased the potential collateral consequences to certain immigrants of minor, non-violent criminal conduct.” Schatzow is second-in-command to Baltimore’s top prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, and oversees major crimes at the state agency. “In considering the appropriate disposition of a minor, non-violent criminal case, please be certain to consider those potential consequences to the victim, witnesses, and the defendant,” Schatzow wrote to his staff.
Besides Baltimore, two Maryland counties—Montgomery and Prince George’s—offer illegal immigrants sanctuary. Earlier this year, in response to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh reiterated that police and other public agencies in her city never ask about immigration status. “We are a welcoming city,” the mayor said in a local news report “We want everyone here. We want to be able to provide opportunities and jobs and careers for folks. That’s where we are in Baltimore.” This year Maryland legislators tried to pass a measure to make the state an official illegal alien sanctuary but the bill, known as the Trust Act, hit a roadblock in a Senate committee after passing in the House of Delegates and the governor has vowed to veto it even if it survives.
Washinton DC, Judicial Watch today announced that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ordered the U.S. Department of State to turn over to Judicial Watch “eight identical paragraphs” of previously redact material in two September 13, 2012, Hillary Clinton emails regarding phone calls made by President Barack Obama to Egyptian and Libyan leaders immediately following the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. Both emails had the subject line “Quick Summary of POTUS Calls to Presidents of Libya and Egypt” and were among the emails stored on Clinton’s unofficial email server. Judge Jackson reviewed the documents directly and rejected the government’s contention that the records had been properly withheld under the FOIA B(5) “deliberative process” exemption.
Judge Jackson ruled: “the two records, even if just barely predecisional, are not deliberative. [The State Department] has pointed to very little to support its characterization of these two records as deliberative, and the Court’s in camera review of the documents reveals that they do not fall within that category.”
The full emails may reveal what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama knew about the September 11, 2012, terror attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.
Following Judge Jackson’s March 20 ruling, the State Department asked the court to reconsider. The State Department argued that, due to an internal “mistake,” it failed to claim that the emails were classified and, therefore, exempt from production under FOIA Exemption B(1).
In response, Judicial Watch argues that the failure was not a mistake, but instead was part of a deliberate effort by the State Department to protect Clinton and the agency by avoiding identifying emails on Clinton’s unofficial, non-secure email server as classified.
Judicial Watch’s filing cites an interview of an FBI employee who told federal investigators that top State Department official Patrick Kennedy pressured the FBI to keep Clinton’s emails unclassified. The employee told the FBI he “believes STATE ha[d] an agenda which involves minimizing the classified nature of the CLINTON emails in order to protect STATE interests and those of CLINTON.” [Emphasis in original]
Judicial Watch’s filing also cites an interview of a State Department employee who told the FBI that the State Department’s Office of Legal Counsel interfered with the FOIA processing of email from Secretary Clinton’s server, instructing reviewers to use Exemption B(5) (deliberative process exemption) instead of Exemption B(1) (classified information exemption). According to the FBI interview:
STATE’s Near East Affairs Bureau upgraded several of CLINTON’s emails to a classified level with a B(1) release exemption . [Redacted], along with [Redacted] attorney, Office of Legal Counsel, called STATE’s Near East Affairs Bureau and told them they could use a B(5) exemption on a upgraded email to protect it instead of the B(1) exemption. However, the use of the B(5) exemption, which is usually used for executive privilege-related information, was incorrect as the information actually was classified and related to national security, which would be a B(1) exemption.
Judicial Watch argues:
An agency’s deliberate withholding of a FOIA claim, either to gain a tactical advantage or, as appears to be the case here, to protect the agency’s interests and those of its former head, is “a motive undoubtedly inconsistent with FOIA’s broad remedial purpose …” It “counsels denying the Government’s request.”
The emails in question were sent to then-top administration officials, including Clinton, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, Clinton Deputy Chief of Staff Jacob Sullivan, Special Assistant Robert Russo, and Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough.
“Does President Trump know his State and Justice Departments are still trying to provide cover for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama?” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “An extraordinary court ruling that could result in key answers about the Benghazi outrage is being opposed by the Trump administration. This may well be an example of the ‘deep state’ trying to get away with a cover up – if so then the Trump administration must put a stop to it.”
Judicial Watch obtained the original documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:14-cv-01511)). The lawsuit was filed on September 4, 2014, after the State Department failed to respond to a June 13, 2014, FOIA request seeking:
All records related to notes, updates, or reports created in response to the September 11, 2012 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. This request includes, but is not limited to notes taken by then Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton or employees of the Office of the Secretary of State during the attack and its immediate aftermath.
The timeframe for this request is September 11-15, 2012.
Judicial Watch’s numerous FOIA lawsuits have forced the State Department to release hundreds of Benghazi-related documents.
