Tag: Hillary Clinton

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FBI warned Clinton campaign last spring of cyberattack

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Michael Isikoff
Chief Investigative Correspondent
July 28, 2016

The FBI warned the Clinton campaign that it was a target of a cyberattack last March, just weeks before the Democratic National Committee discovered it had been penetrated by hackers it now believes were working for Russian intelligence, two sources who have been briefed on the matter told Yahoo News.

In a meeting with senior officials at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters, FBI agents laid out concerns that cyberhackers had used so-called spear-phishing emails as part of an attempt to penetrate the campaign’s computers, the sources said. One of the sources said agents conducting a national security investigation asked the Clinton campaign to turn over internal computer logs as well as the personal email addresses of senior campaign officials. But the campaign, through its lawyers, declined to provide the data, deciding that the FBI’s request for sensitive personal and campaign information data was too broad and intrusive, the source said.

A second source who had been briefed on the matter and who confirmed the Brooklyn meeting said agents provided no specific information to the campaign about the identity of the cyberhackers or whether they were associated with a foreign government. The source said the campaign was already aware of attempts to penetrate its computers and had taken steps to thwart them, emphasizing that there is still no evidence that the campaign’s computers had actually been successfully penetrated.

But the potential that the intruders were associated with a foreign government should have come as no surprise to the Clinton campaign, said several sources knowledgeable about the investigation. Chinese intelligence hackers were widely reported to have penetrated both the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain in 2008.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fbi-hillary-clinton-cyber-attack-000000269.html

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Clinton campaign part of DNC hack

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By Ben Kamisar – 07/29/16 05:15 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton’s campaign had its computer network hacked as part of the cyberattack on Democratic organizations, Reuters reported Friday.

A federal law enforcement official told the New York Times that the hack appears to have come from Russia.

“An analytics data program maintained by the DNC, and used by our campaign and a number of other entities, was accessed as part of the DNC hack,” Clinton press secretary Nick Merrill said in a statement. “Our campaign computer system has been under review by outside cyber security experts. To date, they have found no evidence that our internal systems have been compromised.”

The news comes hours after the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)confirmed it was hacked as well.

The DCCC called its intrusion “similar” to the attack on the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which led to Wikileaks publishing tens of thousands of internal emails.

The trove’s release led to the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz earlier this week.

The Department of Justice is investigating the cyberattacks, Reuters reported. Those with knowledge of the investigation told the news service that involvement was a sign the White House believed the attacks were state-sponsored.

Reuters reported Thursday that the FBI had opened an investigation into a digital intrusion at the DCCC.

https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/289831-clinton-campaign-hacked-in-broad-attack-on-dems-report

 

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Democrat anxiety hangs over Clinton

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By Alexander Bolton – 07/29/16 01:37 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA — Democrats are worried about Hillary Clinton’s inability to separate herself fromDonald Trump in the polls, even after what they believe was a largely successful convention that represented a real step toward party unity.

Clinton is hoping for a big post-convention boost, but the reality right now is that she in behind Trump in the polls, and has been in a relatively tight race for weeks.

While the Electoral College may give her an advantage, party leaders and strategists say they remain concerned that Clinton is a tough sell when a majority of Americans think the country is on the wrong track and want to shake up Washington.

“The most important thing is there is a bias for change and there’s an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll where people express that bias even when they don’t know what the change is going to be,” said Geoff Garin, a pollster who worked for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and now advises Priorities USA, a pro-Clinton super PAC.

That July survey showed a majority of voters, 56 percent, prefer someone who will bring major changes to government even if they don’t know what those changes will be. Only 46 percent wanted a candidate who would bring a steady approach to government.

It helps explain Trump’s success, and the strong challenge to Clinton in the Democratic primary from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Away from the hoopla of the Wells Fargo, Democratic officials and strategists say it’s a major concern.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/289737-dem-anxiety-hangs-over-clinton

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Anti-Clinton Groups Take to the Streets in Philadelphia

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The uproar from supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) continued on Tuesdayas demonstrators took to the streets in Center City. Though the crowds had thinned after Monday’s mob outside of City Hall, the heat was still scorching and some protestors were still holding out for Sanders delegates at the Democratic National Convention to walk out in support of Green Party candidate Jill Stein rather than vote for Hillary Clinton. JT Aregood, PolitickerNJ Read more

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Julian Assange: ‘A lot more material’ coming on US elections

Hillary Clinton

By Matthew Chance, CNN

Updated 4:16 PM ET, Tue July 26, 2016

(CNN)Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said Tuesday his whistleblowing website might release “a lot more material” relevant to the US electoral campaign.

Assange was speaking in a CNN interview following the release of nearly 20,000 emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee by suspected Russian hackers.

However, Assange refused to confirm or deny a Russian origin for the mass email leak, saying Wikileaks tries to create ambiguity to protect all its sources.

“Perhaps one day the source or sources will step forward and that might be an interesting moment some people may have egg on their faces. But to exclude certain actors is to make it easier to find out who our sources are,” Assange told CNN.

The Kremlin has rejected allegations its behind the hacking, calling suggestions it ordered the release of the emails to influence US politics the “usual fun and games” of the US election campaigns.
“This is not really good for bilateral relations,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, added.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/26/politics/julian-assange-dnc-email-leak-hack/

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4 brutal poll numbers that greet Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention

Hillary Clinton

By Aaron Blake July 25 at 4:42 PM

It’s common for presidential candidates to get a bump from their conventions, and two new polls Mondaysuggest Donald Trump did indeed get that.

But the new polls don’t just show Trump’s stock rising (however temporarily that may be); they also have some very bad news for Hillary Clinton and her already-declining personal image. Indeed, politically, she’s doing as bad as she ever has — if not worse.

A caveat at the outset: The GOP convention was, as was to be expected, very anti-Clinton. There were chants of “lock her up” and plenty of accusations lodged against Clinton. So it’s perhaps not surprising to see Clinton’s numbers take a hit. But they have been steadily getting worse for months and are now basically worse than ever before.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/25/4-brutal-poll-numbers-that-greet-hillary-clinton-at-the-democratic-national-convention/

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Democrats in disarray on eve of convention to nominate Clinton

Democrats

By John Whitesides
July 24, 2016

By John Whitesides

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The head of the Democratic Party resigned on Sunday amid a furor over embarrassing leaked emails, hoping to head off a growing rebellion by Bernie Sanders supporters on the eve of the convention to nominate Hillary Clinton for the White House.

Lingering bitterness from the heated primary campaign between Clinton and Sanders erupted after more than 19,000 Democratic National Committee emails, leaked on Friday, confirmed Sanders’ frequent charge that the party played favorites in the race.

In a statement, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the best way for the party to accomplish its goal of putting Clinton in the White House was for her to step aside. Sanders had demanded earlier in the day that Wasserman Schultz resign.

The furor was a blow to a party keen on projecting stability in contrast to the volatility of Republican candidate Donald Trump, who was formally nominated at a raucous convention in Cleveland last week.

It also overshadowed preparations in Philadelphia for Clinton’s coronation as the nominee to face Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election. She will be the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.

The four-day Democratic convention will open on Monday. In some good news for Clinton, The New York Times reported that businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will endorse her in a prime-time speech on Monday, saying she will be the best choice for moderate voters in 2016.

The cache of emails leaked on Friday by the WikiLeaks website disclosed that DNC officials explored ways to undermine Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign, including raising questions about whether Sanders, who is Jewish, was really an atheist.

Sanders said Wasserman Schultz, a U.S. representative from Florida, had made the right decision for the future of the Democratic Party. “The party leadership must also always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race,” he said.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/eve-democratic-convention-clinton-struggles-party-unity-171510915.html

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DNC chair won’t speak at Dem convention following Wikileaks fallout

(DNC) Debbie Wasserman Schultz9_n

By Theodore Schleifer, Eugene Scott and Jeff Zeleny, CNN

(CNN)The head of the Democratic National Committee will not speak at the party’s convention next week, a decision reached by party officials Saturday after emails surfaced that raised questions about the committee’s impartiality during the Democratic primary.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose stewardship of the DNC has been under fire through most of the presidential primary process, will not have a major speaking role in an effort “to keep the peace” in the party, a Democrat familiar with the decision said. The revelation comes following the release of nearly 20,000 emails

One email appears to show DNC staffers asking how they can reference Bernie Sanders’ faith to weaken him in the eyes of Southern voters. Another seems to depict an attorney advising the committee on how to defend Hillary Clinton against an accusation by the Sanders campaign of not living up to a joint fundraising agreement.
Wasserman Schultz is expected to gavel the convention in and out, but not speak in the wake of the controversy surrounding the leaked emails, a top Democrat said.
“She’s been quarantined,” another top Democrat said, following a meeting Saturday night.

https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/dnc-wikileaks-emails/index.html

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DNC : I am Women hear me roar !

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EXCLUSIVE: Democratic National Committeewoman says her party is ‘clearing a path’ for Hillary because ‘the women in charge’ want it that way

Female member of the Democratic Party’s controlling body spoke to Daily Mail Online in Las Vegas following Tuesday’s primary debate
She rattled off a list of women at the top of the party hierarchy and said two vice chairs helped craft a decision this summer to favor Clinton
The committeewoman warned her party could promote Hillary ‘because she’s a woman, and risk having her implode after she’s nominated’
The Democratic National Committee insisted that it ‘runs an impartial primary process, period’
But it has sanctioned just six debates this time around; Democratic presidential candidates had to survive 27 of them in 2007-08
DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz campaigned for Hillary in 2008 when she last ran for the presidency
See our full coverage of Hillary Clinton and her presidential bid

By DAVID MARTOSKO, US POLITICAL EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM IN LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

PUBLISHED: 11:20 EST, 15 October 2015 | UPDATED: 09:57 EST, 16 October 2015

The Democratic National Committee is ‘clearing a path’ for Hillary Clinton to be its presidential nominee because its upper power echelons are populated with women, according to a female committee member who was in Las Vegas for Tuesday’s primary debate.

Speaking on the condition that she isn’t identified, she told Daily Mail Online that the party is in the tank for Clinton, and the women who run the organization decided it ‘early on.’

The committeewoman is supporting one of Hillary’s rivals for the Democratic nomination, and said she spoke freely because she believes the former Secretary of State is benefiting from unfair favoritism inside the party.

Clinton aims to be the first female to occupy the Oval Office, and ‘the party’s female leaders really want to make a woman the next president,’ the committeewoman said, rattling off a list of the women who she said are the ‘real power’ in the organization.

‘I haven’t heard anyone say we should make Hillary undergo a trial by fire,’ she added. ‘To the contrary, the women in charge seem eager, more and more, to have her skate into the general [election].’

‘I have nothing against women in politics,’ she underscored. ‘But it’s not healthy for the party if we get behind a woman because she’s a woman, and risk having her implode after she’s nominated because she isn’t tested enough now.’

Read more: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3273404/Democratic-National-Committeewoman-says-party-clearing-path-Hillary-women-charge-want-way.html#ixzz4FKjDDmSy

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DNC treatment of Sanders at issue in emails leaked to Wikileaks

Bernie Sanders

By Theodore Schleifer, CNN

Updated 10:15 AM ET, Sat July 23, 2016

(CNN)Nearly 20,000 emails sent and received by Democratic National Committee staff members were released Friday by Wikileaks, with one message in particular raising questions about the committee’s impartiality during the Democratic primary.

The revelation threatened to shatter the uneasy peace between the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders camps and supporters days before the Democratic convention kicks off next week.

The leaks, from January 2015 to May 2016, feature Democratic staffers debating everything from how to deal with challenging media requests to coordinating the committee’s message with other powerful interests in Washington.
The emails were leaked from the accounts of seven DNC officials, Wikileaks said. CNN has not independently established the emails’ authenticity

https://www.cnn.com/2016/07/22/politics/dnc-wikileaks-emails/

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Senate Judiciary Chair: ‘FBI Tried to Gag Its Agents With Non-Disclosure Agreement’ on Clinton Probe

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By Barbara Hollingsworth | July 7, 2016 | 12:31 PM EDT
(CNSNews.com) – In a strongly worded letter to FBI Director James Comey about his handling of the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for government business, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said he was troubled that “the FBI tried to gag its agents with a non-disclosure agreement on this matter, in violation of whistleblower protection statutes.”

Noting the many “inconsistencies” in Comey’s announcement on Tuesday that he would not recommend criminal charges against Clinton, Grassley’s July 6 letter stated that “in light of these inconsistencies, it is even more troubling that the FBI tried to gag its agents with a non-disclosure agreement on this matter, in violation of whistleblower protection statutes.

“In your July 1st reply to my February 4th letter, you indicated that agents working on this case were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that failed to exempt protected whistleblowing. Only after I wrote to you did you advise your FBI agents that they are still free to speak with Congress regarding waste, fraud, and abuse,” Grassley wrote.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/senate-judiciary-chairman-fbi-director-tried-gag-agents-involved

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‘You Broke My Heart’: Supporters of Bernie Sanders React to Endorsement

Bernie Sanders

By ALAN RAPPEPORTJULY 12, 2016

Senator Bernie Sanders offered a full-throated endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, urging his supporters to get behind the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But many of his most loyal followers are not feeling it just yet.

Disappointment in Mr. Sanders cascaded across the internet as he embraced his former rival, describing her as a comrade in the fight to overhaul a rigged campaign finance system and lift the poor out of poverty. The sadness was most evident on the Facebook page where the Vermont senator explained his decision in a message titled “Forever forward” that drew responses infused with a skeptical refrain: Never Hillary.

“You broke my heart and betrayed the left Senator Sanders,” wrote Cesar Agusto Diaz, a Sanders supporter from New York.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/us/politics/bernie-sanders-reaction.html?_r=0

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Reader says Hillary put your Secrets and National Security at risk too

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

She put your secrets and security at risk too. Doesn’t that upset anybody? Your foreign intelligence services are less effective now because other countries know specifics about what the State Department was and will be doing – because Hillary Clinton (for whatever reason) put her email (Our email really) out in the open.
The fact that she had her own email infrastructure is irrelevant. She could have easily secured it, and easily archived it, but chose not to..that’s the proof of her intent.

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Washington Has Been Obsessed With Punishing Secrecy Violations — until Hillary Clinton

International Leaders And Luminaries Attend Clinton Global Initiative

Glenn Greenwald
July 5 2016, 3:58 p.m.

Secrecy is a virtual religion in Washington. Those who violate its dogma have been punished in the harshest and most excessive manner – at least when they possess little political power or influence. As has been widely noted, the Obama administration has prosecuted more leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined. Secrecy in DC is so revered that even the most banal documents are reflexively marked classified, making their disclosure or mishandling a felony. As former CIA and NSA Director Michael Hayden said back in 2000, “Everything’s secret. I mean, I got an email saying ‘Merry Christmas.’ It carried a top secret NSA classification marking.”

People who leak to media outlets for the selfless purpose of informing the public – Daniel Ellsberg, Tom Drake, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden – face decades in prison. Those who leak for more ignoble and self-serving ends – such as enabling hagiography (Leon Panetta, David Petreaus) or ingratiating oneself to one’s mistress (Petraeus) – face career destruction, though they are usually spared if they are sufficiently Important-in-DC. For low-level, powerless Nobodies-in-DC, even the mere mishandling of classified information – without any intent to leak but merely to, say, work from home – has resulted in criminal prosecution, career destruction and the permanent loss of security clearance.

This extreme, unforgiving, unreasonable, excessive posture toward classified information came to an instant halt in Washington today – just in time to save Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations. FBI Director James Comey, an Obama appointee who served in the Bush DOJ, held a press conference earlier this afternoon in which he condemned Clinton on the ground that she and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” including Top Secret material.

Comey also detailed that her key public statements defending her conduct –i.e., she never sent classified information over her personal email account and that she had turned over all “work-related” emails to the State Department – were utterly false; insisted “that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position . . . should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation”; and argued that she endangered national security because of the possibility “that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.” Comey also noted that others who have done what Clinton did “are often subject to security or administrative sanctions” – such as demotion, career harm, or loss of security clearance.

https://theintercept.com/2016/07/05/washington-has-been-obsessed-with-punishing-secrecy-violations-until-hillary-clinton/

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AP FACT CHECK: Clinton email claims collapse under FBI probe

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By STEPHEN BRAUN and JACK GILLUM

Jul. 6, 2016 4:01 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Key assertions by Hillary Clinton in defense of her email practices have collapsed under FBI scrutiny.

The agency’s yearlong investigation found that she did not, as she claimed, turn over all her work-related messages for release. It found that her private email server did carry classified emails, also contrary to her past statements. And it made clear that Clinton used many devices to send and receive email despite her statements that she set up her email system so that she only needed to carry one.

FBI Director James Comey’s announcement Tuesday that he will not refer criminal charges to the Justice Department against Clinton spared her from prosecution and a devastating political predicament. But it left much of her account in tatters and may have aggravated questions of trust swirling around her Democratic presidential candidacy.

A look at Clinton’s claims since questions about her email practices as secretary of state surfaced and how they compare with facts established in the FBI probe:

https://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/588c1ba16f51484e8e0010b12b9e8b28/ap-fact-check-clinton-email-claims-collapse-under-fbi-probe