Podesta - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills

By Susan Jones | October 14, 2016 | 12:02 PM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – In a March 4, 2015 email to Hillary Clinton’s lawyer Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s eventual campaign chairman John Podesta asks if they should withhold email exchanges between Clinton and President Obama that were sent over Clinton’s private server.

The day before Podesta sent his email to Mills, the House Benghazi Committee privately told Clinton to preserve and hand over all her emails. (The FBI report on Clinton’s emails notes on Page 18 that on March 3, 2015, the United States House Select Committee on Benghazi provided a letter to the law firm Williams & Connolly requesting the preservation and production of all documents and media related to the email addresses hdr22@clintonemail.com and hrcl7@clintonemail.com.)

The email from Podesta to Mills, titled “Special Category,” reads: “Think we should hold emails to and from potus? That’s the heart of his exec privilege. We could get them to ask for that. They may not care, but I(t) seems like they will.”

Mills did not respond by email. The Clinton-Obama emails were turned over to the State Department, which later announced it would not release them.

At the Jan. 29, 2016 State Department briefing, spokesman John Kirby told reporters:

“As the White House has previously stated, Secretary Clinton and the President did on occasion exchange emails. As they have also said previously, such presidential records shall remain confidential to protect the President’s ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel but will ultimately be released in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/wikileaks-podesta-asks-clintons-lawyer-think-we-should-hold-emails-and

Podesta, Left-Wing Mastermind, to Lead NSA Review
by Joel B. Pollak 17 Jan 2014, 10:40 AM PDT

President Barack Obama announced Friday that John Podesta, his new “counselor” and the political operative responsible for creating the institutional left in Washington, will be the appointed “to lead a comprehensive review of big data and privacy” in the aftermath of revelations about the National Security Agency’s electronic spying programs. When he joined the White House last month, Podesta’s focus was said to be “climate change.”

The president’s speech contained little news. It was a classic Obama set-piece, designed to demonstrate that he understands both sides of a complex argument, while delegating responsibility to third parties and taking steps that reinforce the interests and goals of the hard left. In this instance, Obama left final decisions about where to store NSA data to Congress, while making sure that Podesta is in charge of the consultative process as a whole.

To be fair, there are few clear answers, even in the wake of stunning revelations about the NSA, as to where the line between security and privacy ought to be drawn. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has led the opposition to the NSA’s surveillance programs, quipped: “I think what I heard was if you like your privacy you can keep it.” Yet aside from a general sense of mistrust in the president, there is little agreement in his party about a solution.

Democrats are no more united. Their primary concern, like Obama’s, is to make the issue go away. Obama has an additional goal: to restore an image of competence. He knows that his speech will not assuage the concerns of privacy advocates, and could lead to confrontation with intelligence agencies. “But I want the American people to know that the work has begun,” he said. Under Podesta, of course–a detail Obama left for the end.

https://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/17/Obama-Appoints-Podesta-Left-Wing-Mastermind-to-Lead-NSA-Review