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NYT: Obama's comments on Hillary Collide with FBI's Inquiry

YellowSnow51

HB King
Aug 14, 2002
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WASHINGTON — Federal agents were still cataloging the classified information fromHillary Rodham Clinton’s personal email server last week when President Obama went on television and played down the matter.

“I don’t think it posed a national security problem,” Mr. Obama said Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” He said it was a mistake for Mrs. Clinton to use a private email account when she was secretary of state, but his conclusion was unmistakable: “This is not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered.”

Those statements angered F.B.I. agents who have been working for months to determine whether Ms. Clinton’s email setup had in fact put any of the nation’s secrets at risk, according to current and former law enforcement officials.

Investigators have not reached any conclusions about whether the information on the server had been compromised or whether to recommend charges, according to the law enforcement officials. But to investigators, it sounded as if Mr. Obama had already decided the answers to their questions and cleared anyone involved of wrongdoing.

The White House quickly backed off the president’s remarks and said Mr. Obama was not trying to influence the investigation. But his comments spread quickly, raising the ire of officials who saw an instance of the president trying to influence the outcome of a continuing investigation — and not for the first time.

A spokesman for the F.B.I. declined to comment. But Ron Hosko, a former senior F.B.I. official who retired in 2014 and is now the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said it was inappropriate for the president to “suggest what side of the investigation he is on” when the F.B.I. is still investigating.

“Injecting politics into what is supposed to be a fact-finding inquiry leaves a foul taste in the F.B.I.’s mouth and makes them fear that no matter what they find, the Justice Department will take the president’s signal and not bring a case,” said Mr. Hosko, who maintains close contact with current agents.

Several current and former law enforcement officials, including those close to the investigation, expressed similar sentiments in separate interviews over several days. Most, however, did so only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The White House said Thursday that Mr. Obama was not commenting on the merits of the investigation, but rather was explaining why he believes the controversy over Mrs. Clinton’s emails has been overblown. The president, officials said, was merely noting that the emails that have been publicly released so far have not imperiled national security.

“There’s a debate among national security experts, as part of their ongoing, independent review, about how or even whether to classify sections of those emails,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. “But, as the president said, there is no evidence to indicate that the information in those emails endangered our national security.”

But Mr. Obama’s remarks in the Clinton email case were met with particular anger at the F.B.I. because they echoed comments he made in 2012, shortly after it was revealed that a former C.I.A. director, David H. Petraeus, was under investigation, accused of providing classified information to a mistress who was writing a book about him.

“I have no evidence at this point, from what I’ve seen, that classified information was disclosed that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security,” the president said at a 2012 news conference, as the F.B.I. was trying to answer that very question about Mr. Petraeus.

At the time, the Obama administration was leading a historic crackdown on government officials who discussed national security matters with reporters, even when that information was never disclosed publicly. But Mr. Petraeus was a four-star general, a White House adviser and the most celebrated military leader of his generation. F.B.I. officials were concerned that he would receive preferential treatment.

The F.B.I. ultimately concluded that Mr. Petraeus should face felony charges and a possible prison sentence. Not only had he provided highly classified information to his biographer — including notes about war strategy and the identity of covert officials — but he also lied to agents about it. James B. Comey, the F.B.I director, made the case to the attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., that Mr. Petraeus deserved to face strenuous charges.

But the Justice Department overruled the F.B.I., and earlier this year the department allowed Mr. Petraeus to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. He was spared jail time and remained an informal White House adviser.

Although current and former senior officials at the Justice Department who were involved in the case said the decision was not influenced by the White House, F.B.I. agents came to view Mr. Obama’s remarks about Mr. Petraeus as a harbinger of the ultimate outcome.

TH REST
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/17/u...ton-emails-collide-with-fbi-inquiry.html?_r=0
 
Not a big deal IMO. If the FBI does find something, they simply come out with their findings.

Let the DOJ make the call on whether or not to bring charges. If it is something that incriminates Hillary it just makes the DOJ look incompetent and credibility is lost. Or, they could bring charges and the POTUS gives her a pardon ala Scooter Libby. If a pardon happens she would never be POTUS.
 
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Obama is right. This thing is way overblown. If they find that Hillary was grossly negligent in handling these documents, charge her. But until you do, all you have is an accusation that half of Washington is guilty of.
 
Obama is right. This thing is way overblown. If they find that Hillary was grossly negligent in handling these documents, charge her. But until you do, all you have is an accusation that half of Washington is guilty of.

Half of Washington is guilty of setting up their own servers to operate their email on and handle classified information?
 
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The longer this goes on the better hopefully it all comes tumbling down after it's too late for someone else to run for office.

From what the experts say, the Clinton sever was well known on the dark web, and EVERYONE was hacking it. Not just the Russians and the Chinese, but criminals. It was considered a joke.
 
Obama is right. This thing is way overblown. If they find that Hillary was grossly negligent in handling these documents, charge her. But until you do, all you have is an accusation that half of Washington is guilty of.
The FBI always gets involved in "way overblown" things
 
Brian Williams of MSNBC is reporting that he witnessed
in the Oval Office, President Obama paying off the FBI
Director to find Hillary innocent of any felony.
 
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Obama is right. This thing is way overblown. If they find that Hillary was grossly negligent in handling these documents, charge her. But until you do, all you have is an accusation that half of Washington is guilty of.
So typical Huey, Who the hell knows whether he is right or not. The FBI is still investigating. BHO should have said( like they have on other investigations) I cannot comment on an on going investigation. As per his usual, however, he prejudged and steps on his dick. For some one who is supposed to a constitutional expert, he does that a lot.
 
Obama is right. This thing is way overblown. If they find that Hillary was grossly negligent in handling these documents, charge her. But until you do, all you have is an accusation that half of Washington is guilty of.
It doesn't take away from the fact that Hilary is not who we want as President. She's no different than a Bush.
 
Obama is right. This thing is way overblown. If they find that Hillary was grossly negligent in handling these documents, charge her. But until you do, all you have is an accusation that half of Washington is guilty of.
You do understand that having the server at all is negligence?
 
Not a big deal IMO. If the FBI does find something, they simply come out with their findings.

Let the DOJ make the call on whether or not to bring charges. If it is something that incriminates Hillary it just makes the DOJ look incompetent and credibility is lost. Or, they could bring charges and the POTUS gives her a pardon ala Scooter Libby. If a pardon happens she would never be POTUS.
Dubya didn't pardon Libby. He should have, but he didn't.

And if you don't think it intimidates the FBI to have their boss go on national TV and tell people what the FBI found, you are a tad bit naive.
 
Bush, Jindal, and Walker used private emails. Jeb even had his own personal server. And Colin Powell openly admits that he not only used a private account, but lost all the emails while he was SOS. Sorry the right can't admit that using private emails was common-place, but it was. Seems all the right has these days is over blown scandals. Not surprising considering that they are utterly incapable of governing as we've seen with their Speaker of the House spectacle. When your party is full of clowns, you don't have much choice but to invent scandals to divert attention away from your actual party failings.
 
You do understand that having the server at all is negligence?
It's a push to consider it negligence. That has yet to be established. And to show that it's gross negligence, which the Espionage Act requires, is even harder. It's highly unlikely Hillary will be found guilty of anything here.
 
As for arguing that the FBI investigating is proof of her guilt, get over yourselves. The FBI has rarely shown itself an entity of restraint or even being above being used as an arm for politics. McCarthyism in the 1950's showed this well. Many of those investigations were bogus and politically motivated.

Just admit it cons, you guys got nothing.
 
It's a push to consider it negligence. That has yet to be established. And to show that it's gross negligence, which the Espionage Act requires, is even harder. It's highly unlikely Hillary will be found guilty of anything here.
BS, I worked with stuff like this, and it is most definitely negligence, due to the fact that she had TS level information sent to her server. That has been proven, but of course because she is Hilary she's getting the pass. If I had done something like this, regardless of having a TS or not, I would be up for court martial for sure, no questions asked. As a matter of fact it was said to be SCI, which could be even more sensitive in nature.

Of course she won't be found guilty, btw, she's one of the boys. The fact that a TS level document, message, or email was on her server is all the call for negligence hat you need. She purposely ignored the importance of it, and let it go, despite her knowing that she is liable for OPSEC. At the very least, it was careless, which is another word for negligence.
 
As for arguing that the FBI investigating is proof of her guilt, get over yourselves. The FBI has rarely shown itself an entity of restraint or even being above being used as an arm for politics. McCarthyism in the 1950's showed this well. Many of those investigations were bogus and politically motivated.

Just admit it cons, you guys got nothing.
Not just the cons are interested in this Huey, the world is in fact more than just red vs blue. Maybe you need to wake up and realize that someday. It's the very reason why nothing ever gets done.

And also, the Cons own everything, so they are something don't you think?
 
It's a push to consider it negligence. That has yet to be established. And to show that it's gross negligence, which the Espionage Act requires, is even harder. It's highly unlikely Hillary will be found guilty of anything here.
You seem to me making excuses for her.
 
Bush, Jindal, and Walker used private emails. Jeb even had his own personal server. And Colin Powell openly admits that he not only used a private account, but lost all the emails while he was SOS. Sorry the right can't admit that using private emails was common-place, but it was. Seems all the right has these days is over blown scandals. Not surprising considering that they are utterly incapable of governing as we've seen with their Speaker of the House spectacle. When your party is full of clowns, you don't have much choice but to invent scandals to divert attention away from your actual party failings.
Yeah, Bush, Jindal and Walker were lousy Secretaries of State, too.

What a piece of work.
 
BS, I worked with stuff like this, and it is most definitely negligence, due to the fact that she had TS level information sent to her server. That has been proven, but of course because she is Hilary she's getting the pass. If I had done something like this, regardless of having a TS or not, I would be up for court martial for sure, no questions asked. As a matter of fact it was said to be SCI, which could be even more sensitive in nature.

Of course she won't be found guilty, btw, she's one of the boys. The fact that a TS level document, message, or email was on her server is all the call for negligence hat you need. She purposely ignored the importance of it, and let it go, despite her knowing that she is liable for OPSEC. At the very least, it was careless, which is another word for negligence.
Your comment about being one of the boys is the key here, when it comes to criminal prosecution. When Sandy Burglar didn't go to jail, you knew that all the rules are different for the in crowd.
 
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Not a big deal IMO. If the FBI does find something, they simply come out with their findings.

Let the DOJ make the call on whether or not to bring charges. If it is something that incriminates Hillary it just makes the DOJ look incompetent and credibility is lost. Or, they could bring charges and the POTUS gives her a pardon ala Scooter Libby. If a pardon happens she would never be POTUS.
NM
 
like all scandals, these people have us looking at one distraction, when we should be looking at another. watch the left hand, while the right hand steals from you.
 
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