Legal group poised to quiz Clinton aides about email server

[karynnj]

49. He isn't .... the issues are FOIA, transparency and open government

All things that are and were advocated by many Democrats, including powerful people in office and people on message boards.

Not all the 38 suits were filed by Klayman. From what we already know, no FOIA request that SHOULD HAVE RESULTED with Clinton email can be assumed to have been done correctly and there is real reason to question them. This means that for 6 years - 2009 - 2014 - we know that the SD did not even have 100% of her email. We know that for much of 2014, the State Department - at the highest levels - was negotiating with Clinton to get them back.

This is a mess of Clintons making. She knew the following when she left without leaving the messages:

1) There were already dozens of FOIA requests that should have those emails
2) She knew that, given that she intended to run for President, that there would be an intense effort to get the emails.


What she gambled on was:
1) Any emails she wrote would have the email address redacted other than that it was not a government id. This would not necessarily raise red flags as THAT is equivalent to what could happen even when officials normally use their state.gov account.
2) The State Department would cover for her for 4 years rather than risk being blamed with hurting the current Democratic administration and the leading Presidential nominee. They didn't once it became clear that she had not archived her email.

What is clear is how badly Clinton's lack of judgment hurt her. In 2013, it was very clear in all SD answers to Congress on the Clinton stuff, that they wanted that issue finished so they could deal with real SD concerns. If everything had been there - especially if everything was archived in real time - the SD could have done the FOIAs and Congressional inquiries and it would have been over years ago. (Note - it was learning that she had a private server that led to ALL the emails having to go thru the FOIA process (to redact anything that should be) to be put on line. It also meant that it was nearly 10 months between when State first asked Clinton for the email and they received them ... on paper.

In retrospect, consider the chutzpah that HRC after deciding to use her own server - with NONE OF THE CONSTRAINTS OF THE SD ONE - did not have separate accounts for personal and private email. (As she was not on the State Department system, this could have been done with one blackberry.) Failing to do that, she could have separated them into two "folders". Next issue, why did she not have a real time (or monthly or even yearly) process to identify SD emails and send them to the SD archives. Failing that, why did she not split the emails after she left office in case they were needed.

At the point when the SD demanded the emails, it would have been in her interest to IMMEDIATELY have given an electronic version of everything on that server to the SD so they could quickly respond to all these requests. FOIA requests are for SPECIFIC things - and frankly no one making them was looking to know more about Chelsea's wedding. AFTER giving them to State, she could have had an aide work with the SD cull out the private messages.

Had she done this, the State Department could have handled the FOIA and Congressional inquiries starting in spring 2013, not mid 2014 ... and it might never have come out that she had a server at her home.

While I hate JW, I thing Hillary Clinton is 100% responsible for the place she is in now. Not to mention, if there were no JW suit - we would likely be hearing of one of the others -- from very legitimate media sources.