When first asked about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server, President Barack Obama said he didn’t learn of it until the media began reporting on it.
Among the hundreds of new emails recently released by WikiLeaks as part of its Podesta Emails dossier, there is one that suggests that wasn’t at all accurate. In fact, it might have been a bold-faced lie.
The March 2, 2015, email chain began when Josh Schwerin, now a national spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, wrote to White House Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri—who now serves in the same capacity for the Clinton camp—to alert her to a question he was getting from BuzzFeed Political Editor Katherine Miller. He wrote:
Jen you probably have more on this but it looks like POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it in the news.
Panic immediately ensues. Clinton’s press secretary, Nick Merrill, forwarded the email to the Clinton “inner circle” of Philippe Reines, Heather Samuelson, and Cheryl Mills. Mills then forwards it to campaign chairman John Podesta with the following comment:
we need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do not say state.gov
The conservative elements of the media immediately pounced on the news, including FOX News Channel’s Bret Baier, who grilled Clinton’s running mate, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), about the matter on Tuesday after playing the clip in which Obama told CBS News he learned of the private server from the media reports:
BAIER: At the same time, Senator, he was using a pseudonym and an email address to communicate with Secretary Clinton. And there’s communication and there are emails from staff that suggest they wanted to hold that back and were talking about what to do.
Did the president lie there?
KAINE: Well, I don’t know because—I actually do not know if he’s communicating by email with Hillary, does he know that it’s a private server? I mean, I don’t exactly know if I send somebody an email exactly what their setup is. I don’t really think about that much, and I can’t imagine that the president, with all that’s on his mind would either.
I do know is this, that there was an extensive, as you know, Bret, investigation by the FBI under the direction of a wonderful and tough career public servant, Jim Comey. Jim was in the U.S. attorney’s office in the eastern district of Virginia when I was the mayor of Richmond. And he’s somebody with the highest standards of integrity.
And he reached a conclusion after a very long investigation that no reasonable prosecutor would take this to the next step. I think that still has not been effectively challenged. I know there are people who would like to re-litigate that, but given the depth of that investigation and his own credibility, I think his conclusion, you know, probably gets it right.
The “he might not have known what her email address was” excuse is plausible. However, if it also is a lie meant to cover up what the president knew, it could be an impeachable offense.
Knowingly transmitting highly sensitive information—even classified material—to an unsecured server would be a gross violation of the Espionage Act, and would definitely constitute a “high crime.” Although Obama is just weeks away from leaving office, the impeachment process could still be used to bar him from future government office—such as a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump weighed in Wednesday morning with a blistering critique and a call for an investigation. He also issued the following statement to the media:
Real change begins with ridding Washington of corruption. The whole system is rigged. A breaking news story today provides one of the most shocking revelations to date.
As you may remember, President Obama claimed to have no knowledge whatsoever of Clinton’s illegal email server that jeopardized national security.
But newly-public emails prove otherwise. A Clinton spokesman, Josh Schwerin, sent an email saying that, “Looks like the President just said he found out Hillary Clinton was using her personal email when he saw it in the news.” Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s Chief of Staff at the State Department, replied that: “We need to clean this up – he has emails from her – they do NOT say State.Gov.”
In other words, Mills was saying Obama had to know Hillary was using an illegal server, but claimed otherwise in public. He is caught up in the big lie. We have to investigate the investigation.
The FBI obtained Mills’ laptop computer only after agreeing to a limited immunity deal. That deal protects Clinton’s former chief of staff—who now acts as one of her personal attorneys—from prosecution over the 2015 email conversation outlined above.
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