Despite Hillary Clinton saying that she turned over all her work-related emails to the State Department, officials over there said they just received a few leftover communications dealing with Libya, according to the New York Times. To make matters a bit more awkward, the emails relate to longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, who was part of a secret intelligence ring that was feeding Mrs. Clinton unsubstantiated information on the ground conditions in Libya. Initially, there were no indications that Mrs. Clinton even looked or read at the emails, but it was eventually established that not only did she read some of them, she forwarded a few to a State Department staffer.
Last week, Blumenthal turned over 15 emails to the House Select Committee on Benghazi in a closed-door hearing; emails that the State Department said they could not find within the 30,000 the former first lady turned over upon discovery that she utilized a secret email system during her entire tenure as Secretary of State (via NYT) [emphasis mine]:
Despite claims by Hillary Rodham Clinton that she provided the State Department with all of her work-related emails from the personal account she used exclusively when she was in office, the department has received several related to Libya that she had not handed over, according to officials at the agency.The emails that Mrs. Clinton did not give to the State Department were between her and her longtime confidant and adviser Sidney Blumenthal. He did not work for the department at the time, but was routinely sending her intelligence memos on Libya.
There are 15 emails that Mr. Blumenthal gave to the House committee looking into the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that the State Department cannot find among the emails that Mrs. Clinton handed over last year, according to a State Department official. The House committee gave those emails to the State Department this month. A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton did not return an email seeking comment.
Mrs. Clinton has said that she provided the State Department with about 30,000 emails that were related to her work as secretary of state. She said that she deleted roughly the same number of emails from the account, saying those messages “were private, personal” ones about her daughter’s wedding, her mother’s funeral, family vacations and yoga.
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The State Department then went through the emails that Mrs. Clinton had turned over, discovering that there were some that Mr. Blumenthal had given to the committee that Mrs. Clinton had not handed over.
Yeah, it’s the Clintons playing by their own rules, or at least; that’s what it looks like here. Oh, and there’s the whole secrecy bit. This could be partially responsible for her drop in her favorables in the swing states, especially when it comes to trustworthiness. Additionally, Clinton’s initial claims that she did not pass along classified information through that private server could be less than forthcoming as well. She had planned to impose a no-fly zone in Libya, possibly using sensitive information sent through that private emails system that was allegedly relabeled as unclassified by staffers to cover for Mrs. Clinton.
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