It's time to update the Hillary Lie Scoreboard, which is becoming a Herculean task. We've spelled out half-a-dozen verifiable lies already; the latest batch of emails released by the State Department -- which, I'll remind you, does not include any of the 30,000 "personal" emails Hillary's team unilaterally and permanently attempted to destroy -- contain yet more data points that disprove a series of additional untruths:
(1) Contrary to her prior insistence, Hillary personally sent classified material through her unsecure private server. The Washington Post reports:
While she was secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote and sent at least six e-mails using her private server that contained what government officials now say is classified information, according to thousands of e-mails released by the State Department. Although government officials deemed the e-mails classified after Clinton left office, they could complicate her efforts to move beyond the political fallout from the controversy. They suggest that her role in distributing sensitive material via her private e-mail system went beyond receiving notes written by others, and appears to contradict earlier public statements in which she denied sending or receiving e-mails containing classified information. The classified e-mails, contained in thousands of pages of electronic correspondence that the State Department has released, stood out because of the heavy markings blocking out sentences and, in some cases, entire messages. The State Department officials who redacted the material cited national security as the reason for blocking it from public view.
The "marked classified" and "retroactively classified" excuses don't hold water, for reasons elucidated by numerous national security and legal experts. The information in question was "born classified," so to speak, and officials with security clearances are heavily briefed on ensuring that sensitive material be identified and treated appropriately. The nature of the contents of more than 125 additional emails now deemed to be classified were by definition classified from the very beginning. This revelation also blows up the contention that Mrs. Clinton was merely a "passive recipient" of classified materials. These six emails (so far) were initiated and sent by her to others. Furthermore, multiple intelligence community sources tell the Washington Times that Hillary's "home brew" server contained highly sensitive information pertaining to North Korea's nuclear weapons, gathered by US spy satellites -- obviously and plainly sensitive information that was required by law to be disseminated only through proper channels. Also, Team Clinton's contention that inter-agency disputes over classification standards make this whole business impossibly complex and confusing is also bunk. An executive order from President Obama made clear that classification decisions are to be made by the agency from which the information originates.
(2) Hillary also solicited classified material, and specifically asked that it be sent to her private, unsecure email server. Via Mediaite and Rory Cooper:
Clinton told Middle East envoy to send classified details from Italy's Foreign Minister to "my personal email." pic.twitter.com/4sPs7DsWjX
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) September 1, 2015In a separate exchange, Clinton demanded that a staffer email her information that was marked classified at the time, snapping at him after he expressed concerns about following the rules. "Just email it," she wrote.
(3) Emails from off-the-books confidante Sid Blumenthal were not "unsolicited," as claimed. Jonah Goldberg noticed the relevant news buried in a New York Times story:[Clinton] said the e-mails from Blumenthal were “unsolicited” missives from an “old friend.” This, of course, was a lie. The New York Times’s Peter Baker has a long piece on how Blumenthal was pretty obviously one of her closest foreign-policy advisers, as well as an “informer on domestic politics, keeping her up-to-date on the latest machinations in the White House and the campaign trail, even offering suggestions for midterm election strategy.” … Clinton “welcomed his input outside the normal chain of command,” told him “to keep ‘em coming” and “nudged” him to follow through on at least one promised memo. I’m no lawyer, but that sounds awfully “solicited” to me.
Another one bites the dust. Remember, the dodgy Mr. Blumenthal was on the Clinton Foundation's payroll at the time, having been explicitly banned from working at the State Department by the White House. It was the penetration of his private emails by hackers that provided evidence that Hillary Clinton had not, in fact, turned over every work-related message to the State Department -- a claim she continues to make to this day. Hillary Clinton's favorability rating has taken another blow, this time in the Democrat-friendly Washington Post/ABC News survey series. At 53 percent unfavorable, Hillary has sunk to her weakest position in seven years. I'll leave you with MSNBC's morning show panel ripping her dishonesty, shifting explanations and tortured parsing:
One more, for good measure. Simple question, no answer from the State Department. "I'm just not going to answer that question:"
Hillary, in March: "I fully complied with every rule that I was governed by." The State Department this week: "No comment." Experts: "Laughably," comprehensively untrue.