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Benghazi Hoax Continues With Manufactured Controversy Over Emails
Last edited Tue Jun 9, 2015, 12:27 AM - Edit history (1)
http://correctrecord.org/STRATEGIC MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT: Benghazi Hoax Continues With Manufactured Controversy Over Emails
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Isaac Wright, Executive Director, Correct The Record
DATE: Tuesday, March 3, 2015
If you thought the last chapter of the Benghazi hoax was written and the book was closed, think again. The right-wing attack apparatus, including the partisan majority of Rep. Trey Gowdy’s Select Committee, has created a tempest in a teapot over Hillary Clinton’s email records as Secretary of State. The latest chapter in the Benghazi hoax is that Clinton produced her emails with transparency, but like the Secretaries of State before her, they were from a private email account. Will Congressional Republicans show an equal interest in transparency in their own party?
Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on multiple reviews and investigations looking into the tragedy in Benghazi, and nothing incriminating has been found. Ten congressional committees have participated in the investigations into the Benghazi tragedy, which have included more than 50 senior level staff briefings, over twenty hearings, five independent/bipartisan reports, dozens of interviews, and the disclosure of at least 40,000 pages of documents. Yet the only great revelation has been Clinton’s use of a private email account, publicly known for at least two years.
Gowdy and his Republican-led committee spent $1.8 million last year alone, and the great revelation those resources discovered? Hillary Clinton’s emails, which were turned over to the State Department in transparent fashion – 55,000 pages worth – came from a personal account rather than a federal account. Nothing was hidden, and thanks to millions of dollars in federal investigations, we now know concretely that Hillary Clinton, following precedent, used a personal email address just as Secretaries of State before her did. If following the standard protocols of your predecessors is itself news, then it would have been two years ago when first reported, long before the Republican political exercise over Benghazi.
Media coverage of Clinton’s email practices included accusations that Clinton may have potentially violated a recently enacted federal law pertaining to emails. In reality, this law did not even exist when Clinton was Secretary of State. In fact, the Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014 did not become law until November 26, 2014.
The publication Business Insider debunked much of the right-wing attacks over Clinton’s email in an article headlined, “Former State Department officials explain why the Clinton email ‘scandal’ is ridiculous.”
From the article: “‘The State Department has long had access to a wide array of Secretary Clinton’s records — including emails between her and Department officials with state.gov accounts,’ State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf said in an email to Business Insider.”
If this faux issue is the culmination of countless taxpayer resources and Congressional investigative efforts, perhaps this is the official notice that the Benghazi hoax is on its last legs.
In interviews, testimony and in her book, Secretary Clinton took responsibility repeatedly with regard to the tragedy in Benghazi. She was determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger, and more secure. She took action to make sure this kind of tragedy would never be repeated. Secretary Clinton appointed a nonpartisan, independent Accountability Review Board to review what happened and began the process of implementing the 29 recommendations put forth by the ARB before leaving the State Department.
Secretary Clinton has been transparent. She fully and publicly answered questions before Congress. The report of the Accountability Review Board is just the second to be made public, making it one of the most transparent internal reviews in State Department history. Most recently, Clinton turned over 55,000 pages of emails from her time as Secretary of State.
Will Republicans be equally transparent? Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking Democrat on the Select Committee has called on Gowdy to make Clinton’s emails open to the public. Will Republican members of Congress investigate prominent Republicans who may have intentionally attempted to subvert transparency at the political, federal and non-federal levels? Jeb Bush exclusively used private email – as have other public officials – but Clinton is held to a different standard and different level of scrutiny by the media.
Here are a few transparency issues that Congressional Republicans may want to review:
Jeb Bush conducted public business over private email while serving as governor of Florida. Reportedly, Bush hand selected which emails to turn over to the state archive. In 2007 and 2008, Jeb Bush said that he had received 550,000 personal emails on his private account during his terms as governor. Bush also said he received 2.5 million emails on his public account during his terms as governor, but in 2015, Jeb Bush said he would release only 250,000 of them.
Investigators discovered a secret email system within Scott Walker’s County Executive’s office, and determined it was being used to engage in campaign work on county time, and to avoid public records disclosure laws. In 2014, newly released documents demonstrated Walker received communications from the secret system.
While governor, Mitt Romney used his private email account to discuss public business – including health care reform – with aides. Romney’s chief of staff and campaign aide also used private email to communicate about state business. Furthermore, while leaving the governorship, Romney’s administration destroyed records rather than turn them over to the state archives. Romney later admitted the emails were deleted to prevent them from falling into the hands of opposition research teams.
During the Bridgegate investigation, investigators discovered that Chris Christie’s staff used personal email and cell phones to communicate about state business, a move that the ACLU called a possible attempt to circumvent public records laws. One staffer deleted 12 text messages between herself and Christie, and later claimed she couldn’t remember what they were about.
John Kasich’s gubernatorial office was found to have kept a list of staffers’ private emails labeled “DO NOT DISTRIBUTE.”
In 2007, Mike Huckabee’s administration destroyed government-owned hard drives containing his records as he left office. Much of the information destroyed was not backed up.
BACKGROUND: HILLARY CLINTON’S EMAILS AS SECRETARY OF STATE
Secretary Clinton followed State Department precedent with regard to the use of email.
John Kerry is the first Secretary of State ever to rely primarily on official state department email.
Colin Powell used his personal email account while he was Secretary of State.
Transparent
Clinton turned her emails over months ago. “Merrill’s statement also characterized the emails being turned over as a routine part of compliance as the State Department is in the ‘process of updating its record preservation policies to bring them in line with its retention responsibilities.’ ‘When the Department asked former Secretaries last year for help ensuring their emails were in fact retained, we immediately said yes,’ Merrill said. Harf, the State Department spokeswoman, indicated Clinton was not the only former secretary who was asked to turn over printed copies of her emails. ‘Last year, the Department sent a letter to representatives of former secretaries of state requesting they submit any records in their possession for proper preservation as part of our effort to continually improve our records preservation and management,’ Harf said, adding, ‘In response to our request, Secretary Clinton provided the Department with emails spanning her time at the Department.’” [Business Insider, 3/3/15]
Clinton took care to conduct government business with others only on their government email addresses, which would ensure emails were captured on government servers. “The two former officials claimed efficiency was one reason Clinton set up her own address. At the time, State Department policy would not have allowed her to have multiple email addresses on her Blackberry. Because of this, the officials said she opted to have one address for both personal and governmental communications. They two (sic) echoed Merrill’s statement and said Clinton took care to correspond with other State officials exclusively on their governmental addresses. The officials claimed this meant all of her emails and those sent to her were immediately preserved on government servers.” [Business Insider, 3/3/15]
Ex-State Department officials said Clinton was careful to utilize the email address in a manner that went above and beyond regulatory requirements. “Shortly after the Time story was published, Business Insider reached out to Clinton’s spokespeople. They put us in touch with two former State Department officials who argued Clinton was careful to utilize the address in a manner that went above and beyond regulatory requirements and ensured her communications were preserved. The former officials, who requested anonymity in order to freely discuss Clinton’s emails and State Department policy echoed the notion the former secretary’s personalized email address was not kept secret. They said she used it to communicate with over 100 department staffers, other officials, and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.” [Business Insider, 3/3/15]
Clinton turned over 55,000 pages of emails. “It was only two months ago, in response to a new State Department effort to comply with federal record-keeping practices, that Mrs. Clinton’s advisers reviewed tens of thousands of pages of her personal emails and decided which ones to turn over to the State Department. All told, 55,000 pages of emails were given to the department. Mrs. Clinton stepped down from the secretary’s post in early 2013.” [NYT, 3/2/15]
The Benghazi committee received Clinton’s Benghazi-related emails last month. “Last month the Committee received Secretary Clinton’s emails relating to Benghazi, and now that we have them, I believe Chairman Gowdy should join with me to make them available to the American public so they can read their contents for themselves.” [Elijah Cummings statement, 3/3/15]
There is precedent
No Secretary of State relied primarily on official email until John Kerry. “In a statement, State Department deputy spokesman, Marie Harf, told DailyMail.com: ‘The State Department has long had access to a wide array of Secretary Clinton’s records – including emails between her and Department officials with state.gov accounts.’ Last year, the Department sent a letter to representatives of former secretaries of state requesting they submit any records in their possession for proper preservation as part of our effort to continually improve our records preservation and management. ‘In response to our request, Secretary Clinton provided the Department with emails spanning her time at the Department. ’After the State Department reviewed those emails, last month the State Department produced about 300 emails responsive to recent requests from the Select Committee. ’The Department is in the process of updating our records preservation policies to bring them in line with recent 2013 National Archives and Records Administration guidance.’ She added Mr Kerry is the first Secretary of State to ‘rely primarily on a state.gov email account.’” [Daily Mail, 3/2/15]
Her personal email is old news
Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email was reported in 2013. “Blumenthal’s memos and e-mails to Clinton were sent to her at a non-governmental e-mail address through the web domain ‘clintonemail.com.’ As TSG reported last week, after Blumenthal’s e-mail account was compromised, the hacker searched it for e-mails sent to Clinton, and further sorted the mail to segregate any attachment–like Word files–that were included in Blumenthal’s correspondence to Clinton. Many of these pilfered documents were memos to Clinton on foreign policy and intelligence matters.” [Smoking Gun, 3/18/13]
Rules have changed since Clinton left office
The State Department “is in the process” of updating its “records preservation policies to bring them in line with the recent 2013 National Archives and Records Administration guidance.” “‘The department is in the process of updating our records preservation policies to bring them in line with recent 2013 National Archives and Records Administration guidance.’” [Washington Post, 3/2/15]
The National Archives issued two new guidance bulletins in 2013 – one in August and one in September. [NARA Bulletin 2013-03, 9/9/13; NARA Bulletin 2013-02, 8/29/13]
Reforms to Federal Record Act were made after Clinton left office. “H.R. 1233 would also make a number of reforms to the Federal Records Act to modernize federal recordkeeping statutes and additional changes to improve the federal government’s ability to capture and archive electronic records. […] Representative Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: ‘Time and again, oversight investigations have uncovered a troubling practice – officials and bureaucrats using personal email accounts to conduct official business. This bill takes an important first step to address this misuse of resources that puts sensitive data at risk and dodges transparency laws. This legislation creates a new dynamic: federal employees must disclose official business conducted on non-official accounts or they will face repercussions.’” H.R. 1233 became public law No: 113-87. [U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 11/13/14; H.R. 1233, 11/26/14]
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