Flashback: The State Dept didn't have a permanent IG during her entire tenure as SoS

[NWCorona]

"Inspectors General uncover waste, fraud and mismanagement in federal agencies. The State Department didn’t have an official one while Hillary Clinton worked there.

One of the many unanswered questions of the Hillary Clinton e-mail story has been: Whose job was it to raise and address concerns about her exclusive use of a private account? According to open government advocates, it would have been the agency’s permanent, independent Inspector General—someone nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate—if such a person had existed.

For five years, including all of Clinton’s time as secretary, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General never had a confirmed inspector. Instead, it was lead by acting inspector Harold W. Geisel, a former ambassador who was accused of being too cozy to agency leadership by transparency groups like the Project on Government Oversight. Throughout the first half of President Obama’s first term, the absence of a State Department Inspector General while internal scandals and Benghazi rocked the department drew bipartisan criticism.

“For no one to raise concerns, it’s almost impossible to believe,” said Danielle Brian, the executive director for POGO.

“It seems like a really boring issue, but this is why it’s not,” Brian said. “These are people who … were in a position to have received tips or created a sense of there being accountability on these matters. But those vacancies scream essentially that there’s nobody whose really interested in making sure that someone is a junkyard dog in those agencies, looking for these kinds of problems.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-03-24/one-more-question-on-hillary-e-mails-where-was-the-watchdog-

Not having an IG would be critical to Hillary's off the books server.

[grasswire]

1. CNN didn't mention that in the report today.

David Gregory was on the panel. His wife represents Hillary's aides in the FBI investigation.

[NWCorona]

3. Nope! This rarely gets mentioned. Nor the other audits pertaining to Hillary's time at State

They all have been scathing to say the least.

[karynnj]

10. Did Gregory note that relationship himself - as he should have?

I remember that about the only reference to that relationship was buried in an article where the lead was that 4 Clinton aides hired the same lawyer, which essentially allows her to see what each says and could help if they are trying to stay on the same page. In the midst of the article it offhandedly mentions she was married to Gregory.

(I first saw it when it was highlighted here.

[NWCorona]

22. One tidbit that was pointed out to me by someone here

Is that Huma has retained her own attorney. That was very interesting.

[grasswire]

27. yes, he did

give him credit for at least that

[karynnj]

28. Agree - very glad he did that nt

[grasswire]

2. where was Obama's oversight

was that part of the bargain he made with her in 2008?

I do NOT want him involved. But she will drag him down if she thinks it helps her.

[NWCorona]

5. Hillary has already tried dragging him into this but my take is a bit different.

I think Obama let Hillary do herself in somewhat. He tried to get her to use Gov email then made an executive order baring private servers and she still kept on using it. The Obama's didn't get to where they are by being weak and that's why I don't think Obama will block the DOJ. Especially when his right hand man is positioned to take Hillary's delegates.

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. So all of this was Obama's way of making sure Biden gets the top of the ticket all along?

[NWCorona]

20. No I'm not saying that at all!

I'm saying that Obama, not necessarily him, tried to get her to play by the rules. Over and over again but she refused. That is disrespectful to say the least and then to add her cheating on Obama with Sid... The fact that Biden is laying in the cut is just an added bonus for the Obama's.

[panader0]

4. Didn't HRC actively resist getting an IG?

[karynnj]

17. Not sure - John Kerry answered a question on that lack near the beginning of his time as SoS

His response was that he had suggested names to the WH and they were doing the vetting and he hoped to be able to announce a nomination. By September 2013, the current IG was confirmed.

[mmonk]

6. Yes this is a problem area. Breaking Federal Records law doesn't necessitate a penalty.

However, having no inspector will probably play in the FBI's assessments.

[NWCorona]

7. Agreed!

[polly7]

8. I have a question about this.

Is it normal that any SoS has the power to block the State Dept. from having an IG?

[NWCorona]

11. I would think it would be highly unusual.

[polly7]

13. Thanks, NWCorona. It doesn't seem to be something that 'should' be acceptable or common, imo. nt.

[Skwmom]

15. Forget the IMO, it is NOT. It violates EVERYTHING an IG stands for.

[polly7]

18. Thanks, Skwmom, appreciate the clarification.

[karynnj]

19. I don't think that HRC's power was "normal" - she herself spoke of having negotiated

far more ability to select the higher level SD people.

Note that in 2015, Blinken was named as the deputy SoS -- and many accounts said that Kerry had backed Wendy Sherman, although he praised Blinken when he was named. The point being that Obama did give HRC a lot of latitude. I suspect that it may be decades, if ever, that we really understand the dynamics between Obama and the two Clintons.

[polly7]

21. Thanks, karynnj. That complicated relationship will no doubt make investigations a lot

more difficult.

[karynnj]

24. What scares me there is that - no matter what private agreement, the real power officially

was Obama's. Even if Obama ceded power to get an agreement that aligned the Clintons' interests with Obama's - to insure that he did not have to worry about them as a separate Democratic power that could have made things harder for him, it was still officially HIS power. She worked for him and to quote Truman - the buck stops with him.

[bahrbearian]

9. How Convenient. How long before "I don't recall"

[NWCorona]

43. Probably this week in a room with FBI and DOJ agents.

[felix_numinous]

12. Uh oh

Truth is much more amazing than fiction, any day.

[Skwmom]

14. This was a HUGE red flag and should NOT have been allowed.

[NWCorona]

26. There's no way it should be allowed!

Kerry had one appointed quickly!

[Demsrule86]

23. This is an old silly article.

The original one came from a media matters report back in march...so much BS.

[stevenleser]

31. Yep, see my #30. The article and those using it hope folks gloss by that important point. nt

[frylock]

38. Media Matters is Hillary Supporter's Pravda.

[AzDar]

25. Corrupt to the core...

[peace13]

29. I saw a guy on CSpan talking about this.

He said the SOS was responsible for knowing the rules and that in such a high position, not knowing the rules was not an excuse. Something about being in the top ten security positions in the the country and the lineage to the President. It is weird that the job of IG went unfilled. Sorry I don't remember the person's name. This was probably a month ago.

[frylock]

41. Hillary only managed to attend ONE of the annual compliance training sessions..

on identification and handling of classified communications during her tenure at State. Again, this was mandatory training that requires recertification on an annual basis.

[peace13]

42. Wow, did not know that.

Looks like she thought she made her own rules. No surprise there.

[stevenleser]

30. Having an "'Acting' Inspector General" means you have an Inspector General.

Once you apply that bit of obvious logic, the rest of this article is seen in context as pretty silly.

[NWCorona]

32. Not even close to being true. The after Audits prove this.

Besides Google Harold W. Geisel and see what you come up with.

[stevenleser]

33. I googled him before I responded. Here is the money quote...

"Ambassador Geisel has more than 20 years’ experience in senior management with the Department of State. He joined the Department in 1972, completing tours as management or administrative officer in Brussels, Oslo, Bern, and Bamako, and as Consul General in Durban, South Africa. From 1986 to 1993, he served as management counselor at U.S. Embassies in Rome, Bonn, and Moscow. He returned to the Department in 1993 as Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Management, where he supervised the creation of a worldwide process for allocating information technology resources."

[NWCorona]

34. Not hard enough.

"Mr. Geisel was not eligible to be the inspector general because of an explicit, congressionally mandated safeguard for IG independence that rules out "a career member of the Foreign Service" from ever being "appointed Inspector General of the Department of State.""

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324063304578520952503319368

[stevenleser]

35. Plenty "hard enough". He was acting nearly a year before this administration was sworn in.

No one in congress before or after this administration saw any serious issue.

Any kind of nonsense you bring up is negated by inconvenient facts like that.

[NWCorona]

36. I see you didn't even read the link I supplied.

[stevenleser]

40. I read it. It doesnt change the facts.

[frylock]

37. Gee, I wonder why?

[Babel_17]

39. This will all get cleared up in the next debate

Then won't all this speculation look premature.