State Dept. to Hillary lawyer: Destroy classified Benghazi email 'Evident contempt and obstruction of justice by Clinton and Obama administration'

State Dept. to Hillary lawyer: Destroy classified Benghazi email

'Evident contempt and obstruction of justice by Clinton and Obama administration'

Garth Kant

http://www.wnd.com/2015/09/state-dept-to-hillary-lawyer-destroy-classified-benghazi-email/ 

WASHINGTON – Another jolting disclosure in the Hillary Clinton email scandal: The State Department asked her lawyer to destroy all electronic copies of an email with classified information on the Benghazi terrorist attack.

Clinton attorney David Kendall refused the request from Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy, citing requests by Congress and other investigators to preserve her records, but he suggested the email might be deleted at some point.

This latest revelation was uncovered by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch as part of its lawsuit asking a federal court to protect any emails Clinton has not yet provided, including the ones she and her staff declared were personal.

On Monday, as WND reported, Judicial Watch learned there are gaps totaling five months in the emails sent and received by Clinton on her private server, beginning when she took office as secretary of state in 2009.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said the gaps indicate Clinton lied under oath when she said all her emails had been turned over.

In response to a court order prompted by a Judicial Watch lawsuit, Clinton declared in August, under penalty of perjury, “I have directed that all of my emails on clintonemail.com in my custody that were or potentially were federal records be provided to the Department of State.”

“Judicial Watch exposed a cover-up with criminal implications. Why on Earth would John Kerry’s State Department tell Mrs. Clinton to delete classified Benghazi records before finding out where and how this material had been disclosed?” asked Fitton.

He added: “That the State Department asked Clinton’s lawyer to destroy federal records shows a level of disdain for the rule of law that goes beyond the pale. These letters should have been disclosed to more than one federal judge. The evident contempt and obstruction of justice by both Mrs. Clinton and the Obama administration will be brought to the attention the courts.”

Fitton’s group announced Thursday it had also obtained documents showing Clinton has ignored an order to provide electronic copies of the 55,000 pages of emails she previously provided only on paper.

A July 2 letter on from the chief records officer at National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, Paul M. Wester Jr., to Margaret P. Grafeld, deputy assistant secretary for global information services at the State Department, shows the records were not turned over, as the department made a second request:

I would like to reiterate our request that the Department contact the representatives of former Secretary Clinton to secure the native electronic versions with associated metadata of the approximately 55,000 hard copy pages of emails.

Judicial Watch reported the State Department apparently didn’t ask again, as a letter Sept. 16 showed it tried to obtain the records from the FBI, which had obtained electronic copies of the 55,000 Clinton emails.

The FBI is investigating Clinton’s use of her private email server for government business and is trying to retrieve 30,000 emails she deleted after her own staff deemed them personal correspondence. Judicial Watch is also trying to obtain the emails.

Also revealed Thursday, the watchdog group said a May 22 letter from Kennedy to Kendall showed the State Department knew Clinton had classified material in her emails two months before the public learned of it July 23, when the intelligence community’s inspector general informed Congress.

That letter reads in part:

I am writing in reference to the following e-mail that is among the approximately 55,000 pages that were identified as potential federal records and produced on behalf of former Secretary Clinton to the Depa1tment of State on December 5, 2014: E-mail forwarded by Jacob Sullivan to Secretary Clinton on November 18, 2012 at 8:44 pm (Subject: Fw: FYI- Report of arrests -possible Benghazi connection).

Please be advised that today the above referenced e-mail, which previously was unclassified, has been classified as “Secret” pursuant to Section 1.7(d) of Executive Order 13526 in connection with a review and release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In order to safeguard and protect the classified information, I ask – consistent with my letter to you dated March 23 2015 – that you, Secretary Clinton and others assisting her in responding to congressional and related inquiries coordinate in taking the steps set forth below. A copy of the document as redacted under the FOIA is attached to assist you in your search.

Once you have made the electronic copy of the documents for the Department, please locate any electronic copies of the above-referenced classified document in your possession. If you locate any electronic copies, please delete them. Additionally, once you have done that, please empty your “Deleted Items” folder.

Several weeks later, on June 15, Kendall replied that would not be prudent:

This will also confirm that, pursuant to your request, we have deleted all electronic copies of this document, with the following exception. I have received document preservation requests pertaining to the 55,000 pages of e-mails from the House of Representatives Select Committee on Benghazi, the Inspector General of the State Department, and the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (DNI). I have responded to each preservation request by confirming to the requestor that I would take reasonable steps to preserve these 55,000 pages of former Secretary Clinton’s e-mails in their present electronic form. I therefore do not believe it would be prudent to delete, as you request, the above-referenced e-mail from the master copies or the PST file that we are preserving.

But Kendall also suggested the information might still be deleted at some point:

Once the document preservation requests referenced above expire, we will proceed to make the requested deletions. This present arrangement would cover the single document recently classified “Secret”. Should there be further reclassifications during the Department’s FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] review of former Secretary Clinton’s e-mails, it also would cover any such additional documents.

Kendall is a longtime Clinton confidant who represented President Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Benghazi

Thomas R. Pickering was the chairman of the review board that investigated the 2012 attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya in 2013, a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), an undersecretary for the U.S. Department of State, and is a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Note: Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund.

George Soros was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and a co-chair, national finance council for the Ready PAC (Ready For Hillary).
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

John Brademas was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Giulio Tremonti is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a fellow at Oxford University.

Walter Isaacson is the president & CEO of the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

James M. Manyika is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was a research fellow at Oxford University.

E.J. Dionne is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Teresa Heinz Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and married to John F. Kerry.

John F. Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, and the secretary at the U.S. Department of State for the Barack Obama administration.

Michael S. Barr is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), was an assistant Treasury secretary for the Barack Obama administration, a special adviser to the president for the William J. Clinton administration, a special adviser for the U.S. Department of State, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Richard N. Haass was a VP for the Brookings Institution (think tank), a director of policy planning for the U.S. Department of State, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Jane Nelson was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Strobe Talbott is the president of the Brookings Institution (think tank), was a deputy secretary for the U.S. Department of State, William J. Clinton’s roommate at Oxford University, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Nicholas deB. Katzenbach was a director emeritus at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, an undersecretary for the U.S. Department of State, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

David E. Kendall is a director at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, William J. Clinton & Hillary Rodham Clinton’s attorney, a trustee at the Sidwell Friends School, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Chelsea V. Clinton was a graduate of the Sidwell Friends School, and is the vice chair for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

William J. Clinton is the founder of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, Strobe Talbott’s roommate at Oxford University, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Hillary Rodham Clinton was a director at the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the secretary at the U.S. Department of State for the Barack Obama administration, Ronan Farrow was her special adviser for global youth issues, and Jake Sullivan was her deputy chief of staff.

Ira C. Magaziner is the CEO & vice chairman, Clinton Health Access Initiative for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the CEO & vice chairman for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, was a senior assistant to the president for the William J. Clinton administration, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Ronan Farrow was Hillary Rodham Clinton’s special adviser for global youth issues, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.

Jake Sullivan was Hillary Rodham Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, a policy planning director for the U.S. Department of State, an Oxford University Rhodes scholar, and is a senior policy adviser for the 2016 Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign.

Patrick F. Kennedy is the undersecretary management for the U.S. Department of State.

John F. Kerry is the secretary at the U.S. Department of State for the Barack Obama administration, married to Teresa Heinz Kerry, and a friend of David H. Thorne.

David H. Thorne is a friend of John F. Kerry, was a U.S. ambassador for Italy.

Giulio Tremonti was the minister of economy & finance for Italy, is a fellow at Oxford University, and a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).

Madeleine K. Albright is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), an advisory board member for the Annenberg-Dreier Commission at Sunnylands, and was the secretary at the U.S. Department of State for the William J. Clinton administration.

Thomas R. Pickering was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), the chairman of the review board that investigated the 2012 attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya in 2013, an undersecretary for the U.S. Department of State, is an advisory board member for the Annenberg-Dreier Commission at Sunnylands, and a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank).

Jared Cohen is an advisory board member for the Annenberg-Dreier Commission at Sunnylands, was a policy planning staffer for the U.S. Department of State, and an Oxford University Rhodes scholar.