Judicial Watch - New Clinton Email Smoking Guns!

(Weekly Update: Live with Tom Fitton)

More Smoking Gun Classified Clinton Emails
Recent President Trump Flights Cost $3,199,188.30
Bribed Official Dupes Millions from VA Facility 
 

More Smoking Gun Classified Clinton Emails

One of the myths perpetrated by Hillary Clinton and her lieutenants is that she was mostly helpless when it came to using email and that she knew nothing about keeping it secure. It has been repeated so often that it has been accepted as true, even though it defies common sense.

Now there is even more evidence to debunk this myth.

This week we released 78 pages of new documents from the U.S. Department of State containing emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent and received over her unsecure, non-“state.gov” email system. Three of the email exchanges include classified information. The emails also reveal that Clinton had detailed knowledge about the security issues with in her non-State Department email system.

On March 8, 2011, Hillary Clinton sent classified information regarding Bahrain to Justin Cooper, who reportedly had no security clearance, with instructions to show it to Bill Clinton. Cooper was the Bill Clinton aide, who asked State Department IT specialist Bryan Pagliano to build a server for Mrs. Clinton in early 2009 as she started her new job as Secretary of State.

On August 24, 2010, Clinton emailed Cooper additional classified information to print, including the secretary's call sheet for Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

In a February 13, 2010, email exchange, Hillary Clinton passed along classified information to Cooper, which originally was sent to Cheryl Mills (Clinton’s then-chief of staff) by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual. The classified information included a note from Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa to Hillary Clinton. In the email to Cooper, Clinton asks him to “look for Espinosa’s note and respond.”

The documents are part of the accelerated schedule of production ordered by U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg, which requires the State Department to complete processing by September 28, 2018 the remaining documents of the 72,000 pages recovered by the FBI in its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illicit email server. These new classified and other emails appear to be among those that Clinton had attempted to delete or had otherwise failed to disclose.

Judge Boasberg’s November 30, 2017, order came in a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on May 6, 2015, (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00687)) seeking:

All emails sent or received by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in her official capacity as Secretary of State, as well as all emails by other State Department employees to Secretary Clinton regarding her non-“state.gov” email address.

The newly released documents also reveal Hillary Clinton’s knowledge of system vulnerabilities; Cooper giving computer security advice; and foreign policy advice from Sidney Blumenthal, who was rejected by the Obama administration for a position at the State Department:

• The emails reveal that Hillary Clinton was warned about “overseas” and other security issues concerning her emails and her personal BlackBerrys. An email from Cooper to Clinton on June 6, 2011 states:

All of your older messages will remain on the server. There is a way for me to move everything on to the new device, but the security whizzes have convinced me that this is a horrible thing to do because you also transfer any viruses, spyware and junk overseas providers hide on there. We also have some new security features and polices [sic] that I would like to add to any new berry you have -- the most noticeable difference will require a more complex password. It is a constant fight to keep up with the security measures and unfortunately we keep seeing reminders of why we need to.

Clinton was the subject of a grand jury investigation into her BlackBerry email accounts. In June 2017, Judicial Watch submitted evidence to the court that Clinton knowingly used an unsecure BlackBerry device despite being warned by “security hawks” against doing so.

The emails also reveal that despite Clinton’s claims that she “really didn’t stop to think about what kind of email system there would be,” she was deeply involved in a wide variety of issues involving her server and her use of the non-secure email system. Discussions include:
 

A March 8, 2012, email exchange among Cooper, Pagliano and Clinton about the server and email.

A September 29, 2009, email exchange between Cooper and Clinton discusses the backup of emails.

An August 31, 2011, email between Cooper and Hillary Clinton discusses the setting up of Clinton’s iPad.

• In an email on February 12, 2010,  Sidney Blumenthal writes Clinton a memo passing along a speech on Saudi Arabia by Chas Freeman, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, urging closer U.S. ties with the Saudi Kingdom. Blumenthal also reportedly worked for the Clinton Foundation.

Last year, the FBI uncovered 72,000 pages of documents Clinton attempted to delete or did not otherwise disclose. Until the court intervened and established a new deadline, the State Department had been slow-walking the release of those documents at a rate that would have required Judicial Watch and the American people to wait until at least 2020 to see all the releasable Clinton material.

Remember that prior to the FBI investigation Clinton repeatedly stated that the 55,000 pages of documents she turned over to the State Department in December 2014 included all of her work-related emails. In response to a court order in another Judicial Watch case, she declared under penalty of perjury that she had “directed that all my emails on clintonemail.com in my custody that were or are potentially federal records be provided to the Department of State, and on information and belief, this has been done.”

In a related case involving emails found on the laptop of disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner, who is the husband of former Clinton aide Huma Abedin, we discovered that Clinton failed to turn over 67 additional emails, bringing the total to at least 694 emails that Hillary Clinton failed to turn over and further contradicting a statement that, “as far as she knew,” all of her government emails had been turned over to the State Department.

Can we now also dismiss the myth that Clinton “cooperated” with the email investigations?

The fact that Hillary Clinton and her agents tried to destroy or hide emails shows how she flagrantly and knowingly violated the laws that protect classified information and government records. And these new emails refute Hillary Clinton’s repeated claims of having little or no knowledge about her email system. She clearly was fully in charge of setting up her outlaw email system and overseeing its use. When will the Justice Department act?

Or, to put it more bluntly, when will Hillary Clinton be arrested?
  Recent President Trump Flights Cost $3,199,188.30

Last year Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of General Electric, was criticized when it was reported that his flights on the corporate jet included a second jet should trouble occur with the first.

The issue of executive travel is a real one. Judicial Watch tracks our presidents’ use of Air Force One because, while it’s obviously necessary for efficiency and safety, it’s also easily abused.  We began tracking these costs during the Obama administration and have continued our watchdog work with the Trump presidency.

We recently obtained travel records from the Air Force in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for costs related to President Donald Trump and his family. The total for President Trump’s travels in these records is $3,199,188.30. Added to JW’s previously released costs, the known travel costs for President Trump’s political and leisure travel is now $13,533,937.28.

• President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump flew to his Bedminster golf club on June 30 and returned July 3. Flight time was 2.8 hours at $15,994 per hour for a total of $44,783.30.
• President Trump and Melania Trump flew various trips between Bedminster and New York for a vacation on August 4 through August 21. Flight time was 5.9 hours at $15,994 per hour for a total of $94,364.60.
• President Trump flew to Yuma, AZ, to meet with Marines and then attended a campaign rally in Phoenix on August 22. He flew 10.6 hours at $142,380 per hour for a total of $1,509,228.
• President Trump flew to Springfield, MO, on Aug. 30 to appear at a rally as a kickoff for tax reform at the Loren Cook Company. He flew 3.8 hours at $142,380 for a total of $541,044.
• President Trump flew to Huntsville, AL, on September 22 to campaign for Sen. Luther Strange. He then spent the weekend at Bedminster, returning to the White House on September 24. He flew 6.8 hours at $142,380 per hour for a total of $968,184.
• President Trump flew to Bedminster on September 29 through October 1. Flight time was 2.6 hours at $15,994 per hour for a total of $41,584.40. 

The president is accountable to the taxpayers – he spends our hard-earned dollars, and that’s why we keep track. Trump’s regular trips to his homes are adding up to a hefty sum.

The Secret Service has not yet provided us documents on its travel expenses that we requested through FOIA for these trips.

As I mentioned, we also monitored travel for President Obama’s family and found a total of $114,691,322.17 in expenses to date, which includes annual Christmas family vacations in Hawaii; Michelle’s annual ski trips to Aspen; President Obama’s annual golf trip to Palm Springs, and various fundraising trips around the country, including California and New York.

Back then, the liberal media had little interest in our work. You can imagine fanatic interest by this same media in our investigations into President Trump’s travel. Unlike the liberal media, your Judicial Watch holds politicians accountable regardless of party and ideology.

 

Bribed Official Dupes Millions from VA Facility

You will recall that we successfully represented 75-year-old veteran Robert Rosebrock who was found not guilty of violating federal law for displaying two four-by-six inch American Flags above a Veterans Affairs (VA) fence on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reports on the latest developments at that troubled VA facility.

An official at the same Los Angeles Veterans Administration facility where an Army vet got prosecuted for posting American Flags took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a vendor that defrauded the VA out of millions. While the feds went on a witch hunt against the 75-year-old vet for affixing Old Glory at a site honoring those who served their country, the VA director was committing the real crime. This month the corrupt VA official, Ralph Tillman, agreed to plead guilty to two felony offenses for taking over a quarter of a million dollars in bribes from a parking lot operator at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in southern California.

The crooked parking lot operator, Richard Scott, owns a company called Westside Services that has long benefitted from a lucrative contract with the VA. Scott paid Tillman to conceal a scheme in which he failed to pay the VA more than $11 million generated by his operation of the parking facilities, according to the feds. Tillman admitted to federal authorities that he knew the parking lot operator was defrauding the VA out of millions of dollars and that he extended Westside Services’ contract in 2011 to continue the fraud and bribery scheme. Scott personally delivered monthly cash payments to Tillman in sealed FedEx envelopes, according to a statement issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that says “Tillman specifically admitted that he took $286,250 from Scott from 2003 through last year.” The disgraced VA official faces up to eight years in prison.

For nearly a decade a group called the Old Veterans Guard has filed complaints against rampant corruption at the Los Angeles VA, specifically naming Tillman for abusing and misappropriating VA property. The 338-acre parcel in West Los Angeles, which includes the National Veterans Park and Veterans Home, was deeded to the federal government in 1888 for the specific purpose of caring for disabled veterans. Instead, the property is also used for many unrelated causes. Among them is a stadium for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) baseball team, an athletic complex for a nearby private high school, laundry facilities for a local hotel, storage and maintenance of production sets for 20th Century Fox Television, the Brentwood Theatre, soccer practice and match fields for a private girls’ soccer club, a dog park, and a farmer’s market.

Members of the Old Veterans Guard say federal authorities retaliated against them for denouncing the fraudulent use of the facility—including Tillman’s scam—by sending VA police to harass and intimidate them at weekly rallies. Since 2008 the group has assembled at the “Great Lawn Gate” that marks the entrance to the Los Angeles National Veterans Park to protest the VA’s failure to make full use of the property to benefit veterans, particularly those who are homeless.

Among the group leaders is Robert Rosebrock, an elderly Army vet who got criminally charged for posting a pair of four-by-six-inch American Flags on the outside fence on Memorial Day in 2016. Judicial Watch represented Rosebrock in the federal case, which was tried in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Last April, the court ruled that Rosebrock was not guilty of violating federal law for displaying the flags above the VA fence. Rosebrock’s absurd case was filed during the Obama administration, but the Trump administration moved forward with it.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated about our efforts to hold the VA accountable to the veterans it is supposed to serve and the taxpayers who fund its mission.

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