BARACUTEY CUBANO

 Nota del Bloguista de Baracutey Cubano

 La expresión ¨algo huele mal en Dinamarca¨, escrita en la obra Hamlet de William Shakespeare,  es totalmente válida en este asunto de los e mails de Hillary Clinton ...

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Tomado de https://www.yahoo.com

GOP lawmaker: FBI gave immunity to top Clinton aide

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, and two other staff members were granted immunity deals in exchange for their cooperation in the now-closed FBI investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state, says a Republican congressman.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told The Associated Press on Friday that Mills gave federal investigators access to her laptop on the condition that what they found couldn't be used against her.

(FILE -In this Sept. 3, 2015, file photo, Cheryl Mills speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. A court deposition released by a conservative legal group shows that Mills, a veteran aide to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton discussed Clinton's private email server with a technical aide who helped set up and run the system. Mills said in five hours of testimony that the conversations took place after Clinton stepped down as secretary of state in 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Democrats on the committee said Friday the immunity agreements were limited in scope and did not cover statements made to investigators or to potential testimony before Congress.

Still, Chaffetz said he was "absolutely stunned" that the FBI would cut a deal with someone as close to the investigation as Mills. By including the emails recovered from the laptops in the immunity agreements, the Justice Department exempted key physical evidence from any potential criminal case against the aides.

"No wonder they couldn't prosecute a case," said Chaffetz, R-Utah. "They were handing out immunity deals like candy."

Copies of the immunity agreements were provided to the House oversight committee by the Justice Department this week under seal.

Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon accused House Republicans of "trying to make something out of nothing by rummaging through the files of a Justice Department investigation that was closed months ago without any charges whatsoever, and leaking selective details three days before the first presidential debate."

"Congressman Chaffetz continues to abuse his office by wasting taxpayer dollars to try to second-guess the FBI in what amounts to a desperate attempt to boost Donald Trump's chances against Hillary Clinton," Fallon said.

A yearlong investigation by the FBI focused on whether the Democratic presidential nominee sent or received classified information using the private server located in the basement of her New York home, which was not authorized for such messages.

FBI Director James Comey said in July that his agents hadn't found evidence to support any criminal charge or direct evidence that Clinton's private server had been hacked. He suggested that hackers working for a foreign government may have been so sophisticated they wouldn't have left behind any evidence of a break-in.

Chaffetz said in addition to Mills, others granted immunity include John Bentel, then-director of the State Department's Office of Information Resources Management, and Heather Samuelson, a senior adviser to Clinton.

Beth Wilkinson, the lawyer representing Mills and Samuelson, said the text of the immunity agreements show investigators considered her clients "to be witnesses and nothing more." Her office declined to provide copies of the agreements to AP.

"The Justice Department assured us that they believed my clients did nothing wrong," Wilkinson said. "At all points my clients cooperated with the government's investigation, including voluntarily participating in interviews with the FBI and DOJ."

The latest revelation brings the total number of people who were granted immunity as part of the FBI's investigation to at least five.

It had previously been reported immunity had been granted to Bryan Pagliano, a tech expert who set up Clinton's email server, as well as Paul Combetta, a computer specialist for a private firm that later maintained Clinton's email setup.

Chaffetz said he is looking forward to asking Comey questions about the immunity deals when Comey testifies Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee. Chaffetz is also a member of that panel.

Mills, who was among Clinton's closest confidants, voluntarily appeared last year for a lengthy interview as part of the House GOP's investigation into the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that left three Americans dead.

Pagliano and Combetta, however, have refused to testify before Congress by invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. On Thursday, the GOP-led House oversight committee voted along party lines to hold Pagliano in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with its subpoena.

Friday evening, the FBI released 189 additional pages of documents from its investigation, including notes of agents' interviews with Mills, Samuelson, Bentel, close Clinton aide Huma Abedin and foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan.

The highlights of the interviews were previously summarized in the FBI's investigative report released earlier this month. Many of the documents released Friday were heavily redacted by the FBI, but some provided new details about the agency's extensive investigation into Clinton's email use.

Included was a summary of FBI's interview with Marcel Lazar, a Romanian hacker who went by the name Guccifer. In it, Lazar admits he lied to a Fox News reporter about hacking Clinton's email server, though he had seen her private email address and some exchanges with her after successfully accessing the AOL account of Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal in 2013.

The new FBI documents also reveal that Clinton occasionally exchanged messages with President Barack Obama, who used a pseudonymous email address. Those exchanges have not been made public among the tens of thousands of Clinton emails released thus far by the State Department.

Disappointed the FBI didn't recommend criminal charges, congressional Republicans are seeking to keep the issue of Clinton's email use alive through the November election. Clinton has called her use of the private server a mistake.

In a statement, the campaign of the Republican presidential nominee criticized both Clinton and the Justice Department.

"No one with judgment this bad should be allowed to serve as president of the United States or hold any public office," Trump spokesman Jason Miller. "What has become abundantly clear is that the Obama Administration is protecting Hillary Clinton from accountability at all costs because she will keep the rigged system in Washington in place."

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Hillary Clinton’s Server Admins Refuse To Answer, Repeatedly Plead The Fifth

Published on Sep 14, 2016

Video Transcript:

During a House Committee Hearing, server "specialists" that worked on Hillary Clinton's secret server failed to answer a single question.

JASON CHAFFETZ: Mr. Combetta, do you intend to make an opening statement?

PAUL COMBETTA: On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.

CHAFFETZ: Mr. Thornton, do you intent to make an opening statement?

BILL THORNTON: On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment Constitutional privilege.

CHAFFETZ: Mr. Combetta, did you produce your immunity agreement this morning as required by the subpoena?

CHAFFETZ: As I understand it, you were one of the two employees that signed a PRN in the Clinton account, did you send or receive this email?

COMBETTA: On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.

CHAFFETZ: If I understand the email correctly, every single employee at [Platte River Networks] could have accessed some of the most highly classified national security information that has ever been breached at the State Department. Can you prove that no other individuals accessed this data or even passed it on to someone else?

COMBETTA: On advice of counsel, I respectfully refuse to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.

CHAFFETZ: Well, one last one here, Mr. Combetta, you're an IT guy who's paid by the Clintons. Generally, IT guys don't erase their clients emails unless they're told to do so. So, who told you to delete the emails?

COMBETTA: On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.

ELIJAH CUMMINGS: Do you plan to continue to assert your Fifth Amendment rights? Is that your plan? Is that your plan?

COMBETTA: On advice of counsel, I respectfully refuse to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment privilege.

CUMMINGS: And you Mr. Thornton?

THORNTON: COMBETTA: On advice of counsel, I respectfully refuse to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment.

CHAFFETZ: Given that you have indicated that you do not intend to answer any questions out of respect for your Constitutional rights, we will now excuse you from the table. Mr. Thornton, given the vulnerabilities identified by DATO, are you aware of any hacks of [Platte River Network's] systems?

THORNTON: On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment Constitutional privilege.

CHAFFETZ: Were you interviewed by the FBI?

THORNTON: On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer and assert my Fifth Amendment Constitutional privilege.

CHAFFETZ: You can't answer the question about whether or not you were interviewed by the FBI?

THORNTON: On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline.

CHAFFETZ: Given that the witness does not intend to answer any questions out of respect for his Constitutional rights, we will now excuse Mr. Thornton from the table.

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Clinton Aide Had Full Access To Her Server With No Security Clearance

Published on Sep 13, 2016

Video Transcript:

JASON CHAFFETZ: Did you have a security clearance at that time?

JUSTIN COOPER: No, I did not have a security clearance.

CHAFFETZ: When did you leave the White House?

COOPER: 2001.

CHAFFETZ: 2001, did you ever have a security clearance at any level after that?

COOPER: No, I did not have a security clearance.

CHAFFETZ: And you had full access to the whole server the entire time that you were working for the Clintons?

COOPER: Yes, I had access to the server.

Judge Napolitano argued that Cooper's testimony was the most informative yet.

NAPOLITANO: The gentleman who testified before the House Committee this morning was the most informative we’ve heard. He was an employee of the Clinton family and of the Clinton Foundation and he had complete and total access to the Clinton emails - and he had no security clearance.

STUART VARNEY: Who told him to smash one of the cellphones? Have they got to that yet?

NAPOLITANO: He didn’t answer.

The Judge also said the truth about this whole saga might finally be revealed.

VARNEY: Are we getting really close now to full disclosure of all these emails?

NAPOLITANO: Senator Grassley - in part because of his personal tenacity and part because of his position in the Senate as the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee - is oh so close to exposing for the first time in this whole saga, the truth. He has demanded of the FBI that they separate the classified from the non-classified and as of this morning, hasn’t gotten an answer from them yet. The FBI commingled classified with un-classified and put it all in the Senate safe room. Whatever is in the Senate safe room can only be viewed without a mobile device, without written materials and by signing an oath you won’t reveal what’s in there. Even though much of what’s in there is revealable which is the non-classified. From the non-classified he has said if he could reveal it, it would be earth shattering.

DOJ Gave Immunity To ‘Triggerman’ Who Deleted Hillary Clinton’s Emails

Published on Sep 9, 2016

Video Transcripts:

TREY GOWDY: If the FBI and the Department of Justice gave this witness transactional immunity, it is tantamount to giving the triggerman immunity in a robbery case. I was stunned when I read the New York Times article last night and by the way, the same reporter who broke the article last night, is the guy who broke the initial email story so I’m inclined to believe it unless there’s evidence to the contrary. But it looks like they gave immunity to the very person you’d most want to prosecute. Which is the person who destroyed official public records after there was a subpoena and after there was a preservation order. And that defies logic why some techie in Colorado would, despite a subpoena, despite a preservation order but after a conference call with David Kendall and Cheryl Mills decide on his own that he is going to destroy public records. And then you grant this person immunity which means, perhaps that he cannot be prosecuted - [FBI Director] Comey said he’s not going to prosecute anybody. We need to ask the FBI, what kind of immunity did you give and why did you give it to the triggerman? Why did you give it to the person who actually destroyed government documents?

So why would the FBI give the guy who deleted the emails immunity?

GOWDY: Because they guessed wrong, that’s why. They got it wrong, they blew it. They gave immunity to the triggerman. That’s why those of us who used to do it for a living, didn’t like to give immunity. This is prosecutor 101: You don’t give immunity to the person who actually robbed the bank. You may want to give it to the getaway driver, you may want to give it to the person who helped them count the money afterwards but you don’t give immunity to the person who walked in and robbed the bank, that ain’t that complicated. But that’s apparently what the FBI did.