Not much out yet on Huma Abedin testimony

Staten Island Advance:

Aide said Clinton didn't want emails accessible to 'anybody'

Judicial Watch lawyers repeatedly pressed Abedin to explain Clinton's concern expressed to her in a November 2010 message that her emails might become public, but the longtime aide insisted that Clinton's interest in wanting to keep her correspondence from being exposed was similar to any private citizen's.

"I would imagine anybody who has personal email doesn't want that personal email to be read by anybody else," Abedin explained. "I read it the same way as she has written it."

ABC News:

Clinton Staffer Huma Abedin 'Tried to Do the Right Thing' With Email

The scope of inquiry covers Abedin and Clinton's use of a controversial private email server. Unlike Clinton, Abedin also had an email address provided by the State Department and she told lawyers did the "vast majority" of her work on that government account, according to the deposition transcript. In that same interview Abedin said she used the private email address "for the Clinton family matters" and for her own personal email.

Abedin said she didn't remember being told not to use private email for work-related purposes, suggesting she knew that practice would have been wrong.

"I always tried to do the right thing and tried to be on my State.gov BlackBerry," Abedin said in the deposition. Moments later she clarified slightly, saying she believed the use of a private email was allowed. "Did I think I wasn't allowed to use Clinton e-mail? No. I thought I -- I thought that was permitted. But my -- my practice was to use State.gov," Abedin said, referencing the State Department's email domain.

Abedin also said that in one instance both she and Clinton grew frustrated with the fact that Clinton's email message sent from her private account were going into the State Department's spam folder, according to the transcript. At one point she said it cause a communication failure that resulted in Clinton missing a call with a foreign dignitary. "So she wasn't able to do her job, do what she needed to do," Abedin said of the incident in her deposition.

TriState Homepage

Abedin details Clinton email troubles in deposition
Throughout her deposition, Abedin defended Clinton's decisions, describing them as normal and not suspect at all.

"She had requested a secure BlackBerry, but that did not come to fruition," Abedin said, noting that her use of a personal BlackBerry was not surprising. "I experienced it as continuing the practice that she had had prior to arriving at the State Department, and continuing to use her personal device."

Crickets on the MSNBC page

New York Times:

Huma Abedin Says Clinton’s Email Server Caused Frustration

Patrick F. Kennedy, a career foreign service officer who is an under secretary of state for management and operations, testified in the same proceedings on Wednesday. His testimony is expected to be released on Thursday.

snip

Quizzed about the concerns Mrs. Clinton expressed in 2010 about her personal emails being made public, Ms. Abedin explained that at the time she and others in the department were trying to figure out why Mrs. Clinton had not received an email about a telephone call with Bernard Kouchner, who was then the foreign minister of France.

Ms. Abedin suggested to Mrs. Clinton that she should have a separate BlackBerry for work or post her personal address so that others in the department beyond her inner circle would know how to reach her in the future. In the end, both alternatives were rejected.

That exchange with Mrs. Clinton, Ms. Abedin said, was an occasion when the email arrangement disrupted official business, one of several glitches described in the depositions or the inspector general’s report.

snip

Ms. Abedin said repeatedly that she could not recall specific details about Mrs. Clinton’s email practices and said she was unaware of most of the technical matters involved. She also acknowledged that she refused to speak with the inspector general for its investigation – “on the advice of my attorneys.”

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elenacarlena's picture

no comments, no comments.... Felt bad for you so came over to comment! Apparently midnight is not an optimal time to post here. Also, you might want to change the title slightly - maybe "Early reports of Huma Abedin's testimony"? And then say in the first sentence that not much is out yet. "Not much" just doesn't pull readers to you, it seems. We figure we'll wait until there's more!

But actually, the early reports are quite interesting, I find. It strikes me as just lazy. Of course that might be what they want us to think, "Not criminal, just lazy!"

But when I worked at the hospital and made friends amongst my coworkers, we exchanged personal emails. And during work hours did, ya know, our jobs that we were being paid to do. And at home, arranged off-work activities or exchanged gossip or what have you. And never talked about patients on those unsecured personal email accounts. Not that we never discussed going out after work on work email, but if we had, we wouldn't be worried about a copy ending up on the hospital server, or someone else seeing it. When I left the hospital, I left all my work emails behind, I wasn't allowed to purge them and/or decide who got to see them. Work emails were the property of the hospital, that was made clear in training. If what you're discussing is so personal, it doesn't belong at work. OTOH, if it's work related and therefore needs to be kept secure or is subject to open records requests, it doesn't belong at home.

How difficult is it to understand the difference when your work involves national secrets?? You can't take a minute with your buddies and exchange home email addresses for the personal stuff?

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riverlover's picture

Finally, at termination, I emailed my cv to myself to rescue that in computer format. All my lab notebook, the same. Not mine.

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MsGrin's picture

Naw, this was just throwing something up since my inquiring mind wanted to get a taste last night. I didn't hit upon the actual transcript, so I knew I was just passing along mostly nothing.

Really, not much was out there. Wink I try to be truthful in advertising.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

Late Again's picture

Several commenters there have picked out a few tidbits not touched on in your excellent essay. I'm sure Alligator Ed is working on something, as well. He's been outstanding on coverage of the depositions.

Huma Abedin Deposition Discussion

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"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained." - Mark Twain

MsGrin's picture

and was just poking around since it wasn't up yet.

I'm sure he'll have a MUCH more interesting take than what had been published last night.

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'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member

I think you shouldn't expect too much commentary/analysis in the MSM today. Tomorrow, however, is the Friday before the long July 4 weekend......

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So many 'I don't remember' responses. And she repeatedly did not remember training or directives about FOIA. She said she could not remember numerous IT meetings about the setup of the server.
She did remember being told that the private account may have been hacked (and kept on using it.)
Selective memory? I believe she has been well trained.

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riverlover's picture

And remember, she was wearing at least two hats, one at CF and one at State. She may go down because of that, Pagliano has immunized himself somewhat.

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riverlover's picture

Check out Teneo consulting. Another list of 1%ers there, requesting influence in government. Abedin wore that hat, too.

So much pig dung flung, what will stick? Have you ever been in a hog barn? It's particulate. Even with strong vent fans. Too many names of the known 1% to discount entirely.

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at K4S this morning. I've got a bad feeling about this Judicial Watch thing. They're just bringing these underlings in and fishing for some dirt. When their little circus is over and they have nothing to show for it but talking points for fox news, this is going to end up exonerating clinton, at least in the public's view. The FBI has the goods and this whole thing could have a couple, as I see it, effects. It could make it more difficult for the FBI to bring or get an indictment, because, look how everyone is doing a witch hunt on clinton. The second, it gives the FBI and the DOJ an excuse to walk away from the whole thing as in JW is doing all the dirty work to "prove" that the email thing was really a nothingburger. This whole thing is going to make clinton out to be a martyr just like the Benghazi hearings did. Remember, the clintons are pros at shit like this...

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Alex Ocana's picture

I have read about half of each transcripts but quite frankly, they are boring and seem to be pointless and put me to sleep... What irritates me is the constant, "I don't remember." I wonder if the military/corporate/state coalition has invented some drug that selectively destroys memory of anything one feels guilty about? Or is it that the entire Clinton staff suffers from selective Alzheimers. (Joke)

if or when Clinton is "exonerated" it is going to be a big "talking point" (muddying of the waters) against anyone to the left or right of Clinton's Mussolini politics as anyone who may have supported the criminal investigation is painted into the tin-foil hat corner.

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