Release of FBI Email Investigation Documents - UPDATED

Thank you, Leu2500 Wink I ain't got a monopoly on this stuff - there's WAAAAAY too much of it at this point.

EDIT: I AM ADDING INFORMATION AS I BUMP INTO IT... more is coming online.

FBI releases Hillary Clinton email investigation

Wait for it... we'll still be told there are no smoking guns from the surrogates. I don't know about you all, but the deeper we get in this mess, the more frequently I feel I need a shower:

The FBI on Friday released a detailed report on its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, as well as what appears to be a summary of her interview with agents, providing the most thorough look yet at the probe that has dogged the campaign of the Democratic presidential nominee.

The documents, which total 58 pages, do not seem to provide any major revelations about Clinton’s actions — though they paint her and her staff as either unaware of or unconcerned with State Department policies on email use. The materials also show that the FBI was unable to track down all of Clinton’s devices, including phones, it sought, and that made it impossible for agents to definitively answer every question they had, including whether Clinton’s emails were hacked.

“The FBI’s investigation and forensic analysis did not find evidence confirming that Clinton’s e-mail accounts or mobile devices were compromised by cyber means,” the author of the report wrote. “However, investigative limitations, including the FBI’s inability to obtain all mobile devices and various computer components associated with Clinton’s personal e-mail systems, prevented the FBI from conclusively determining whether the classified information transmitted and stored on Clinton’s personal server systems was compromised via cyber intrusion or other means.”

What's been released is just a fraction of what the material they've got. There are interviews with dozens of Clinton staffers and State Department officials. They talked to Powell. Summary says she was generally consistent with them as with what she had said publicly. She frequently said she did not recall specifics. She claimed she used it for convenience rather than avoid FOIA and other laws. She never asked for nor got permission for the server.

I have to add this paragraph because I just CANNOT get my head around this in the slightest:

Much of the interview, which is described in an 11-page summary, appears to have consisted of FBI agents showing Clinton specific email exchanges that they determined included classified content and asking her to comment. Repeatedly, Clinton said she could not remember the specific exchange but had trusted at the time that her staff at the State Department knew how to handle classified material and would not email her material they should not. The exact nature of those classified emails are redacted in the version of the summary released by the FBI but it is clear they included deliberations on drone targets. Shown one July 2012 email she exchanged with President Obama at his own highly secure address, Clinton indicated that she recalled sending the note on an airplane during a trip to Russia.

The paragraph REALLY ends there. What?! What SINGLE part of this paragraph is ok with ANYONE?! It's everyone else's responsibility/fault, not hers.

The POLITICO story (see link below) has more about drones:

When discussing a redacted email, for example, Clinton “stated deliberation over a future drone strike did not give her cause for concern regarding classification,” and Clinton “understood this type of conversation as part of the routine deliberation process.” The U.S. treats drone operations conducted by the CIA as classified, even though in a 2012 internet chat Presidential Barack Obama acknowledged U.S.-directed drone strikes in Pakistan

HenryWallace this is for you:

Clinton also told the FBI that she played no role in sorting her work and personal emails after she left office other than to instruct her legal team to submit to the State Department all those emails that were “work-related or arguably work related.”

Do the rest of you glaze over after a few paragraphs like I do?

Hat Tip to dance you monster for providing this link (please do not remove your comment)

Clinton Used Eight BlackBerrys, but FBI Couldn’t Get Them

The report shed light on how Clinton viewed her understanding of the handling of classified information. The FBI said Clinton couldn’t give an example of how the classification of a document was determined and that “she relied on career foreign service professionals to appropriately mark and handle classified information.” She added that she didn’t recall receiving any e-mails that shouldn’t have been sent on an unclassified system.

“She relied on State officials to use their judgment when emailing her and could not recall anyone raising concerns with her regarding the sensitivity of the information she received at her email address,” according to the report. “Shown copies of emails marked ‘Confidential’ and ‘Top Secret/SAP,’ Clinton said she didn’t believe those e-mails contained classified information.”

(MsGrin: I am sorry, but WHAT did that just say? They showed her confidential emails and she denied they were confidential?!)

The FBI also said in its summary that Clinton denied using her private e-mail to avoid federal open records laws. But it showed that she was warned about the system by one of her predecessors. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell “warned Clinton that if it became ‘public’ that Clinton had a BlackBerry, and she used it to ‘do business,’ her e-mails could become ‘official record[s] and subject to the law.”’ He told her to be “very careful” using the system.

From POLITICO

Clinton told FBI she relied on others' judgment on classified material

The FBI’s documents provide a glimpse into the probe that Republicans have said reached the wrong conclusion.

Hillary Clinton never received training on how to handle classified information. By her own admission, she had little ability to discern whether a document included sensitive information. And when she did handle sensitive materials, she relied on her subordinates to ensure that nothing important was compromised.

Taken together, her responses to questions from FBI investigators reveal a high-level government executive who apparently had little grasp of the nuances and complexities around the nation’s classification system — a blind spot that helped allow classified communications to pass through her private email server.

The POLITICO piece also indicates that the FBI was concerned about phishing, and quotes her responding to an email which apparently contained a potentially malicious link, quoting her asking if the 'sender' is "really you" because she was concerned about opening the email. Oh, dear.

Hat Tip to dkmich in another essay for posting the Reuters link:

Clinton tells FBI she could not recall all briefings on preserving documents

I thought the concussion was supposed to be a nothing-burger:

Hillary Clinton, under questioning by federal investigators over whether she had been briefed on how to preserve government records as she was about to leave the State Department, said she had suffered a concussion, was working part-time and could not recall every briefing she received.

"However, in December of 2012, Clinton suffered a concussion and then around the New Year had a blood clot," the FBI's summary said. "Based on her doctor's advice, she could only work at State for a few hours a day and could not recall every briefing she received."

Reuters has a bit to add to the Powell portion of this discussion:

In his reply to Clinton via email, Powell told Clinton to "be very careful" because the work-related emails she sent on her BlackBerry could become public record. "I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that captured the data," Powell said, according to the summary.

Reuters says that there were 81 threads of conversations which were classified at that time, and it is believed the total number of those classified emails is over 2000.

From The Hill

FBI releases report on Clinton email investigation

Here are portions not reported elsewhere:

But the pages released Friday appear to only be a portion of the materials sent to Congress.

The 11-page summary of the FBI’s interview with Clinton is likely the most complete record of the conversation, which was neither on the record nor recorded, in accordance with FBI policy.

“It was a matter of convenience to move onto a system maintained by her husband’s staff,” according to the investigator’s notes.

The decision not to recommend an indictment was “unanimous” within the FBI, according to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Dro posted a link which had this link to the actual FBI press release embedded:
3>FBI Releases Documents in Hillary Clinton E-Mail Investigation

Today the FBI is releasing a summary of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s July 2, 2016 interview with the FBI concerning allegations that classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on a personal e-mail server she used during her tenure. We also are releasing a factual summary of the FBI’s investigation into this matter. We are making these materials available to the public in the interest of transparency and in response to numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Appropriate redactions have been made for classified information or other material exempt from disclosure under FOIA. Additional information related to this investigation that the FBI releases in the future will be placed on The Vault, the FBI’s electronic FOIA library.

From the release, one can click through to The Vault with a disclaimer which disappeared when I clicked to try to copy it.

From The Hill

Clinton emails wiped clean after NYT story

A number of Hillary Clinton’s private emails were erased weeks after The New York Times published a story reporting on her use of a private email server while secretary of State, according to notes from the FBI’s investigation released on Friday.
(snip)
The deletion took place between March 25 and March 31, the FBI learned in a May 3 interview. The name of the person who deleted the emails was redacted from the FBI’s notes.

“In a follow-up FBI interview on May 3, 2016, ------ Indicated he believed he had an 'oh s--t' moment and sometime between March 25-31, 2015 deleted the Clinton archive mailbox from PRN server and used BleachBit to delete the exported .PST files he had created on the server system containing Clinton;s e-mails,” the FBI notes released on Friday stated.

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Turns out a Clinton aid deleted - with bleach bit- a whole lot of Clinton emails after the ny times ran an article on the server.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/294332-clinton-em...

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reflectionsv37's picture

Was the "Oh Shit" moment one where a person accidentally deleted emails? Or more likely, was it an "Oh Shit" moment where someone intentionally deleted emails? The context makes this very difficult to discern.

If it was an accident, why would someone use a bleach bit to make sure those deleted emails cannot be recovered. That doesn't make the slightest bit of sense if you did it by accident.

Taking that one step further, and assuming for the moment that the emails were intentionally being deleted, who would admit to destroying evidence to the FBI? The only person in a position to make a statement like that would be the person who had immunity from prosecution. Anyone else would would not have answered that question and admit to what could possibly be a number of various crimes. Have we finally heard the first piece of information provided to the FBI by Bryan Pagliano?

I really don't understand why the name would be redacted? It had to be someone who had administrative access and was working closely with the server. We know Justin Cooper and Pagliano had access. Is there another unknown that the FBI wants to keep hidden that we don't know about? It just doesn't make sense to redact that name.

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

reflectionsv37's picture

I now understand a little more that I missed when I posted the above comment. I didn't clearly understand that PRN, referred to Platte River Networks. I think the story as written is meant to confuse. I can see why they might want to protect the name of an individual at PRN that unsuspectingly got caught up in this mess while trying to fully cooperate with the FBI.

So I'm retracting my assumption about Bryan Pagliano. We still don't know a damn thing about what role he played in all this. Will we ever find out?

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“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”
George W. Bush

MsGrin's picture

I'm working on another essay as I read (slowly) through the pages released by the FBI. One of my points is that that appear to be at least TWO other individuals whose names are redacted as it is described that they are working with the servers. It is not at all clear why those names are not visible. Pagliano and Cooper are definitely listed. The redacted names come up when the servers start being serviced by Platte River and the outside companies - these people are involved in locating the companies to take over monitoring and getting the servers to where they needed to go as I recall.

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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

featheredsprite's picture

Remember Reagan's testimony to Congress: "I don't recall." And he probably didn't. What if Hillary can't remember?

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

lunachickie's picture

Seems to me that if she can't remember, maybe she's just not fit to be POTUS, now, because of her inability to recall details?

Look, that would go to her mental health, if her brain does not cognitively function as someone considered "normal" (ie. someone who has *never* suffered a head injury or a blood clot in a physical fall, where they suffered a blow to the head, for example).

Nevermind all the other reasons she's not fit for the office anyway. Nobody will MAKE HER get out of the race over any of those other things, though--even though she should have been gone long ago. So like it or not, this needs to be made an issue. Nobody else has ever gotten this far as a POTUS candidate with compromised mental health going in.

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MsGrin's picture

One needs a whole brain to be POTUS. We've had folks on this site say it's none of our beeswax: Oh, but it is.

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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

tourniquet's picture

and say "herr, politics as usual, amirite?" but frankly these waves of corruption are stunning. i'm no grizzled political veteran but i do pay attention, and i've never seen stuff like this exposed to a public that is so willing to dismiss it as business as usual.

i've been watching jimmy dore a bit, on youtube, someone who used to annoy me a lot. (honestly i started looking up his stuff when i saw the TYT video where he spits right in alex jones' face, which was only lacking because he wasn't suffering smallpox at the time...)

the media, the party, and the civs' happy collusion in this sickening bullshit is eye opening. the idea that people are so willing to write off everything seems like what clinton was preempting with her "vast, right-wing conspiracy" comment decades ago.

people need to believe their own eyes and ears, or we're fucked.

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GIANT ALL-CAPS SIG

riverlover's picture

http://observer.com/2016/09/fbi-data-dump-shows-clinton-is-criminal-and-...

Is that damning enough? We are owned by the Oligarchy.

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riverlover's picture

WTF?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

RantingRooster's picture

If I only had a brain. (musical snark)

[video:https://youtu.be/LA-AvBjBm5k]

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C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

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