Tag: anthony weiner
Revelations About FBI’s Handling Of Clinton Emails Show No Coverup Or Misconduct

Revelations About FBI’s Handling Of Clinton Emails Show No Coverup Or Misconduct

Media reports this week have focused fresh attention on how the Federal Bureau of Investigation managed the dramatic discovery — five weeks before the 2016 presidential election — of what seemed to be a fresh trove of Hillary Clinton emails and the delay in investigating them that ensued. The articles are fueling Republican charges of an FBI cabal, intent on protecting the Democratic nominee.

Yet the latter view is contradicted by the evidence gathered in a multi-month ProPublica investigation last year that examined the FBI’s Clinton investigation. That article found that, indeed, crucial weeks dribbled away before the FBI took action — but there was no sign that any particular individual was intentionally stalling or that the delay was politically motivated.

This week’s stories, byThe Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, have zeroed in on the FBI’s then deputy director, Andrew McCabe, who reportedly took three weeks or a month (depending on which account you believe) to order an examination of the new emails after an agent stumbled across them during a sex crimes investigation of Anthony Weiner, then the estranged husband of Clinton deputy Huma Abedin. Both stories report that the Justice Department inspector general — in the midst of a broad investigation of how the FBI and Justice Department managed the probe — is examining McCabe’s role.

The Post, quoting unidentified sources, reported that the inspector general is “focused” on why McCabe “appeared not to act for about three weeks on a request to examine a batch of Hillary Clinton-related emails…” The Journal notes that “Republicans and critics of the FBI have suggested the bureau may have sat on the emails to avoid hurting Mrs. Clinton” and are “especially suspicious of Mr. McCabe.”

McCabe, who did not provide comment for either article, was already under fire before they appeared. He recently resigned after becoming the target of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. One key complaint: McCabe’s wife ran unsuccessfully for a Virginia state Senate seat as a Democrat, and received a reported $700,000 from entities linked to Virginia governor and longtime Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe. McCabe, who was head of the FBI’s Washington field office at the time, played no role in the Clinton probe before his wife’s defeat in November 2015, then assumed an oversight role in the case after being named deputy FBI director in February 2016.

Yet the response to the new articles in some circles — to view the delay as proof of an anti-Trump conspiracy at the FBI — misunderstands what has long been known. The FBI’s snail’s-pace handling of the Weiner-laptop emails isn’t news.

ProPublica’s detailed examination of how then FBI Director James Comey handled — and mishandled — the entire Clinton investigation noted that the bureau’s top hierarchy, including Comey, was alerted to the discovery of the Clinton emails within days. Here’s how we described what happened:

On Sept. 26, after federal prosecutors in New York obtained a search warrant, the FBI collected Weiner’s iPhone, iPad and laptop. Agents began examining the computer — a silver, 15.6-inch 2015 Dell Inspiron 7000 — for any pictures, videos or other evidence involving Weiner’s teenage sexting partner. An agent sorting through the contents of the hard drive came across a jolting find: a State Department memo and some emails between Abedin and Hillary Clinton. The documents were not covered by the sex-crimes warrant, which meant that the FBI had no legal right to examine them.

The presidential election was five weeks away.

The agent went to the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York for guidance. Prosecutors there wanted no part of the email case, which had been staffed by a special team of agents, FBI analysts, and Justice Department lawyers working out of FBI headquarters, in Washington. The New York prosecutors told the agent to seek advice from that team. They said nothing to their own bosses at Justice Department headquarters.

By Oct. 3, senior officials at the FBI — including Comey — had been alerted that the Weiner laptop contained an unknown number of Clinton emails.

This week’s stories raise the prospect of a deliberate McCabe effort to stall examination of the Clinton emails to protect Clinton. But that’s at odds with what our reporting showed.

It’s important to note that we don’t know what evidence the inspector general — who has broad access to internal emails, text messages and officials that reporters don’t — has gathered so far, or what he will ultimately find and conclude about McCabe’s motivation. (His report isn’t expected until March or April.)

But there are important points to consider, nonetheless. For starters, McCabe wasn’t ultimately responsible for how to proceed and what to disclose; Comey was.

More important, the crucial question inside the FBI at the time wasn’t whether Comey (and McCabe) should publicly disclose the discovery immediately. It was whether it was correct to do so at all so close to the election. The notion of revealing anything with such profound consequences for a presidential race violated both written and unwritten Justice Department guidelines against interfering with elections.

At the time top FBI officials were alerted, agents hadn’t examined the new evidence or assessed whether it would change anything in a case that had already been definitively closed.

Certainly, our reporting found that in many ways the FBI stumbled through the month between its discovery of the Clinton emails and its notification to Congress on Oct. 28, 2016. There were troubling judgments and misjudgments — fueled by excessive caution, bureaucratic considerations and turf issues — which unnecessarily left the emails unexamined for weeks, leaving open the question of whether they might reveal something new.

In late October, senior FBI officials — newly fearful of leaks about their discovery that might damage the bureau’s reputation — decided they had to disclose. It’s worth remembering that at this point the FBI was already investigating the Trump campaign’s potential collusion with Russia. Comey and his team chose to reveal the reopening of the Clinton investigation but to say nothing about the Trump probe.

In our reporting (keeping in mind, again, that the inspector general may be privy to evidence at odds with this), there was no sign that McCabe particularly resisted the Clinton announcement.

In testimony to a Senate committee, Comey later publicly offered a moral argument for the decision: He’d previously told Congress the case was closed, so the decision to examine the new emails required public disclosure. As Comey told the Senate, “I could see two doors and they were both actions. One was labelled ‘speak’; the other was labelled ‘conceal.’ … I stared at ‘speak’ and ‘conceal.’ ‘Speak’ would be really bad. There’s an election in eleven days — lordy, that would be really bad. Concealing, in my view, would be catastrophic, not just to the FBI but well beyond. And, honestly, as between really bad and catastrophic, I said to my team, ‘We got to walk into the world of really bad.’ I’ve got to tell Congress that we’re restarting this, not in some frivolous way — in a hugely significant way.”

And with that, in the view of many, the hierarchy of the FBI — far from assuring Hillary Clinton’s election as president — took a step that helped torpedo it.

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PHOTO: Hillary Clinton holds an unscheduled news conference to talk about FBI inquiries into her emails after a campaign rally in Des Moines, Iowa, October 28, 2016. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

 

FBI Search Warrant For Clinton Emails Issued On Shaky Evidence

FBI Search Warrant For Clinton Emails Issued On Shaky Evidence

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Search warrant documents released on Tuesday related to the probe of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email setup provided new details about the FBI’s decision to revive the investigation days before the Nov. 8 election.

The materials, which related to a search warrant issued after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey on Oct. 28 informed Congress of the emails, were ordered released on Monday by U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan.

Comey’s letter drew new attention to Clinton’s use of the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election, which Republican Donald Trump won.

In an affidavit, an FBI agent said there was “probable cause” to believe emails between Clinton and a person whose name was redacted were among “thousands” found on a laptop that contained U.S. State Department correspondence.

But the filings gave no indication that any emails involving Clinton containing classified information had been found on the laptop at the time the warrant was issued on Oct. 30.

The laptop belonged to former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin who was the subject of an investigation after a report about cellphone and online messages he sent a 15-year-old girl.

The search warrant materials’ release was sought by Randol Schoenberg, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, who in court papers said transparency was crucial given the potential influence the probe had on the election’s outcome.

In a statement, Schoenberg said he saw “nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin.”

Lawyers for Clinton and Weiner did not respond to requests for comment, nor did the FBI. Abedin’s lawyer declined comment.

In July, Comey recommended no charges be brought over Clinton’s handing of classified information in the emails, although he said she and her colleagues were “extremely careless” in handling such information.

That determination followed what the search warrant materials called a “criminal investigation concerning the improper transmission and storage of classified info on unclassified email systems and servers.”

In his Oct. 28 letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the investigation had been discovered in an “unrelated case.”

Federal investigators obtained the warrant to examine the emails on Oct. 30. Two days before the election, Comey disclosed the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York, additional reporting by Scot Paltrow and Mark Hosenball in Washington; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Tom Brown)

IMAGE: U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks about the FBI inquiry into her emails during a campaign rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S. October 29, 2016.  REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Clinton Emails: Huma Abedin Seeks To Review FBI Search Warrant

Clinton Emails: Huma Abedin Seeks To Review FBI Search Warrant

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Huma Abedin, the longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, asked a U.S. judge on Wednesday to allow her to review a search warrant the FBI used to gain access to emails related to Clinton’s private server shortly before the Nov. 8 presidential election.

In a letter filed in Manhattan federal court, Abedin said she was never provided a copy of the warrant, nor was her estranged husband, former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, whose computer contained the emails in question.

The letter was filed as a federal judge considers whether to unseal the application for the search warrant, which was obtained after FBI Director James Comey informed Congress of newly discovered emails on Oct. 28.

Comey’s letter drew new attention to a damaging issue for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, and roiled the campaign 11 days before the election won by Republican Donald Trump.

U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel had invited affected parties to weigh in on the potential release of the search warrant application, which is being sought by Los Angeles-based lawyer Randol Schoenberg.

In their letter, Abedin’s lawyers said she was unable to evaluate the issue as neither she nor Weiner was provided the warrant itself, despite federal rules requiring authorities to provide a warrant to a person whose property was taken.

Lawyers for Clinton and Weiner did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the U.S. Justice Department.

Clinton used the server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Comey in July had recommended to the Justice Department that no criminal charges be brought against Clinton over her handing of classified information in the emails, although saying she and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

In his Oct. 28 letter to Congress, Comey said emails potentially related to the Clinton server probe had been discovered in an “unrelated case.”

Sources close to the investigation have said the emails were discovered during an unrelated probe into Weiner following a media report that he engaged in sexually explicit cellphone and online messages with a 15-year-old girl.

Federal investigators got a warrant to examine the emails to see if they were related to the probe into Clinton’s private server. Only two days before the election, Comey disclosed that the emails did nothing to change his earlier recommendation.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney)

IMAGE: Huma Abedin, aide to U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, looks on as Clinton makes a campaign stop in the Manhattan borough of New York April 13, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar 

What The FBI Found In The Emails On Anthony Weiner’s Laptop

What The FBI Found In The Emails On Anthony Weiner’s Laptop

IMAGE: Huma Abedin, aide to Hillary Clinton, delivers a statement after meeting with the House Select Committee on Benghazi at the U.S. Capitol in Washington October 16, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Barria