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Colin Powell Advised Hilary Clinton To Use Private Email Account

Colin Powell Advised Hilary Clinton To Use Private Email Account

The New York Times reported today that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton stated to investigators that Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, told her to use a personal email account.

As the Times notes, the story was first reported by Joe Conason, editor-in-chief of The National Memo, in his book Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton.

In the book, Conason recounts a conversation between Hillary Clinton and former Secretaries of State at a party thrown by Madeleine Albright.

“Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat,” Conason wrote. “Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”

Powell “thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier — to keep her personal account and use it for most messages,” Conason wrote.

Hillary Clinton has been embroiled in controversy surrounding her use of a private email server for months, and has not stated publicly that Powell advised her to use a private email. Powell’s office released a statement saying he did not remember the conversation. However, an email reportedly exists in the FBI files of the investigation which Powell wrote to Clinton about his own use of personal email “and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department.”

Photo: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton comments on the just-released Benghazi report as she speaks at Galvanize, a learning community for technology, in Denver, U.S. June 28, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Trump Blames Clinton For Execution Of Iranian Scientist After The Right-Wing Lie Was Debunked

Trump Blames Clinton For Execution Of Iranian Scientist After The Right-Wing Lie Was Debunked

Published with permission from Media Matters of America

Echoing a myth peddled by right-wing media, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed that there was a link between the execution of Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist in Iran, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which contained a couple emails that appear to discuss Amiri’s case. But there is no evidence either that Clinton’s server was hacked, which would have been necessary for Iran to see the emails, or that the email discussion of Amiri had any connection to his eventual death.

Iran Executed A Nuclear Scientist For Treason, Accusing Him Of Giving Information To The U.S.

BBC: “Iranian Nuclear Scientist Shahram Amiri Executed For Treason.” The BBC reported that the Iranian government executed Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, for providing “‘vital information to the enemy,’” according to a judiciary spokesperson. Amiri had “defected of his own accord,” U.S. officials said, and initially returned to a “hero’s welcome” in Iran, the BBC reported, but he was later “arrested and tried for treason. From the August 7 report:

An Iranian scientist who provided the US with information about the country’s nuclear programme has been hanged for treason, the government has confirmed.

Shahram Amiri was executed for giving “vital information to the enemy”, a judiciary spokesman said.

Amiri disappeared in Saudi Arabia in 2009 and resurfaced a year later in the US, where he claimed to have been abducted and interrogated by the CIA.

[…]

After reappearing in the US in 2010, he said he had been kidnapped and put under “intense psychological pressure to reveal sensitive information”.

However US officials at the time said Amiri had defected of his own accord and provided “useful information”.

He initially returned to Tehran to a hero’s welcome, but was later arrested and tried for treason. [BBC.com, 8/7/16]

Sen. Tom Cotton Later Said Clinton Had Emails About The Executed Iranian

Sen. Tom Cotton: “Reckless” And “Careless” Clinton Had Emails About The Executed Iranian On Her Private Email Server. The Hill reported that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) attempted to portray Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as “reckless” on CBS’s Face the Nation by citing emails on her private server “that included references to the Iranian nuclear scientist who was executed there for treason.” From the August 7 report:

“I’m not going to comment on what he may or may not have done for the United States government, but in the emails that were on Hillary Clinton’s private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman,” Cotton said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

“That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server and I think her judgment is not suited to keep this country safe.” [The Hill, 8/7/16]

Right-Wing Media Run With The Claim To Imply Clinton’s Emails Led To Scientist’s Execution

Fox & Friends Co-Host Ainsley Earhardt: “Many People Are Wondering” If “He Die[d] Because Someone Hacked Into Her Emails.” On Fox News’ Fox & Friends, co-host Ainsley Earhardt explained that “the reason these stories” about Clinton’s private email server and Amiri’s execution “connect” is because of the possibility that “someone hacked into her emails and they found out that he was spying for the U.S. and then as a result he was killed.” From the August 9 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends:

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Meanwhile, our big story yesterday was the execution of that Iranian scientist by the name of Shahram Amiri. And yesterday at the Department of State, the report is — there he is right there;  he was executed on Wednesday. His name showed up in a couple of email on Hillary Clinton’s unsecured email server in her basement in Chappaqua, New York. And yesterday, Elizabeth Trudeau, who is the State Department spokesperson, was asked about: Is there possibly a connection between his death and her email? Here’s what she said.

[BEGIN VIDEO]

ELIZABETH TRUDEAU: We’re not going to comment on what may have led to this event, but as we spoke about with Matt, there was public reporting on this topic back in 2010. Former Secretary Clinton discussed this issue in public at that time. So this is not something that became public when the State Department released those emails.

[END VIDEO]

DOOCY: So they dodged the question.

PETE HEGSETH (CO-HOST): That’s right. There was public comment at the time but certainly no outing of him as a spy or an ally of the United States.

[…]

HEGSETH: What she said in 2010 is that he’s free to go, he’s free to come, and those decisions are his to make. So, basically saying if he’s with the Iranians, he can go back to Iran. Nothing about him being a spy. But in the emails you hear coded language to “our friend” and other things he had done to benefit the United States.

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): And the reason that these stories connect is many people are asking does this individual, did he die because someone hacked into her emails and they found out that he was spying for the U.S. and then as a result he was killed. We don’t know that. But many people are wondering that. Just like the families in Benghazi are wondering if their sons — if they were tracked and they were located in Benghazi in Libya because of Hillary Clinton’s negligence.

HEGSETH: At the very least it underscores her recklessness with that server. [Fox News,Fox & Friends, 8/9/16]

Fox News’ Sean Hannity: “Is [Clinton] Responsible … For What Happened Here?” On Fox News’ Hannity, host Sean Hannity asked retired United States Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, “Do you make that connection? Is [Clinton] responsible, by being being reckless and irresponsible and not protecting that server, for what happened here?” after explaining that it “would appear that [Amiri] was compromised and somehow was found out.” From the August 8 edition of Fox News’ Hannity:

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): I look at all this, and I look at what he said this weekend. This person had access to the country’s secret and classified information, had linked to — this is what Iran says, according to the AP, Iran confirmed that he had been hanged for treason and spying, and that they said this person had access to the country’s secret classified information, has “been linked to our hostile and number one enemy, America, the great Satan,” a spokesman for the Iranian judiciary said. He provided the enemy with vital and secret information about the country. So it would appear that this guy was working for us. It would appear that he was compromised and somehow was found out. Now, if Senator Cotton, pretty credible senator, says that he knows that in fact this information came from her server, do you make the connection? Is she responsible then, by being reckless and irresponsible and not protecting that server, for what happened here? [Fox News, Hannity, 8/8/16]

Wash. Examiner: “Hillary Clinton’s Private Emails May Have Played A Role In [ Amiri’s] Recent Fate.” The Washington Examiner’s Sarah Westwood wrote that State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau “dodged questions” when asked about the connection between Clinton’s email server and Amiri’s execution and speculated about whether a pair of her private emails “may have played a role in his recent fate.” From the Washington Examiner article:

A State Department spokeswoman dodged questions Monday about whether the discussion of Shahram Amiri, an Iranian scientist who was executed by the Iranian government for working with the U.S., in a pair of Hillary Clinton’s private emails may have played a role in his recent fate.

“We’re not going to comment on what may have led to this event,” said Elizabeth Trudeau, a State Department spokeswoman.

“I couldn’t speak to Iranian judicial procedures related to this specific case,” Trudeau said. “We’ve made our concerns known writ large around Iranian due process.”

She noted the State Department had been “very public about this case when [Amiri] chose to return to Iran,” pointing to a press conference Clinton gave in July 2010.

In those remarks, Clinton compared Amiri’s ability to leave the U.S. on “his own free will” with Iran’s decision “to hold three young Americans against their will.” She did not reference the scientist’s work with the U.S. government. [Washington Examiner, 8/8/16]

Breitbart: “Erik Prince: Hillary Clinton ‘Very Likely Caused’ Iranian Nuclear Scientist’s Death.” On Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon, Bannon asked former Navy SEAL and former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince whether Clinton “should be considered complicit” in Amiri’s death, to which Prince replied that “Hillary’s emails, playing fast and loose with national security matters, very likely caused this guy to die.” From the August 8 interview:

Bannon asked if Hillary Clinton should be considered complicit in the execution of Iranian nuclear physicist Shahram Amiri, on charges of spying for the United States, who was discussed in some of the emails on Clinton’s unsecured private server.

“The physicist that came out, he defected, he was a treasure trove of information, but the CIA and the Clinton State Department botched it while he was in the States, left him pretty much unsupported,” Prince replied, calling it a major mistake to leave Amiri’s family in Iran.

[…]

“Once again, the administration screwed it up. He goes home; of course, he’s arrested. And then Hillary’s emails, which were in the open, certainly readable by foreign powers, were talking about Hillary’s so-called friend, who was a defection, and not an abduction, as the guy was claiming,” he added.

Prince said that if the American people want to break through what Bannon described as “the media Praetorian Guard” around Clinton and Obama, to get some real coverage of the Amiri story, they should understand that “Hillary’s emails, playing fast and loose with national security matters, very likely caused this guy to die.”

“This administration, particularly Hillary Clinton, plays fast and loose with classified information, and doesn’t really care about the people who help America, and they suffer, and our national security will suffer for it yet again in the long term,” Prince concluded. [Breitbart News, 8/8/16]

Gateway Pundit: “Sen. Tom Cotton: Clinton’s Unprotected Emails Got Iranian Nuclear Scientist Executed.” Jumping off of Cotton’s comments, The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft wrote that Iran “found out [Amiri] was working for the US thanks to Hillary Clinton’s emails. Nice work, Hillary.” From the August 7 article:

Iran hanged nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri.

They found out he was working for the US thanks to Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Nice work, Hillary.

[…]

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Face the Nation on Sunday that Hillary got this Iranian nuclear scientist killed. [The Gateway Pundit, 8/7/16]

Drudge Report: CLINTON EMAIL LED TO EXECUTION IN IRAN?

[Twitter, 8/7/16]

Trump Attempts To Link Clinton’s Email Server To Scientists Execution

Trump: “Many People Are Saying That The Iranians Killed The Scientist Who Helped The U.S. Because Of Hillary Clinton’s Hacked Emails.”

[Twitter, 8/8/16]

There Is No Evidence That Links Clinton To The Scientist’s Execution

Wash. Post: “Clinton’s Email Server Did Not Lead To An Iranian Scientist’s Death.” The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin wrote that “despite what you may read on Donald Trump’s twitter feed,” Amiri’s execution was “not caused by Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.” He explained that there’s both “no reasonable connection between the discussion of Amiri’s case on email by Clinton’s staff to Amiri’s eventual execution” and “no evidence her server was hacked.” From the August 8 article:

Despite what you might read on Donald Trump’s twitter feed, the Iranian execution of a nuclear scientist who defected to the United States and then changed his mind was not caused by Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. The scientist outed himself; it wasn’t Clinton’s fault.

[…]

[T]here’s no reasonable connection between the discussion of Amiri’s case on email by Clinton’s staff to Amiri’s eventual execution. There’s no evidence her server was hacked. The Iranians knew all about Amiri well before the emails were released publicly. His kidnapping story never held water and his fate was sealed long before his sentence was carried out. [TheWashington Post, 8/8/16]

Photo: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a campaign event in Radford, Virginia February 29, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Keane

U.S. Attorney General Closes Clinton Email Probe, Says No Charges

U.S. Attorney General Closes Clinton Email Probe, Says No Charges

The investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email while secretary of state is closed, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said on Wednesday, removing a legal cloud that threatened the presumptive Democratic nominee’s presidential bid.

Lynch said she accepted the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s recommendations that no charges be brought in the probe, as Republicans made clear they would not let Clinton’s email headaches fade away easily.

“I received and accepted their unanimous recommendation that the thorough, year-long investigation be closed and that no charges be brought against any individuals within the scope of the investigation,” Lynch said in a statement.

With the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential and congressional elections beginning to heat up, Republicans called on the administration to make public key documents in the Clinton email case.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, speaking at a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, accused Clinton, his likely Democratic opponent, of bribing Lynch to decide not to press charges.

He was referring to reports, including in the New York Times

this week, that Clinton, if elected president, might ask Lynch to stay on as attorney general.

“She said she’s going to reappoint the attorney general and the attorney general is waiting to make a determination as to whether or not she’s guilty. And boy was that a fast determination, wow,” Trump said, adding, “That’s bribery folks.”

On Capitol Hill, Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 3 House of Representatives Republican, reacted to Lynch’s announcement by proclaiming: “Secretary Clinton broke the law and lied about it.”

Senior Senate Republicans insisted that the FBI’s investigation be made available to the public, including a transcript of the more than three hours Clinton spent last Saturday in an interview conducted by the agency.

Shortly before Lynch’s announcement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters, “I think the next step…is to compare what Hillary Clinton said to the FBI with what Hillary Clinton’s been saying to all of us over the last couple of years during this controversy.”

In a blistering attack on Clinton, John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said on the Senate floor: “The bottom line is Secretary Clinton actively sought out ways to hide her actions as much as possible” by using a private email account while heading the State Department. “And in so doing, she put our country at risk” by leaving those emails vulnerable to computer hackers.

Democrats have questioned Republicans’ motives and accused them of squandering taxpayer dollars with lengthy investigations that have failed to uncover illegal activities.

“Republicans are in such desperate shape because of Trump (that) they would seize upon anything” to divert attention, said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid.

And Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement following Lynch’s announcement: “This investigation is closed and that should be the end of this matter.”

On Tuesday, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, had been “extremely careless” in her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, but he recommended no criminal charges be filed in the case.

Comey, who was deputy attorney general during the George W. Bush administration before becoming FBI director in 2013, is scheduled to testify on Thursday before a House committee, where Republicans and Democrats are expected to press him on his findings in the Clinton case.

Lynch said she met on Wednesday afternoon with Comey and the career prosecutors and agents who had investigated whether Clinton broke the law as result of email servers kept in her Chappaqua, New York, home. One question is whether she mishandled classified information.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said on Wednesday it appeared Clinton received preferential treatment from the FBI.

Asked whether a special prosecutor should be named to investigate the matter, Ryan said the House would not “foreclose any options.”

But Ryan did say that because of her messy handling of emails while serving as secretary of state, Clinton should be denied access to classified information during the campaign.

Presidential candidates normally get such briefings once they are formally nominated. McConnell, Ryan’s Senate counterpart, stopped short of calling for such action.

Clinton’s campaign was anxious to move on after Comey‘s announcement, saying in a statement on Tuesday it was pleased with the FBI decision.

 

Reporting by Eric Beech and Richard Cowan; Editing by Peter Cooney and Andrew Hay

Photo: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton delivers a campaign speech outside the shuttered Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey, July 6, 2016.  REUTERS/Brian Snyder