Clinton questioned by FBI as part of email probe

[ckf]

Clinton questioned by FBI as part of email probe

Meeting indicates investigation coming to an end

 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

WASHINGTON (CNN) —Hillary Clinton met with the FBI Saturday as part of the investigation into her use of a private email server while leading the State Department, her campaign said.

"Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was secretary," Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said in a statement. "She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview."

An aide said the interview occurred at FBI headquarters in Washington Saturday morning and lasted approximately three and a half hours.

The news of FBI agents interviewing the former secretary of state could heighten anxiety among Democrats that their nominee might be indicted before November. It also serves as a reminder of Clinton's negatives to voters already skeptical of her trustworthiness.

The meeting means the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server for official business as secretary of state is coming to an end, and sources familiar with the investigation had previously told CNN the Justice Department's aim was to wrap up the probe before the Republican and Democratic conventions later this month. Investigators had initially hoped to have the probe wrapped up well before now.

It's an investigation that has cast a shadow over her campaign and also has put the Justice Department in the position of having a major say in how the 2016 vote turns out.

The interview comes at the end of a week that could have been another win for Clinton as Trump continues to struggle, but instead demonstrated her -- and her husband's -- inability to avoid unforced errors and leave past controversies behind.

House Benghazi Committee Republicans on Tuesday released their report on the September 11, 2012, attack where four Americans died, which drew significant media attention but lacked significant new information that changed the dynamic of the race. The panel's biggest discovery was finding the email address and server over a year ago.

Clinton has maintained that no emails marked as classified at the time were sent on the server, and that information in some emails was retroactively classified. And her campaign has actively portrayed the congressional investigation into Benghazi as a partisan exercise, highlighted by last October's 11-hour hearing where Clinton testified.

But the FBI interview, along with news that Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch met at an Arizona airport Monday, shows Clinton can't move past the email issue -- a story that overshadowed the launch of her campaign in early 2015 and helped Bernie Sanders find running room still won't go away.

 

Sanders, in fact, is still in the race, pushing for progressive changes to the Democratic platform. As recently as Thursday, the Vermont senator said he's not ready to endorse Clinton.

For Republicans, the possibility of an indictment is a satisfying one. The GOP has pursued the Clintons for 25 years, from the scandals of Bill Clinton's presidency and his impeachment to Hillary Clinton's actions leading up to and during the Benghazi attacks. That the FBI could hamstring her presidential ambitions is a bonus for the GOP.

But it's a reminder that their candidate -- Donald Trump -- is a major liability himself. He's more unpopular than she is and his poll numbers are sliding. Her campaign and allies have been airing millions of dollars' worth of ads against him, many highlighting his impolitic statements about women and minorities -- two groups that are backing Clinton by large margins.

The GOP establishment has yet to fully rally around the billionaire New York businessman, who trails Clinton 46% to 40% in the latest CNN Poll of Polls and has struggled to raise money in comparison to the Clinton and Democratic juggernaut.

The revelations of the email server as part of the House's Benghazi probe have also resulted in lawsuits filed in Freedom of Information Act cases by the conservative Judicial Watch and other groups.

One such lawsuit saw Clinton's top aide, Huma Abedin, deposed this week, along with other State Department staffers.

A State Department Inspector General report released in late May said Clinton failed to follow rules or inform key staff about the server.

"At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act," the report said.

She won't be able to frame the FBI investigation, run by President Barack Obama's Justice Department, as partisan against her. And this week's seemingly impromptu meeting between Lynch and Bill Clinton was another problem for Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The meeting happened as Lynch's plane sat Monday on the tarmac of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after Clinton attended a fundraiser for his wife's campaign in the Phoenix area, a campaign source tells CNN's Brianna Keilar.

John Gomez, deputy chief of staff to Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, confirmed that he and 13 other Latino leaders in the community met with Bill Clinton Monday afternoon.

The resulting backlash led Lynch on Friday to publicly declare she would accept the determinations and findings of DOJ career prosecutors and the FBI.

"I certainly wouldn't do it again because I think it has cast this shadow over what it should not, over what it will not touch," Lynch said in Aspen, Colorado. "It's important to make it clear that that meeting with President Clinton does not have a bearing on how this matter will be reviewed and resolved."

 

[Zambroski]

Why do I find this extremely "suspect" in the light of a rough week for Dems?

[Cold War]

Why can't Republicans just mind their own business and let Hillary be as crooked as she wants.

She has a vagina and it's her turn.

[oleroule]

she'd like to use a lifeline.

Edited July 2, 2016 by oleroule

[Zambroski]

1 minute ago, oleroule said:

she'd like to use a lifeline.

Funny as that is....I think she's getting thrown one right now.  Her agreeing to immediately participate in this is off-putting to me.  I believe a deal somewhere has been reached and we are about to get the wool pulled over our eyes again. Oh well.....same old.

[Momorider]

22 minutes ago, Zambroski said:

Funny as that is....I think she's getting thrown one right now.  Her agreeing to immediately participate in this is off-putting to me.  I believe a deal somewhere has been reached and we are about to get the wool pulled over our eyes again. Oh well.....same old.

It's all just a vast rightwing conspiracy  

[Skidooski]

FBI chasing ghosts again?

[Rod]

She keeps calling it a "review"

[Elkhorn]

They STILL call it a review  

voluntary  

 

"Secretary Clinton gave a voluntary interview this morning about her email arrangements while she was Secretary,” spokesman Nick Merrill said. “She is pleased to have had the opportunity to assist the Department of Justice in bringing this review to a conclusion. Out of respect for the investigative process, she will not comment further on her interview.”

[ckf]

Why the timing of Clinton's FBI interview couldn't be worse

By Maeve Reston and Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 8:05 PM ET, Sat July 2, 2016

 

(CNN)The optics could hardly be worse.

Three weeks from the Democratic National Convention as most Americans are jamming airports, firing up the grill or looking forward to Fourth of July fireworks, Hillary Clinton was at FBI headquarters -- for a full three and a half hours -- answering questions about her use of a private email server for official business as secretary of state.

Though not unexpected, that news broke in the context of a fresh political storm. In a stunning act of bravado, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch aboard her plane Monday while both were on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Clinton's long-awaited questioning by the FBI Saturday signaled that the agency is wrapping up its probe into whether she or her staff did anything illegal by setting up a private email server while running American foreign policy. Sources tell CNN the expectation is Clinton will not face charges.

Bill Clinton says he regrets Lynch meeting

But when paired with Bill Clinton's apparent misstep -- meeting with Lynch at a time when his wife is under investigation -- the two events once again fuel the narrative that the Clintons operate under different rules than the rest of the political world. The stakes of the next several weeks before Democrats officially make Clinton their nominee are much higher now.

Republicans pounce

And Republicans, who have spent weeks grappling with the drama kicked up by their own presumptive nominee Donald Trump, are ready to pounce.

"The American people need to have confidence that the Obama Justice Department is conducting a fair and impartial investigation, but when the attorney general meets secretly with Bill Clinton just days before Hillary's interrogation is conducted discreetly over a holiday weekend, it raises serious concerns about special treatment," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement.

Trump called for criminal charges against Clinton.

"It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton," Trump tweeted Saturday. "What she did was wrong! What Bill did was stupid!"

Photos: Clinton scandals through the years

 

 

At a time when she must sharpen her arguments against Trump as unfit for the Oval Office, Americans were once again reminded of Clinton's greatest political liability: questions about character and honesty that swirled around her and her husband during two terms in the White House in the 1990s and have endured to this day.

Clinton campaign says it raised $68M in June

The events of the last week also reminded voters of the Clintons' apparent Achilles heel -- a tendency to steer into self-inflicted political squalls that blow up just at the moment they seem to be heading into clear political waters.

The timing seemed especially unfortunate for the Clinton campaign given that the presumptive Democratic nominee seemed to be gaining her footing after a long and bruising primary battle with Bernie Sanders. In recent weeks, Clinton has reveled in the unforced errors of Trump's campaign while expanding her lead over the real estate magnate in national polls.

Clinton's campaign offered few details about her visit to FBI headquarters Saturday, but hastened to note that the meeting about her "email arrangements" was voluntary.

Still, it thrust her potentially precarious legal position back into the news at a time when Trump has been building his case against her on character -- calling her "Crooked Hillary" and claiming that she should be thrown in jail because of her use of a private server.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump stirred his own controversy by tweeting "Crooked Hillary -- makes History" with an image of her face surrounded by money and a six-pointed star that for some evoked the Star of David imprinted with the words "most corrupt candidate ever." After a burst of outrage on Twitter, the tweet was deleted and replaced with a similar missive where message "most corrupt candidate ever" appeared in a red circle, rather than a six-pointed star.

Historically low approval

On a day when the most of the political world was checked out, Clinton's FBI visit and Trump's Twitter blunder were a reminder that the 2016 election pairs up two candidates with historically low personal approval ratings, who sometimes seem as likely to hamper their own campaigns as damage their rival.

The potential political damage of the FBI probe of Clinton -- and the extent to which Trump may use it against her -- will depend to a great extent on how quickly the FBI wraps up its investigation into email practices and what its findings are. Sources familiar with the investigation have previously told CNN the Justice Department's aim was to wrap up before the Republican and Democratic conventions this month.

While many Democrats hope that's the case, the week's events brought a renewed focus on Bill Clinton, and the question of whether he ultimately becomes a liability to her campaign.

The former President has been a far more disciplined and scripted campaigner for his wife this cycle than he was in 2008. Notably, he has studiously avoided responding to Trump's provocations about his impeachment, his past conduct with women and his marriage. Apart from a few run-ins with Sanders supporters and hecklers, the 42nd President has avoided the red-faced rages and political meddling that were a distraction for his wife's previous presidential campaign.

He had largely repaired his relationship with the Obama administration after their tough combat on the campaign trail eight years ago -- and won the admiration and gratitude of President Barack Obama for his role as "explainer-in-chief" during the 2012 re-election campaign. But he put the administration in a very difficult spot this week by popping on to Lynch's campaign to talk, she said, mostly about golf and grandchildren.

Photos: Hillary Clinton's life in the spotlight

The impromptu meeting was a surprising move for an ex-President who is widely considered to be one of the brightest political minds of his generation—creating the perception that he may have used his power and influence to arrange a meeting with an official who could be integral in the investigation of his wife.

Why was Bill Clinton in Phoenix the day he met with Lynch?

Forced to defend the meeting Friday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Lynch said she "certainly wouldn't do it again, because I think it has cast a shadow over what it should not, over what it will not touch," Lynch said.

She emphasized that the meeting with Bill Clinton "does not have a bearing on how this matter will be reviewed and resolved" and said she would accept the determinations and findings of the FBI in their probe of Clinton's email use.

'Would not do it again'

An aide to Bill Clinton said in a statement Saturday that "the President's conversation with the Attorney General was unplanned and was entirely social in nature. But recognizing how others could take another view of it, he agrees with the Attorney General that he would not do it again."

In the short-term, Clinton's meeting with FBI agents and her husband's march across the tarmac at Phoenix airport to Lynch's jet hand ammunition to Trump -- who has in recent weeks struggled to overcome his own blizzard of missteps.

It won't matter to Trump that the Clinton campaign says her session at FBI head quarters was voluntary. The billionaire will conjure up visions of the former secretary of state being grilled by the Feds, to stoke suspicion of wrongdoing and to recall the depositions, investigations and the scandals that scarred the Clinton administration during the 1990s and which he has suggested voters have no desire to revisit.

"Hillary Clinton has got to go to jail," Trump told supporters in California last month, in one example of the way he has latched onto the email server drama to raise doubts about Clinton's character and legitimacy as a presidential candidate. "Folks, honestly, she's guilty as hell."

The road to 270

It may not be possible to assess the full impact of Bill Clinton's perceived intervention until after the FBI has delivered its verdict.

If, Clinton, as many Washington insiders expect, escapes indictment over the email issue, the former President's actions are certain to be enlisted by conservatives who have already been framing a case that the probe is a set up orchestrated by the Obama administration.

Austan Goolsbee, a former senior member of Obama's economic team, told CNN Saturday that Trump would do everything possible to exploit the new developments in the long-running Clinton email saga.

"He will say, 'Well she was interviewed by the FBI this weekend,'" he said.

Goolsbee added: "Until we get to the point that the FBI releases their report or makes a recommendation or whatever they are going to do ... I think Donald Trump is going to keep saying that to try to take the focus off the things he's said."

The email server controversy had hurt Clinton long before her session at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington on Saturday.

In a CNN/ORC poll in June, 67% of people said that she had made a mistake in setting up the system as secretary of state. The drama has clearly weighed on Clinton's support in crucial electoral battlegrounds. A Quinnipiac University poll last month found that by margins of between 8 and 14 points, voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania are skeptical of Clinton's trustworthiness.

But Bakari Sellers, a CNN commentator who is also a Clinton supporter, said the interview would come as a relief for Clinton's camp -- offering the prospect that the email saga that has dragged behind her campaign was finally drawing to a close. He also argued that the fact that Clinton's lawyers had allowed her to sit with the FBI meant it was unlikely that they believed she had any genuine legal exposure.

But Sellers admitted on "CNN Newsroom" that the former president's meeting with Lynch amounted to "bad optics" that had put his wife's campaign on defense. [/quote}

[Momorider]

Liar and a CUNT  

[Mainecat]

Just thinking what the next Clinton investigation will be by the repubs. 

[Zambroski]

14 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Just thinking what the next Clinton investigation will be by the repubs. 

Good Grief!  Are you saying she's guilty of more thinks?  How much more?  It never ends!  

Edited July 3, 2016 by Zambroski

[racer254]

46 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

Just thinking what the next Clinton investigation will be by the repubs. 

What metric would actually cause you to believe that she did something wrong?

Edited July 3, 2016 by racer254

[Rmk]

Nothing will ever come of it. Not that I don't think it should plenty of evidence to Bing her clan down.

[Capt.Storm]

57 minutes ago, racer254 said:

What metric would actually cause you to believe that she did something wrong?

Hell I bet she put Billy up for that meeting with lynch even.

[Cold War]

Listening to them spin it on the news, you would think Hillary was doing her civic duty. Helping out in an investigation.

Trump is always "under fire" , "embattled", " in trouble" . backlash.

She is eager!!!!!!!

Lol what a lying bitch.

She is damn phony.

[Capt.Storm]

7 minutes ago, Cold War said:

Listening to them spin it on the news, you would think Hillary was doing her civic duty. Helping out in an investigation.

Trump is always "under fire" , "embattled", " in trouble" . backlash.

She is eager!!!!!!!

Lol what a lying bitch.

She is damn phony.

yep..as if she has nothing to hide.

[Cold War]

4 minutes ago, Capt.Storm said:

yep..as if she has nothing to hide.

She has no idea how to connect with people, she is as fake as it gets.

Can you imagine Trump saying how thrilled he is to be part of a federal investigation?

No one buys it, why lie about it something so stupid.

[Capt.Storm]

Just now, Cold War said:

She has no idea how to connect with people, she is as fake as it gets.

Can you imagine Trump saying how thrilled he is to be part of a federal investigation?

No one buys it, why lie about it something so stupid.

Oh trust me ..a lot of people who are way to busy to follow it all buy it.

Probably most women buy it or don't give a chit what she has done because men make it so hard for women to get ahead.

[Zambroski]

23 minutes ago, Cold War said:

Listening to them spin it on the news, you would think Hillary was doing her civic duty. Helping out in an investigation.

Trump is always "under fire" , "embattled", " in trouble" . backlash.

She is eager!!!!!!!

Lol what a lying bitch.

She is damn phony.

Exactly!  They are reporting it at least and thank god for the local affiliate being on the ball at the airport.  Clever, non-threatening phrases like "review", "interviewing", "cooperating with", "having a meeting", "questions".....anything but "investigation", "possible wrong doing", "inappropriate", "against policy".

Our wonderful news sources!  Oh, and it is funny how pics of Hillary are far more flattering than pics of Trump (not that either are much to look at in their most flattering poses).  I'm beginning to think China, N. Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, on and on and on.....may not be on the wrong with censoring media and free speech.  We are just doing it the opposite way.  The people that control the flow of information are duping us every day.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Zambroski

[Rod]

Voting for hillary at this point is like treason. 

[Rod]

This is you have most people like Vince, MC, rump rider, etc who are very easily manipulated by the media. They will gobble it up and vote for her in droves for no other real reason other than they've been told to.

if the media is pumping hillary his hard something is wrong. Very wrong. And unless the voters send a message that they won't take it anymore, it'll never stop.

[Capt.Storm]

To be fair MC says he's not voting for her.

Though a no vote for the bish is really a vote for trump..thanks mc.

[Rod]

32 minutes ago, Capt.Storm said:

To be fair MC says he's not voting for her.

Though a no vote for the bish is really a vote for trump..thanks mc.

He says that, but then he will have a long list of why he ended up voting for her