Now that Hillary Clinton’s email server technician is cooperating
with the FBI in its investigation into the mishandling of classified
information, it’s worth taking a look back at all the times that the
candidate and her surrogates have downplayed the probe or outright
laughed at it.
The FBI seized control of Clinton’s server in August, just after the
intelligence community’s inspector general flagged “Top Secret” emails
that traversed the device. Clinton housed the server at her New York
residence during her State Department tenure. She hired Bryan Pagliano, a
staffer on her 2008 presidential campaign, to manage the system. She
even got him at a job at the State Department as an information
technology specialist.
Sometime
late last year Pagliano began cooperating with FBI investigators in
exchange for immunity. That suggests the possibility that criminal
charges are on the table for Clinton or some of her State Department
aides who sent her classified information that landed on the server.
But
Clinton and her supporters have downplayed the FBI’s investigation —
which the candidate has called a “security review.” Clinton herself has,
at times, even attempted to laugh off questions about her email habits
and the ongoing inquiry.
On Aug. 5, Clinton campaign spokeswoman Karen Finney said during an
interview with MSNBC that the FBI seizing control of Clinton’s server
“really isn’t news.” She then pinned the growing interest in Clinton’s
emails and her server on Republicans
“We know that these attacks are going to come,” she said.
Finney appeared on CNN the next day and again faulted Republicans.
“This is a politically motivated series of attacks that we’ve seen,”
she said. But she backtracked when asked whether the questions about
Clinton’s emails were valid.
Later that month, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a devoted Clinton
supporter, said that the questions raised about Clinton’s emails were
“hooey.”
“I am far happier with the server in the custody of the Justice
Department than in the custody of Trey Gowdy and the ridiculous farce
that that has become,” the failed 2004 presidential candidate said on
MSNBC.
“I don’t think that she’s going to get the blame for it because she didn’t know.
David Brock, the head of the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record
and one of the candidate’s biggest shills, said during a Sept. 14
interview on “Morning Joe” that the email investigation would soon go
away and would be “put to bed.
James Carville, the longtime Clinton loyalist and campaign adviser,
said during an MSNBC interview in August that the FBI’s investigation is
“not going to amount to a hill of beans.”
“Basically there’s almost zero chance that she did anything that was wrong,” Carville drawled.
Also in August, Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri,
offered perhaps the most blinkered defense of Clinton’s server and the
FBI’s probe.
When asked by Bloomberg’s John Heilemann about whether Clinton or
anyone who handled her server wiped information from it, Palmieri said
it would be beneficial if they did.
“I think that’s the outcome they’d want because their concern is that the information is secure!” Palmieri said.
Last month, Clinton’s chief spokesman, Brian Fallon, downplayed the
FBI’s investigation following the revelation that former secretaries of
state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice had received classified
information on their email accounts.
“I think a lot of the wind was taken out of this story last week
based on the fact that the very same findings have been made with
respect to Colin Powell. You tell me how they’re going to prosecute a
case of any of these people when the same thing has been found of the
Bush administration,” Fallon said.
What he declined to address is the fact that neither Powell nor Rice
created homebrew email systems. Nor did they hire personal technicians
to work at the State Department. Nor did they exclusively use personal
email accounts.
And way back in April, a month after the Clinton email scandal broke,
James Carville told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that there was “nothing
wrong” with Clinton’s email habits and off-the-books email system.
“It’s not against the law, against regulations,” Carville asserted.
“At the end of the day, I predict that this whole thing is going to
amount to diddly-squat.”
Clinton’s surrogates aren’t the only ones to scoff at the FBI investigation.
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper in October, Clinton broke
into uproarious laughter when asked about the scandal and Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders’ comments during a debate that month that “nobody cares
about your damn emails.”
Clinton’s surrogates aren’t the only ones to scoff at the FBI investigation.
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper in October, Clinton broke
into uproarious laughter ”
A few days later, Clinton made a wise crack when asked by reporters whether she had wiped her server clean.
“Like with a cloth or something?” Clinton joked.
But Clinton has responded more seriously in other venues. Such as on
Jan. 17 when she expressed her extreme displeasure at CNN’s Jake Tapper
when he asked her if she had been interviewed by the FBI.
“No,” is all the Democratic front-runner said, shaking her head with anger in her eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment