Summer is only just starting. But Hillary Clinton is already feeling the heat.
Hillary Clinton’s hopes that the State Department investigation into her secret email server would come up empty came crashing down last week with the release of a scathing Inspector General’s report that unequivocally stated Clinton “did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.”
Even the Obama White House won’t go to bat for Clinton, as Press Secretary Josh Earnest punted Tuesday on a chance to defend her non-cooperation with the IG probe. Fox News also reported lawyers for top Clinton aide Cheryl Mills are blocking any questions related to Bryan Pagliano, the IT staffer who set up Clinton’s off the books server – and required immunity from the FBI before talking.
Clinton’s credibility has been torn to shreds, and as her team struggles to spin her obvious breach of the law, her persistent dishonesty has only created a new set of hurdles.
First, the IG report proved Clinton has been lying from the get-go about her secret email server. In March 2015, Clinton said she “provided all my emails that could possibly be work-related,” but the IG report makes clear several work-related emails belonging to Hillary Clinton were apparently never turned over. Clinton told Jake Tapper her private server was “allowed under the rules of the State Department” but in reality, the IG investigation “found no evidence that the Secretary requested or obtained guidance or approval to conduct official business via a personal email account on her private server.” For months, Clinton maintained a willingness to fully comply with the investigation, but the report indicated Clinton declined to be interviewed by the Inspector General. Clinton’s insistence on clearing her name has been exposed as lip service, and her top priority is staying as far away as possible from the investigation.
Even more shameless is the Clinton team still spinning statements they know are lies. Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon had the audacity to claim that despite the IG report clearly contradicting numerous of her past claims, it “doesn’t make her statements untruthful.” That level of spin would be laughable were it not for the fact it just shows Clinton’s team is even now still content to keep lying to the American people in the face of rock-solid evidence of her misleading the public.
Secondly, her top aides are also stonewalling on the investigation because of the spider web of lies Clinton and her team have woven. Top aide Cheryl Mills, the IG report shows, was aware of attempts to hack Clinton’s server, defended Clinton’s use of a BlackBerry despite it not meeting minimum security requirements, and sent information now marked classified to private email addresses. Mills also walked out of the FBI interview during its own investigation of the secret server. Nobody can take seriously her staff’s claims to transparency, either: the Office of the Inspector General sent questionnaires to 26 members of Clinton’s staff and got all of 5 responses. Clinton’s aides are as guilty of trying to hide the truth as she is. Apples don’t fall far from the tree in Clinton-world.
Third, the IG report reinforces what everyone knows and dislikes about Hillary Clinton. Her use of a secret email server was clearly for the purpose of keeping her public business away from anyone who might hold her accountable. If America is disappointed in the Obama administration’s failures of transparency, Clinton has already set the tone for the stonewalling that will take place in hers. Whether it is her secret server, the shadiness at Clinton Foundation, or her refusal to release the transcripts of speeches to Wall Street executives, a dishonest, above-the-law mentality is par for the course with all things Clinton. If she can’t be trusted with email, how can she be trusted with the White House?
Hillary Clinton’s dishonesty has caught up with her again. And with the Judicial Watch lawsuit and the FBI investigation still rolling full steam ahead, the worst of Hillary Clinton’s woes over her secret email server may still be yet to come. It’s going to be a long summer for Crooked Hillary.