Hillary Clinton’s email troubles intensified last week with the release of a
critical report by the State Department’s Inspector General. In an editorial entitled “Clinton’s inexcusable, willful disregard for the rules,” the liberal Washington Post sums things up:
The State Department’s independent watchdog has issued a highly critical analysis of Hillary Clinton’s email practices while running the department, concluding that Clinton failed to seek legal approval for her use of a private server and that agency staff members would not have given their blessing if it had been sought because of “security risks.”
The report by the inspector general’s office concludes that Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for president, handled email in a way that was “not an appropriate method” for preserving public records and that her practices failed to comply with department policy.
The review found that Clinton, who has said her system was secure, also never provided security details to agency officials responsible for safeguarding sensitive government information.
Judicial Watch’s litigation forced the State Department to disclose Hillary Clinton’s secret email system that is now the subject of this scathing Inspector General report. A statement by the State Department in a February 2, 2015,
status report in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit was the first notice to the public and the court that the State Department had failed to thoroughly search all of Clinton’s email records:
“[The State Department] has discovered that additional searches for documents potentially responsive to the FOIA must be conducted.”
That statement was the first acknowledgement of Clinton’s secret email. And now, nearly a year and a half later, the State Department’s own Inspector General is confirming the gravity of Clinton’s end run around the law. Judicial Watch already uncovered much of the information cited in this report.
But the OIG report will be helpful in upcoming questioning of witnesses about the Clinton email matter. (Mrs. Clinton did not cooperate with the OIG investigation, which, as we told The Washington Times, is simply remarkable.)
The report refers to documents already uncovered by Judicial Watch, highlights facts first disclosed by Judicial Watch, and confirms misconduct by the agency and top officials that we’ve been highlighting in the courts for over a year.
The OIG report is an important first step in accountability. But Judicial Watch’s discovery is all the more important now — especially as we will talk to witnesses who did not cooperate with the OIG, such as Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin.
Tom Fitton is the president of Judicial Watch. He is a nationally recognized expert on government corruption. A former talk radio and television host and analyst, Tom is well known across the country as a national spokesperson for the conservative cause. He has been quoted in Time, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and most every other major newspaper in the country. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.