Presumptuous Politics : Oct 30, 2016

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Abedin & Clinton Cartoons

Load of manure dumped at Democratic headquarters in Ohio county

Workers at Democratic Party headquarters in Warren County, Ohio had to deal with a stinky situation Saturday after a load of manure was dumped outside the building.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the Warren County Sheriff's Office informed party officials of the dump at around 7:45 a.m. Deputies met with party officials later in the day to review security video.
"What reasonable person thinks this is OK???" party chair Bethe Goldenfield posted on a local politics Facebook group. "I won't be responding to anyone who thinks this is acceptable behavior. It is ILLEGAL!"
Goldenfield said the same thing happened four years ago. Warren County Republican Party chair Jeff Monroe told the paper his organization had nothing to do with the dung drop and offered to help with the clean-up.
Warren County, in suburban Cincinnati, is a deep-red part of the state. Mitt Romney won 69 percent of the vote in the 2012 presidential election and no Democrat has been elected to county-wide office in 40 years, according to the Enquirer.

John Fund: If Hillary wins, we’ll have a potential blackmail target in the White House

“This is just a distraction,” Democratic pollster Mark Mellman says of the news the FBI is reexamining the Clinton email case.
During a press conference — which lasted all of three minutes — Hillary Clinton herself said, “I think people a long time ago made up their minds about the emails. I think that’s factored into that people think and now they’re choosing a president.”
But for people in the intelligence community -- including disgruntled FBI agents and even former officials in the Pentagon, it’s not that easy.

WEINER, CLINTON AND THE FBI'S CHANCE AT REDEMPTION =AN ELECTION NIGHTMARE

The revival of the Clinton email scandal reminds them of just how exposed Clinton left highly classified information.
Last September, an FBI report noted the bureau couldn’t find proof her private email server was hacked into by adversaries. But it noted that the private server had to be shut down repeatedly because of hacker attacks and a successful attack wasn’t likely to have left fingerprints. Also, some "hostile foreign actors" were able to break into the personal email accounts of Clinton’s close aides, obtaining a treasure trove of emails exchanged with her personal account.
Note that so far none of the WikiLeaks revelations have come from Hillary’s personal account. That could mean it wasn’t hacked, or it could mean that “hostile” actors are waiting to make use of them.
Given the growing suspicions that the Clinton Foundation may have exchanged favors with the Clinton State Department, her private server could be of great interest in establishing such links.
In short, we have to acknowledge the danger that Hillary Clinton could be the target of international blackmail in the White House.
Consider what happened the first time the Clinton couple was there. Bill Clinton’s involvement with the intern Monica Lewinsky had national security implications and also subjected him to possible blackmail.
Secret Service agent Gary Bryne reported in his book ‘Crisis of Character” that U.S. intelligence agencies had concluded that Russia, the U.K. and Israel had intercepted phone calls between Clinton and Monica Lewinsky.
In 2000, Insight magazine, after a one-year investigation by a team of reporters, claimed that the Israeli government had “penetrated four White House telephone lines and was able to relay real-time conversations on those lines from a remote site outside the White House directly to Israel for listening and recording.”
Boris Yeltsin, the former Russian president, wrote in his memoirs that Russian intelligence had picked up on Clinton’s “predilection for beautiful young women.”
From agreeing to talk with the insecure Lewinsky on short notice to making sure she had a job to her liking at the Pentagon (with a security clearance!) President Clinton did a great deal to keep Lewinsky quiet. Nonetheless, she ended up discussing her affair with 11 people. One of those was Linda Tripp, a Pentagon official who recorded their talks. But what if Tripp or someone else had taken those tapes to Chinese or Iranian diplomats instead of Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor?
Indeed, in his book “Clinton, Inc.,” journalist Daniel Halper reports that there was a blackmail attempt against Bill Clinton.
In October 1998 in a bid to gain the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli team led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to blackmail President Clinton with tapes of Clinton and Lewinsky.
When Clinton brought Israel’s request for Pollard’s release to CIA Director George Tenet, Tenet threatened to resign on the spot should Clinton cave and release Pollard. Clinton ultimately declined the Israeli request, though he would consider it once again before the end of his term.
In fact, Clinton was all too aware of the security risk the Lewinsky relationship represented. The Starr Report, released in September 1998, reveals that Clinton told Lewinsky that "he suspected that a foreign embassy was tapping his telephones, and he proposed cover stories" if they were ever questioned about their relationship.
The president and Lewinsky had "phone sex" 10 to 15 times, so Clinton told Lewinsky that, if asked, she should say "they knew their calls were being monitored all along, and the phone sex was just a put-on." This laughable "explanation" wouldn't have helped much if a foreign power had intercepted the explicit calls.
"I'm just horrified to think the commander-in-chief is conducting himself with such reckless disregard for his responsibilities, making himself part and parcel of every blackmail threat that one can imagine," retired Marine Lt. Gen. Charles Cooper told the Washington Times in 1998.
The Code of Federal Regulations (Title 32, Chapter 1, Part 147) makes clear that a person may lose a security clearance for "concealment of information that may increase an individual's vulnerability to coercion, exploitation, or duress, such as engaging in activities which, if known, may affect the person's personal, professional, or community standing or render the person susceptible to blackmail.”
Presidents have enforced such laws by issuing edicts such as Executive Order No. 12968 in August 1995. It states that individuals eligible for access to classified material must have a record of "strength of character, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, discretion, and sound judgment, as well as freedom from conflicting allegiances and potential for coercion." It was signed by President Clinton. Three months later he began a relationship with an intern named Monica Lewinsky
The American people will have to decide if, after 20 years, the Clintons have really changed the way they operate and can be trusted to retake control of the Oval Office.

Lynch, Justice opposed Comey's Clinton email letter; Democrats in Senate demand answers

Four Democrats in the Senate on Saturday sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey requesting a range of disclosures in the wake of Comey's Friday announcement about newly discovered emails possibly pertaining to Hillary Clinton's use of a private server.
The letter asks for "more detailed information about the investigative steps being taken, the number of emails involved, and what is being done to determine how many of the emails are duplicative of those already reviewed."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Benjamin Cardin and Sen. Thomas Carper signed the letter and gave Comey and Lynch a deadline of Monday to respond.
Calling Comey's letter from Friday "troubling," and noting that they are aware of the warning given by the Justice Department to the FBI regarding Comey's actions on Friday, the senators also write that his letter to Congressional Republicans breaks with the longstanding tradition of the FBI and Department of Justice proceeding cautiously in the days leading up to an election.
"Director Comey's letter has been misunderstood. It is already being used for political purposes, creating a misleading impression regarding the FBI's intent and actions," the senators wrote, calling on federal officials to dispel any misleading impressions and clarify what significance any of the new emails have to the previous investigation of Sec. Clinton.
The Justice Department advised Comey against telling Congress about newly discovered emails possibly "pertinent” to the agency’s investigation into Clinton’s server, with GOP rival Donald Trump on Saturday suggesting a cover-up.
“That’s because the Justice Department is trying so hard to protect Hillary,” Trump said at a rally in battleground Colorado. “This is what we mean when we call it a rigged system. … She is so guilty.”
Comey said in a letter that was made public Friday that the FBI discovered the emails while pursuing a case related to the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin -- disgraced former New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who was allegedly sexting a 15-year-old girl on a laptop he shared with his wife.
A government source confirmed Saturday to Fox News that the Justice Department concluded the letter to Congress would be inconsistent with agency policy against investigations that could impact an election or help a particular candidate.
Comey purportedly made the decision to send the letter to Capitol Hill committee leaders independently of the Justice Department.
The FBI this summer concluded its rough 2-year-long investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server while secretary of state.
Comey said at the time that some of the emails contained classified information and that Clinton was “extremely careless” in her actions. However, the agency didn’t find enough evidence to recommend criminal charges to the Justice Department.
Clinton, who in most major polls leads Trump by about 5 percentage points, on Saturday repeated her call for Comey to provide more details, saying “explain everything right away, put it all out on the table.”
“If you're like me, you probably have a few questions about it,” Clinton said at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida. “It is pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election. In fact, it's not just strange, it's unprecedented and deeply troubling because voters deserve to get full and complete facts.”
She also accused Trump of “making up lies” about the issue and “doing his best to confuse, mislead and discourage the American people.”
Late Friday in Iowa, Clinton called on Comey to release the "full and complete facts" about the FBI review. In a speech Friday in Daytona Beach, Floriday, Clinton called Comey's release of the letter "unprecedented" and repeated her demand for more specifics.
On a conference call Saturday with reporters, Clinton campaign officials said the FBI has given no indication that the cache of recently discovered emails are even about the candidate
Campaign chairman John Podesta said Comey's information is "long on innuendo" and "short on facts." He also said there's "no evidence of wrongdoing. No charge of wrongdoing. No indication this is even about Hillary."
Podesta made the argument despite Comey saying the newly discovered emails are possibly "pertinent" to the larger Clinton email investigation.
Trump made a total of three campaign stop Saturday, with Election Day just 10 days away.
In Colorado, where Trump trails Clinton by single digits, he suggested the effort to protect Clinton went all the way to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the Obama administration’s top law enforcement officer.
In late-June, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, got off his plane in Phoenix to talk with Lynch, whose plane was on the same tarmac.
Lynch has said they talked about golf, travel and grandchildren. But the private meeting occurred days before the FBI interviewed Clinton, then closed the case.
“I’ve had a plane for a long time, and I’ve never had anybody walk off the runway and into my plane,” Trump said in Colorado.
The Clinton campaign late Saturday argued Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates also objected to Comey sending the letter.
Trump on Saturday also campaigned in North Carolina and Arizona, where he is in tight races with Clinton to win the White House.
Clinton on Saturday also campaigned i

Abedin reportedly pleads ignorance of how emails at center of latest Clinton probe got on computer

Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin reportedly has said she does not know how tens of thousands of emails related to the FBI investigation of her boss' personal server were found on a laptop she shared with her now-estranged husband, former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.
The Washington Post reported that Abedin was not a regular user of the laptop in question. The paper also reported that Abedin's lawyers did not bother to search the device for work-related emails after she agreed to turn over such messages to the State Department.
On Saturday, a senior law enforcement official told Fox News that the laptop contained "five digits," or at least 10,000, emails of interest to investigators.
The source also told Fox News that law enforcement officials think it's highly unlikely that all of the newfound emails are duplicates, as the Clinton campaign has suggested. The Post reported, citing former FBI officials, that investigators would likely use a computer program to weed out duplicate emails before examining the remaining messages for possible criminality.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that several Clinton allies have suggested the Democratic nominee distance herself from Abedin, who has had a professional relationship with Clinton for two decades. In that capacity, Clinton's team defended an unusual employment arrangement in which Abedin was paid by the Clinton Foundation, a consulting firm called Teneo and the State Department all at once.
Clinton also stood by Abedin when Weiner's first online sex scandal cost him his seat in Congress, and when his second imploded his bid for New York mayor. When Abedin announced her separation from Weiner earlier this year, it was Clinton's campaign that sent her statement to reporters.
Others suggested to the Times that the latest twist in the email investigation would make it impossible for Clinton to make Abedin part of her White House team if she is elected president next month. The paper also reported that Abedin did not travel with Clinton on a swing through Florida Saturday, instead working out of the campaign's Brooklyn headquarters.
"We of course stand behind her," Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told reporters, adding Abedin has "completely and voluntarily complied with and cooperated with the investigation."
The Post reported that Abedin gave a sworn deposition this past June, saying that she had "looked for all the devices that may have any of my State Department work on it and ... gave them to my attorneys for them to review for all relevant documents."
Two months earlier, Abedin told the FBI that her attorneys had asked the State Department about how to conduct a review of work messages from her personal laptop and Blackberry, but received no response.
The FBI announced Friday that it had restarted an investigation into emails Clinton sent on a private server system while secretary of state, as a result of a probe into Weiner's, “sexting,” or sending sexually-suggestive electronic messages, to a teenage girl.
The FBI conducted a roughly two-year investigation into Clinton’s use of a private server system, finding several emails marked as classified and concluding that she had been “extremely careless.” However, the agency did not find evidence that Clinton had been criminally negligent and did not recommend criminal charges to the Justice Department.