Presumptuous Politics : Aug 17, 2016

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Hillary Benghazi Cartoons (Not Funny)

FBI sends heavily redacted Clinton interview documents to Congress

Sneaky Snake

A congressional source confirmed to Fox News Tuesday that the House Government Oversight Committee had received a heavily redacted FBI summary of Hillary Clinton’s session last month with FBI agents who interviewed her about her use of a private server for government business. The agents’ notes were provided as well.
Separately, the Republican chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, confirmed that even he does not have a high enough security clearance to read the documents in full.
“As the chairman of the chief investigative body in the House, it is significant I can’t even read these documents in their entirety,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah told Fox News. “This shows how dangerous it was to have this intelligence, highly classified to this day, on the former secretary’s unsecured personal server where it was vulnerable.”
The fact that portions of the FBI investigative file are heavily redacted and must be held and read by lawmakers in a secure facility on Capitol Hill shows how classified the material remains, despite claims made by the Clinton campaign.
The campaign’s call to release the FBI agents’ notes appears suspect because the material is too highly classified to make public.The FBI told the committee that the documents cannot be released in part or in full without prior agency approval.
"This information being highly classified according to the FBI is in direct conflict with what the State Department and Ms. Clinton have said is on the server. You could not have it both ways," former military intelligence officer Tony Shaffer said. "You cannot say one day this is unclassified ‘nothing to see here’ and the next day, only certain people can see this and you must not be able to take it outside of a secure facility."
Clinton was specifically interviewed by the FBI about her handling of 22 top secret emails, which included some of the government's most closely held government programs known as special access programs, which often include human spying. The 22 top secret emails were deemed by the intelligence community too damaging to national security to make public, even with large sections blacked out.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, confirmed it had received "FBI witness interview reports," including that of Clinton's interview.
"With the exception of the classified emails that had been found on the private server, I can see little legitimate purpose to which Congress will put these materials," Schiff said in a statement.
The bureau, in closing its case, confirmed publicly that 113 classified emails were sent and received by Clinton, as well as 2,000 that were classified after the fact.
FBI chief James Comey said investigators found at least three emails that contained classified markings. However, he did not recommend criminal charges, and the Justice Department closed the case.
While Clinton has insisted nothing was marked classified at the time, the investigation found otherwise, with the emails containing a portion marking (C for confidential, the lowest level of classification). Fox News first reported that some of the emails were marked classified in June.
The House Oversight Committee questioned Comey for over five hours in July after he said no reasonable prosecutor would pursue criminal charges.
The Oversight Committee also has formally asked if Clinton committed perjury during her Benghazi testimony in October 2015, because her statements to Congress appear to conflict with the FBI's findings.
While Democrats complained the documents would be leaked, it was the Democrats who released the FBI's letter to the committee.

State Department sought land deal with Nigerian firm tied to Clinton Foundation

Clinton Foundation dogged by more allegations of impropriety

EXCLUSIVE: Shortly after Hillary Clinton left the Obama administration, the State Department quietly took steps to purchase real estate in Nigeria from a firm whose parent company is owned by a major donor to the Clinton Foundation, records obtained by Fox News show.
On March 20, 2013, William P. Franklin, an “international realty specialist” at the State Department, emailed Mary E. Davis, an American diplomat stationed in Africa, instructing her to “put on Post letterhead” an “expression of interest” by the department in purchasing property at Eko Atlantic, a massive real estate development off the coast of Lagos. Franklin further instructed that the signed letter was to be “delivered to Ronald Chagoury.”
The draft letter, also obtained by Fox News, was undated and addressed to Chagoury care of his firm South Energyx Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of the larger Chagoury Group that is spearheading the Eko Atlantic real estate venture. The State Department letter sought, among other things, to confirm that the department could proceed with “acquisition of the real property…[at] the asking price of $1,250 per square meter.”
Overtures to real estate developers from State Department officials scouting locations for embassies, consulates and other diplomatic facilities would ordinarily not arouse interest. But in this case, the budding transaction – never completed, the department now says – raised eyebrows because Ronald Chagoury is the brother and business partner, in the Chagoury Group, of Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-born businessman whom federal records show has donated between $1 and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.
Indeed, Gilbert Chagoury’s friendship with the Clintons can be traced back to the Clinton presidency. In the mid-1990s, Chagoury donated nearly $500,000 to a voter-registration drive designed to help Democratic candidates, attended a White House dinner for premium donors, and met with high-ranking officials in the Clinton White House – including Susan Rice, now President Obama’s national security adviser – who were shaping U.S. policy toward Nigeria.
More recently, the Chagourys’ close ties to the Clintons generated headlines when a separate series of emails from 2009 – between Doug Band, an aide to former President Clinton and Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary Clinton – revealed the eagerness of the State Department to oblige a request for Chagoury to be granted access to senior officials working on Lebanon.
The State Department’s outreach to the Chagoury family, looking to buy property from the brothers, came less than a month after former President Clinton himself toured the Eko Atlantic project – for the second time. The first occasion was the ground breaking, in 2009, in which the former president participated. By all accounts, Eko Atlantic represents a staggeringly ambitious undertaking: the dredging of millions of tons of sand from the sea floor off Victoria Island and the creation of an estimated 3.5 square miles of new land, on which the Chagourys aim to establish what they call a “21st century city … for residential, commercial, financial and tourist development.”
Mr. Clinton toured the Eko Atlantic site for the second time on February 21, 2013 – twenty days after his wife left the State Department – to celebrate the Chagourys’ reclamation of 5 million square meters of land, a critical juncture in the project.
Smiling and animated, Mr. Clinton was photographed conferring with Gilbert Chagoury and Jeffrey J. Hawkins, the consul general for the State Department in Nigeria. Twenty-seven days later, when William P. Franklin would order aides to begin exploring the acquisition of land from South Energyx, the Chagoury-owned company, Hawkins would be one of four State Department officials copied on Franklin’s email.
“A month after Bill Clinton visits a Gilbert and Ronald Chagoury-run land project in Nigeria, the U.S. State Department wants to buy the same land,” said David N. Bossie, president of Citizens United, the conservative advocacy group whose litigation against the State Department pried loose the Franklin email and accompanying letter. “Who could be so lucky? A major donor to the Clinton Foundation, that’s who.”
Queried by Fox News about the matter, the State Department said its officials had “prioritized” the search for a new consulate location in Lagos back in 2011 – when Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state – and that an “independent international real estate firm” had identified Eko Atlantic as a potential site the following year.
“Our site search process … is managed by career real estate professionals in the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations, with input from independent real estate firms and other department stakeholders,” said Elizabeth Trudeau, a State Department spokeswoman, at a briefing for reporters on Monday. “The department has had conversations with multiple property owners and their representatives about the possibility of acquiring property for a new consulate in Lagos.”
Trudeau could not explain why a “prioritized” mission had dragged on for five years without success, noting only that “acquiring property that’s appropriate” for a diplomatic facility can be “a long process.” Asked if Secretary Clinton had been aware of her department’s identification of the Chagoury-owned land as a potential site for a consulate, Trudeau replied: “I’m not aware she was.”
The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Mark Corallo, a Washington-based spokesman for Gilbert Chagoury, said in a statement that given the project’s “state-of-the-art urban design,” including advanced telecommunications and security features, “it should come as no surprise that the United States government and other governments from around the world are considering Eko Atlantic as a new opportunity for locating their offices that operate in Lagos.”
John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Fox News contributor, said the entire series of events involving the Clintons and the Chagourys appeared, at a minimum, poorly handled to insulate Secretary Clinton from conflict of interest charges.
“The impression left is that there’s favoritism involved,” Bolton said. “And it’s just very unusual in State Department real estate and housing transactions overseas to have this kind of focus on someone with such clear financial connections to even the departed secretary of state. Normally, there’s much more competitive activity involved, [of] which we haven’t seen any evidence from the State Department.”
Experts agreed the March 2013 email from William P. Franklin to Mary E. Davis, triggering the State Department’s letter to Ronald Chagoury for a possible real estate transaction, would likely have formed only one set of documents in a longer trail that would have dated back to 2012 – the year the State Department said Eko Atlantic had been identified as a potential site for a new consulate.
Such a trail would presumably include internal correspondence addressing the suitability of the Eko Atlantic site and, perhaps, flagging the potential conflict of interest that could be cited, given the longstanding ties between the Clintons and the Chagourys.
But Citizens United said no other documents on the consulate-scouting effort were turned over by the State Department. The group filed its initial Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department for records relating to Gilbert Chagoury back in 2014, and, receiving no reply, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in April 2015.

Trump says Clinton, Democrats have 'failed and betrayed' African-Americans after Milwaukee riots

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump Tuesday responded to violence following a police shooting in Milwaukee with a wide-ranging attack on rival Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, accusing Clinton of "bigotry" and saying she sees African-Americans as no more than votes to be won.
"The Democratic Party has failed and betrayed the African-American community," Trump told supporters in West Bend, Wis., 45 minutes outside Milwaukee. "It is time to break with the failures of the past."
The real estate mogul accused Clinton of setting herself "against the police" and called for more law enforcement officers in local communities, vowing to "break up the gangs, the cartels, and criminal syndicates terrorizing our neighborhoods."
"[Clinton] panders to and talks down to communities of color and sees them only as votes, not as individual human beings worthy of a better future," Trump said. "She doesn’t care at all about the hurting people of this country, or the suffering she has caused them."
There was no immediate comment from the Clinton campaign. On Monday, Clinton told supporters during a stop in Scranton, Pa. that the Milwaukee protests showed the nation had "urgent work to do to rebuild trust between police and communities" and said "everyone should have respect for the law and be respected by the law."
Addressing the weekend riots in Wisconsin's largest city after the shooting of a black man by a black police officer, Trump noted, "The main victims of these riots are law-abiding African-Americans living in these neighborhoods."
"Those peddling the narrative of cops as a racist force in our society … share directly in the responsibility for the unrest in Milwaukee," Trump said. "They have fostered the dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America [and] do a direct disservice to poor African-American residents who are hurt by the high crime in their communities."
Later, Trump said the impact of Democratic control of major cities has been "more crime, more broken homes, and more poverty."
In an apparent response to criticism of his acceptance speech at last month's Republican National Convention, Trump said that "the future [Clinton] offers is the most pessimistic thing I can imagine."
Polls show Trump trailing Clinton by wide margins among black voters, particularly in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. African-Americans also reliably turned out for Clinton during her Democratic primary contest against Sen. Bernie Sanders, helping her shore up blowout wins in the South and Midwest.
On Tuesday, Trump called Clinton "the personification of special interest corruption." In a remark supporting expansion of charter schools, he accused Clinton of preferring to "deny opportunities to millions of young African-American children, just so she can curry favor with the education bureaucracy."
Trump also returned to the topic of the speaking fees Clinton collected after leaving her position as secretary of state. If elected, Trump vowed, he would ban senior officials from collecting speaking fees from corporations with a registered lobbyist or any entity tied to a foreign government for five years after leaving office.
Trump began his visit with a meeting with local law enforcement officers at the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center on Lake Michigan. Among those present were Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, who penned an op-ed Monday blaming liberal Democrats and the media for the unrest that has rocked the city.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends", Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker accused Clinton of "inflaming the situation" with her comments.

"I think people understand in that neighborhood and Sherman Park and in Milwaukee, they want law enforcement to step up and protect them," he said, adding that "statements like that" from Clinton and a "lack of leadership" from President Barack Obama "only inflame the situation."
Trump told Fox News that the shooting in Milwaukee may have occurred because the officer had a gun to his head.
"Who can have a problem with that?" Trump said. "If it is true, then people shouldn't be rioting."
Trump's campaign also announced Tuesday that it will finally begin airing its first ads of the general election next week in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
While polls have shown Clinton building an overall lead following the Philadelphia convention, Democrats are fearful that a depressed voter turnout might diminish support among the minority, young and female voters who powered Obama to two victories.
Clinton said at a voter registration event at a Philadelphia high school that she's "not taking anybody anywhere for granted" in the race for the White House, saying the stakes "could not be higher."
While guarding against complacency, Clinton is also preparing for a potential administration.
Her campaign announced that former Interior Secretary and former Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar would chair her White House transition team.

Trump campaign undergoes overhaul

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has shaken up his campaign once again with the election only 82 days away.
Fox News learned early Wednesday that pollster Kellyanne Conway was promoted to campaign manager and Stephen Bannon, the co-founder of Breitbart News, was named campaign chief executive.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the campaign’s overhaul.
Trump told the Associated Press that Conway and Bannon were “big people” who would help him defeat Hillary Clinton come November.
"I've known both of them for a long time. They're terrific people, they're winners, they're champs, and we need to win it," he said.
Conway told Fox News that “everyone else” on the campaign will remain in place.
“This is an expansion during the busy homestretch in the campaign,” she added.
Trump echoed Conway, telling the Associated Press that Paul Manfort, who took over following the departure of Corey Lewandowski in June, will maintain his current title.
A senior Trump campaign source told Fox News that Rick Gates’ title has been elevated to deputy campaign manager.
The recent development in the Trump campaign comes after several polls show that he losing to Clinton in several key background states. He has also resisted repeated calls from fellow Republicans to change his approach on the campaign trail that has powered his surge to the top of the GOP field in the primary season.
"You know, I am who I am," he told a local Wisconsin television station Tuesday. "It's me. I don't want to change. Everyone talks about, 'Oh, well you're going to pivot, you're going to.' I don't want to pivot. I mean, you have to be you. If you start pivoting, you're not being honest with people."
The Associated Press reported that the moves were discussed at a lengthy senior staff meeting at Trump Tower Tuesday while the billionaire mogul was on the road. Additional senior hires are expected to come in the next few days.
Trump, whose campaign is built on his persona as a winner, said several time that the campaign is "doing well," and said his speech hours earlier in Wisconsin Tuesday was well-received.
"We're going to be doing something very dramatic," Trump added.
In the Wisconsin outing, Trump accused Clinton of "bigotry" and being "against the police," claiming that she and other Democrats have "betrayed the African American community" and pandered for votes.
"We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton, which panders to and talks down to communities of color and sees them only as votes — that's all they care about," the GOP nominee said in remarks delivered not far from Milwaukee — the latest city to be rocked by violence in the wake of a police shooting.
Trump has been lagging in the polls since he was crowned the GOP standard-bearer in Cleveland last month. He charged that Clinton has been on the side of the rioters in Milwaukee, declaring: "Our opponent Hillary would rather protect the offender than the victim."
"The riots and destruction that have taken place in Milwaukee is an assault on the right of all citizens to live in security and to live in peace," he said.
Clinton campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri responded with a statement early Wednesday accusing Trump of being the bigot instead.
"With each passing Trump attack, it becomes clearer that his strategy is just to say about Hillary Clinton what's true of himself. When people started saying he was temperamentally unfit, he called Hillary the same. When his ties to the Kremlin came under scrutiny, he absurdly claimed that Hillary was the one who was too close to Putin. Now he's accusing her of bigoted remarks -- We think the American people will know which candidate is guilty of the charge," she said.