DOJ reportedly grants immunity to former State Dept staffer in Clinton email probe

The Justice Department has reportedly granted immunity to a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
A senior U.S. law enforcement official told The Washington Post on Wednesday that the FBI secured the cooperation of Bryan Pagliano, who worked on Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign before setting up the private server at her New York home in 2009.
Current and former agents told the newspaper that agents will likely want to interview Clinton and her senior aides about the decision to use a private server, and whether any of the participants knew they were sending classified information in emails as part of the ongoing investigation.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas called the latest developments on the Clinton investigation "ominous" in an interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly on "The Kelly File," and that it meant the process was moving to "a whole other level." "That suggests the legal jeopardy is getting greater and greater," he said Wednesday.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Monday in an interview with Fox News that the Justice Department has no deadline for concluding the Clinton email investigation and that it’s being handled “like any other review,” even with the presidential election just months away.
Lynch said on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that the investigation is being handled by the agency’s “career independent lawyers” and that they will “review the facts and the evidence and make a determination in due course.”
Lynch, nominated by President Obama to the attorney general post in 2014, also said the agency would look “efficiently, fairly, thoroughly, without any kind of artificial deadline” into whether Clinton broke any laws as secretary of state by using a private email server for official communications.
Lynch was steadfast in declining to discuss specifics about the Clinton case -- including whether Clinton has been interviewed, if a grand jury had been convened, which departments within the agency are involved and whether she would ultimately decide whether the case will go forward.
“We handle it in the same way, and that's what I'd like to convey to the American people,” she said. “We owe it to the citizens and we owe it to anybody who may be involved in the matter.”
She also declined to comment on Clinton's then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills maintaining her top secret security clearance despite sending information that's now being classified to the Clinton Foundation.

"That suggests the legal jeopardy is getting greater and greater," he said Wednesday.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Monday in an interview with Fox News that the Justice Department has no deadline for concluding the Clinton email investigation and that it’s being handled “like any other review,” even with the presidential election just months away.
Lynch said on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that the investigation is being handled by the agency’s “career independent lawyers” and that they will “review the facts and the evidence and make a determination in due course.”
Lynch, nominated by President Obama to the attorney general post in 2014, also said the agency would look “efficiently, fairly, thoroughly, without any kind of artificial deadline” into whether Clinton broke any laws as secretary of state by using a private email server for official communications.
Lynch was steadfast in declining to discuss specifics about the Clinton case -- including whether Clinton has been interviewed, if a grand jury had been convened, which departments within the agency are involved and whether she would ultimately decide whether the case will go forward.
“We handle it in the same way, and that's what I'd like to convey to the American people,” she said. “We owe it to the citizens and we owe it to anybody who may be involved in the matter.”
She also declined to comment on Clinton's then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills maintaining her top secret security clearance despite sending information that's now being classified to the Clinton Foundation.

Texas Voter Cartoon

Trump is now unstoppable. It's game over for Cruz, Rubio, Kasich and Carson

Game over! This was a rout, America. Winning seven states and the vast majority of delegates is a landslide. Donald Trump and the millions of his supporters have changed American politics and the Republican Party for the foreseeable future.
The nomination is within his grasp and if he does what he said he would do Tuesday night: "[I will] be a unifier!" he may be a very viable candidate against Hillary Clinton in the fall.
After his victories Tuesday night in multiple states and his second place finish in others , Trump is in an unstoppable position. Whether the junior senators from Texas and Florida choose to pursue him, it doesn’t matter, the end is near.
Trump, who is an unconventional candidate, to say the least, has tapped into the anger and frustration across America and has mobilized voters to turn out in record numbers.
Love him or hate him, be inspired by him or be appalled by him, Trump has totally dominated a political cycle like no other politician I’ve seen in decades.
I admit I was a total skeptic, like many others.
At first, I didn’t think he would run.
Then I thought there was no way he could beat the all-star cast of elected officials running against him.
Then I underestimated his lack of substance and trite answers in the debates.
Then I underestimated his lack of a real campaign.
Then I was convinced the political establishment was going to spend millions and take him out. And like the Energizer bunny he just keeps going and winning!
Trump is getting stronger by the day and his supporters are locked in and not going away. And no one has mastered the media like this since Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders.
What's ahead is a Republican Party that either becomes part of his movement or splinters into many pieces. No matter what Trump does or says, the nomination is his for the taking.
Winning politics is a game of addition. Trump needs to be more careful in his words and in his thoughts. He needs to be a more gracious winner.
He has convinced many voters that he is a leader and a change agent. Now he needs to add substance and surround himself with some advisers who can add to that substance.
Thursday night’s GOP debate should be taken to a higher plane. All sides need to back away from the name calling and argue over the differences in policies.
All the candidates need to tell us how they will make the United States a better place and how they will beat Hillary and the Democrats this fall and why they should.
In the very near future, the Republican leadership of the Congress and the nation’s Republican governors need to sit down and do a "Trump negotiation" session.
Why? Because they need to see if they can find common ground to run on.
Trump is the ultimate salesman and he needs to sell these guys on his candidacy and convince them that together they can make it work.
If not, a holy war lies ahead that will destroy the Republican Party as we know it. And worse, Hillary Clinton may end up becoming president. -- Just as I underestimated Donald Trump, Republicans will be foolish if we underestimate Hillary Clinton.
My last advice is this: Mr. Trump, if you’re going to reward Governor Christie for his endorsement by letting him introduce you, get him off the stage once he's done.
No one seemed more unhappy than Christie watching you speak in Florida Tuesday night and frowning throughout your press conference.
A gracious loser he's not!

After disappointing Super Tuesday, Kasich turns focus to Midwestern states

Ohio Gov. John Kasich maintained that the Republican presidential race was moving to his "home court" after a series of largely disappointing results in the Super Tuesday contests. 
Kasich had followed up a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary by placing fifth in the South Carolina primary and the Nevada caucuses. On Tuesday, runner-up finishes in Vermont and Massachusetts were canceled out by fourth-place finishes in Texas and Virginia, as well as fifth-place finishes in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
In a speech to supporters in Mississippi, Kasich used a college basketball analogy to discuss his plan for the upcoming races.
"We're almost to March Madness," Kasich said, "and you know what they all struggle for, home court advantage.
"We're heading north right on to my home court with Michigan, and then, I’ll tell you now, we will beat Donald Trump in the state of Ohio."
Michigan holds its primary March 8, with Ohio voting March 15. A total of 125 delegates are at stake in the two Rust Belt states. However, at least one recent poll has shown Kasich trailing Trump among Republican voters in the Buckeye State, while most Michigan polls show Trump in the lead by double digits.
Even if Kasich does pull off the double victory, it's unclear how he would capture enough delegates to catch Trump, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz or Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, all of whom recorded victories on Tuesday.
Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson beat out Kasich for fourth place in a number of Southern states, but that was about the only good news for his beleaguered campaign.
Addressing supporters in Baltimore Tuesday, Carson vowed to keep fighting, telling supporters that the political system was "rotten to the core" and said Republicans and Democrats alike had "weaved such a complex web."
"I am not ready to quit trying to untangle it yet."

Clinton’s Super Tuesday leaves Sanders' path forward in doubt

Hillary Clinton can’t lock up the Democratic nomination just yet – but she seemed to be well on her way Tuesday, building a large delegate lead against her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Fox News projected Sanders winning primaries in Oklahoma and his home state of Vermont, as well as caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota.
However, Clinton was projected to win primaries in the delegate-rich states of Georgia, Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Massachusetts and Tennessee. Many of those victories came by convincing margins, with results showing Clinton beating Sanders by 60 percentage points in Alabama, 40 percentage points in Arkansas, 43 percentage points in Georgia and 33 percentage points in Tennessee.
Tuesday's results considerably narrowed Sanders' path to the Democratic nomination. Mathematically, he can still win his party’s nod, but it will be an uphill climb.
Sanders told supporters in Vermont that he was up for the challenge and vowed to keep fighting until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July.
“This campaign is not just about electing a president. It is about transforming America,” Sanders said Tuesday night at a rally in Essex Junction, Vt. “It is about making our great country a nation it has the potential to be.”
Sanders added that the election is about “dealing with some unpleasant truths” and “having the guts to confront those truths.”
In a verbal jab at Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Clinton told a cheering crowd of supporters that the goal was not to “make American great again” but to “make America whole again.”
She made her victory speech in Florida, ahead of the key March 15 primary there.
Democrats in 11 states weighed in on whom they want on the November ballot. Clinton aimed for a clean sweep of six states, while Sanders set his sights on five states, including two with caucuses.
Tuesday was the busiest day on the primary calendar so far. For Democrats, 859 delegates will be up for grabs – more than a third of the 2,383 needed to clinch the nomination.
Sanders started the day by casting a ballot for himself in Vermont and said he felt “great” about his prospects.
“After a lot of deliberation, I know that Bernie Sanders here in Vermont got at least one vote,” Sanders joked to reporters with his wife Jane by his side. “I was working on my wife. So I probably got two. So we are feeling pretty good.”
Clinton spent her morning talking to local residents at a Minneapolis coffee shop and local market. She was expected to spend the evening in Miami.
Clinton’s victory over Sanders in the southern states hinged on turning out the states’ large black population. About 4 in 10 voters in Georgia's Democratic primary were black, and about 8 in 10 of them favored Clinton. That mirrors her strong showing among black voters in South Carolina over the weekend.

Trump, Clinton rack up Super Tuesday wins; Cruz keeps foothold

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton each scored a string of impressive primary victories Tuesday night that sent an emphatic message to voters and their respective political rivals that the primary season might be all but over, and the race for the White House is on -- though Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, with victories in delegate-rich Texas and in Oklahoma and Alaska, is far from conceding anything.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, too, found reason to press on, with Super Tuesday wins in Minnesota, Oklahoma, Colorado and his home state of Vermont. Even Marco Rubio, after a string of second- and third-place finishes, found his first win in Minnesota.
But with Clinton amassing a huge delegate lead, the more competitive race is on the Republican side – where Cruz clearly edged Rubio in the Super Tuesday battle for second and quickly positioned himself as the better candidate to take on Trump.
“Tonight was another decision point, and the voters have spoken,” Cruz said in Texas, urging voters to unite behind him so he could take on Trump “head to head.”
Even with the senators' victories, Trump emerged from Tuesday’s contests closer than ever to the nomination, and acting more and more like a general election candidate eager to take on Democratic front-runner Clinton.
“Once we get all of this finished, I’m going to go after one person, and that’s Hillary Clinton,” he said, at an unusual primary night press conference in Florida. “I think that’s frankly going to be an easy race.”
Speaking in Florida after notching several wins, Clinton also seemed to look beyond Sanders – taking implicit shots at Trump’s “make America great again” campaign slogan.
“America never stopped being great,” Clinton said. “We have to make America whole.”
She also mocked his proposal for a southern border wall, saying, “Instead of building walls, we’re going to break down barriers.”
Trump answered right back, quipping: "Make America great again is going to be much better than making America whole again."
With results still coming in, Trump is projected to win in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. Clinton is projected to win Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Across 11 states, 595 Republican delegates were up for grabs Tuesday – nearly half the number needed to clinch the nomination. And on the Democratic side, Clinton and Vermont Sen. Sanders were battling for 865 delegates in 11 states – roughly a third of the number needed to clinch the nomination.
No matter how the delegate math shakes out, the primary races are not over – yet.
While the Super Tuesday contests marked the biggest day of primary season voting to date, the states were mostly allocating delegates proportionally, meaning even the runner-ups could add to their totals.
Rubio stressed that point, as he began to focus on the March 15 contest in his home state.
“We never said Super Tuesday was going to be our night,” he told Fox News.
Cruz clearly had the better night.
Texas was the biggest prize on the Super Tuesday map, offering 222 Democratic delegates and 155 Republican delegates. A win for Cruz in his home state was considered critical, and he was able to thwart any potential late-hour surge by Trump there.
While Cruz put subtle pressure on Rubio to step aside, Trump openly mocked the Florida senator after earlier calling on him to drop out – a call Rubio rebuffed. Trump again called him a "lightweight" while threatening to take on the Florida senator in his home state in two weeks.
Clinton entered Super Tuesday with a head of steam following her landslide win over Sanders in South Carolina this past Saturday.
Sanders, though, savored his home-state win all the same, rallying cheering supporters in Vermont Tuesday evening.
"It is good to be home," he said, before shifting to his stump speech slams against a "corrupt campaign finance system."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who expressed low expectations for Super Tuesday, remains in the GOP race in hopes of making it to the Ohio contest in two weeks, though his presence continues to frustrate efforts by Rubio and Cruz to consolidate support.
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, meanwhile, has defended his continued presence in the race.
“People have asked for somebody who is not a politician, who was a member of we the people, who has an outstanding life of achievement and who thinks the way they do,” he told Fox News.

Trump's Sprinkler Head Cartoon

Senior Clinton aide maintained top secret clearance amid email probe, letters show

EXCLUSIVE: A senior Hillary Clinton aide has maintained her top secret security clearance despite sending information now deemed classified to the Clinton Foundation and to then-Secretary of State Clinton's private unsecured email account, according to congressional letters obtained by Fox News. 
Current and former intelligence officials say it is standard practice to suspend a clearance pending the outcome of an investigation. Yet in the case of Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former chief of staff at the State Department, two letters indicate this practice is not being followed -- even as the Clinton email system remains the subject of an FBI investigation.
In an Oct. 30, 2015, letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa -- who has been aggressively investigating the Clinton email case -- Mills' lawyer Beth A. Wilkinson confirmed that her client “has an active Top Secret clearance." The letter said previous reporting from the State Department that the clearance was no longer active was wrong and due to "an administrative error."
A second letter dated Feb. 18, 2016, from the State Department's assistant secretary for legislative affairs, Julia Frifield, provided additional details to Grassley about the "administrative error." It, too, confirmed Mills maintained the top secret clearance.
The letters come amid multiple congressional investigations, as well as an FBI probe focused on the possible gross mishandling of classified information and Clinton's use of an unsecured personal account exclusively for government business. The State Department is conducting its own administrative review.
Under normal circumstances, Mills would have had her clearance terminated when she left the department. But in January 2014, according to the State Department letter, Clinton designated Mills “to assist in her research.” Mills was the one who reviewed Clinton’s emails before select documents were handed over to the State Department, and others were deleted.
Dan Maguire, a former strategic planner with Africom who has 46 years combined service, told Fox News his current and former colleagues are deeply concerned a double standard is at play.
"Had this happened to someone serving in the government, their clearance would have already been pulled, and certainly they would be under investigation. And depending on the level of disclosure, it's entirely possible they would be under pretrial confinement for that matter," Maguire explained. "There is a feeling the administration may want to sweep this under the rug.”
On Monday, the State Department was scheduled to release the final batch of Clinton emails as part of a federal court-mandated timetable.
So far, more than 1,800 have been deemed to contain classified information, and another 22 “top secret” emails have been considered too damaging to national security to release even with heavy redactions.
As Clinton's chief of staff, Mills was a gatekeeper and routinely forwarded emails to Clinton's personal account. As one example, a Jan. 23, ‎2011 email forwarded from Mills to Clinton, called "Update on DR meeting," contained classified information, as well as foreign government information which is "born classified."
The 2011 email can be declassified 15 years after it was sent -- indicating it contained classified information when it was sent.
Fox News was first to report that sworn declarations from the CIA notified the intelligence community inspector general and Congress there were "several dozen emails" containing classified information up to the most closely guarded government programs known as “Special Access Programs.”
Clinton has maintained all along that she did not knowingly transmit information considered classified at the time.
The U.S. Department of State Foreign Affairs Manual lays out the penalties for taking classified information out of secure government channels – such as an unsecured email system. While the incidents are handled on a "case by case" basis, the manual suggests the suspension of a clearance is routine while "derogatory information" is reviewed.
The manual says the director of the Diplomatic Security Service, "based on a recommendation from the Senior Coordinator for Security Infrastructure (DS/SI), will determine whether, considering all facts available upon receipt of the initial information, it is in the interests of the national security to suspend the employee’s access to classified information on an interim basis. A suspension is an independent administrative procedure that does not represent a final determination …”
Fox News has asked the State Department to explain why Mills maintains her clearance while multiple federal and congressional investigations are ongoing. Fox News also asked whether the department was instructed by the FBI or another entity to keep the clearance in place. Fox News has not yet received a response.