State Department reopens internal probe of Clinton emails

The State Department is re-opening an internal investigation into whether Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her top aides mishandled classified information, Fox News confirmed late Thursday.
The investigation, which was first reported by the Associated Press, focuses on how classified emails to and from Clinton's private server were categorized at the time they were sent.
The State Department started its review in January after declaring 22 emails from Clinton's private server to be "top secret." The investigation was halted after the FBI began investigating Clinton's so-called "homebrew" email setup last April. On Wednesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said there would be no indictments resulting from the FBI probe.
"Given the Department of Justice has now made its announcement, the State Department intends to conduct its internal review," State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. "Our goal will be to be as transparent as possible about our results, while complying with our various legal obligations."
Kirby set no deadline for the investigation's completion.
Clinton was secretary of state until early 2013. Most of her top advisers left shortly thereafter.
Kirby said earlier this week that former officials can still face "administrative sanctions." The most serious of those penalties is loss of security clearances, which could complicate Clinton's naming of a national security team if she becomes president.
Beyond the Democratic front-runner, the probe is most likely examining confidants Cheryl Mills, Jake Sullivan and Huma Abedin, who wrote many of the emails to their boss that the various investigations have focused on. Mills, Clinton's chief of staff at the State Department, has been viewed as a possibility for the same job in the White House. There is speculation that Sullivan, Clinton's former policy chief, could be national security adviser.

The State Department says it won't identify former officials that still hold security clearances. But in an email Fox News made public in February, the department described Mills as still holding a valid clearance.

Sanctuary City Cartoons

Senate Dems block votes on immigration issues, including sanctuary cities

The Republican-controlled Senate failed Wednesday to advance efforts to change federal immigration law -- including one to cut funding to so-called sanctuary cities.
The vote was 53-44, failing to get the minimum 60 votes to begin debate on the issue.
The measure attempted to block congressional funding for sanctuary cities -- municipalities that ban police from cooperating with immigration officials to potentially deport illegal immigrants.
Senate Republicans also failed to get enough votes to advance their proposed Kate’s Law – named after Kate Steinle, who was fatally shot in July 2015, allegedly by an illegal immigrant who had multiple felony convictions and was deported several times prior to the incident.
“How many times does this have to happen?” Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Pat Toomey asked just before the 55-42 vote that failed along party lines. “At some point, a person needs to go to jail. That’s what Kate’s Law does.”
However, Democrats strongly opposed the measures.

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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said they put presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “ant-immigration rhetoric into action.”
“These bills follow Trump’s lead in demonizing, criminalizing immigrant, Latino families,” the Nevada Democrat said before the votes.
In addition, the White House issued a statement after the vote on Kate’s Law, in part saying: “The bill fails to offer the comprehensive reforms needed to fix the Nation's broken immigration laws and would impose severe and unprecedented mandatory minimum sentences that would undermine the discretion of federal judges to make sure the punishment fits the crime in each case.”
Steinle was walking with her father on a San Francisco pier when Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez allegedly fatally shot her. Steinle was 32.
Months earlier, Sanchez was in the custody of San Francisco police and slated to be picked up by federal agents. However, the police declined to cooperate and instead released him.
“An entire year later, the problem that prompted Kate’s tragic, untimely death still exists,” Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, who was sponsoring the Kate's Law bill, said on July 1, the one-year anniversary of Steinle’s killing.
“Sanctuary cities and the criminal aliens they harbor are a threat to the safety of the American people,” Cruz continued. “Yet, San Francisco and jurisdictions around the country still shelter illegal aliens, actively thwarting enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws.”

Trump says 10 vice presidential picks waiting in the wings

Despite two more potential vice presidential picks removing their names from consideration, Donald Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that there are 10 more waiting in the wings.
“I’m looking at 10 people,” Trump said. “Three or four called me up, all want to be considered.”
It was rumored that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee had been eying Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and freshman Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.
Both declined.
Corker confirmed to Fox News he was taking himself out of the running because the job was “too political” for him.
“It’s a highly political job, and that’s not who I am. We had a very open conversation about that, and actually, we have been very candid about it from the very beginning of our meetings,” Corker told The Washington Post in a separate interview.

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“I left there feeling very good about him as a person but also realized that at age 63, I know the things I’m good at doing and knowing what a candidate for vice president has to do,” he said. “It’s just not the right thing for me, and I don’t think it’s the right thing for them.”
Ernst, who spent part of her July 4^th holiday with Trump, told Fox News they had a “good conversation” and said she would “continue to share my insights with Donald about the need to strengthen our economy, keep our nation safe, and ensure America is always a strong, stabilizing force around the globe."
However, in an interview with Politico on Wednesday, she said her main focus would be Iowa and the Senate.
“I feel that I have a lot more to do in the United States Senate. And Iowa is where my heart is,” Ernst said. “I’m just getting started here. I have a great partner with Chuck Grassley, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot. And I think that President Trump will need some great assistance in the United States Senate and I can provide that.”

Trump attacks Lynch, Saddam, conducts VP search: Shouldn't his target be Hillary?

On Hillary Clinton’s worst day of the campaign—although she managed not to be indicted--Donald Trump was talking about Loretta Lynch and Saddam Hussein.
Oh, and trying to find a running mate.
For all the furor over FBI Director James Comey and his decision not to urge criminal charges against the Democratic nominee, he gave Trump and the Republicans a huge gift, in the form of stinging criticism of Clinton’s irresponsibility in mishandling classified information.
But rather than just ride that wave, Trump tried to push the story a major step further by taking on the Justice Department and the FBI. He also detoured into lambasting a long-dead dictator, and some of his possible VP picks are withdrawing.
On balance, Trump clearly benefits from Clinton’s legal woes, criminal charges or not. But media skeptics say he wandered off message, distracting from the impact of the FBI evidence against her in the email investigation.
By declaring that “the system is totally rigged,” he is taking on Comey, a respected career prosecutor who served in the Bush administration. That’s his right, but Comey isn’t running for president.

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Trump is also taking on Loretta Lynch by accusing Clinton of trying to “bribe” her. That’s a pretty explosive charge, and it’s based on a New York Times story about Hillary’s potential first 100 days that seems fairly well orchestrated by the campaign. It includes this line, which the Times, incredibly, published as utterly unremarkable: “Democrats close to Mrs. Clinton say she may decide to retain Ms. Lynch, the nation’s first black woman to be attorney general.”
Was that a veiled signal to Lynch that she’ll get to keep her job if this email investigation turns out fine? Maybe—though she said after the disastrous Bill Clinton meeting that she’d defer to the FBI—but it depends on whether the “Democrats close to” are just freelancing operatives.
Meanwhile, on the very same day, Trump drew negative attention for ruminating about Saddam Hussein: “He was a bad guy — really bad guy," the presumptive Republican nominee told supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. "But you know what? He did well. He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn't read them the rights. They didn't talk. They were terrorists.”
Trump has said versions of this before, but why is he talking about a long-dead dictator—who killed huge numbers of Iraqis—instead of staying laser-focused on Hillary?
Meanwhile, in what might be called a necessary distraction, Trump is holding tryouts for a running mate. As the New York Times put it: “Mr. Trump’s approach to choosing a vice president — publicly testing them in the court of public opinion — feels oddly similar to the approach the candidate took on his reality television show, ‘The Apprentice.’”
Well, he’s not the first to hold public tryouts. But two people on the list, Bob Corker and Joni Ernst, took themselves out of the running yesterday.
Trump told Fox’s Kimberly Guilfoyle yesterday there are 10 people on the list, including military names, though that doesn’t seem his preference. But the clock is ticking on his choice with Cleveland approaching.
Trump has an uncanny ability to make news, but that cuts both ways. Despite his sometimes scattershot approach, the campaign’s overriding story is still the FBI findings against Clinton.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Clinton, Sanders campaigns discussing endorsement event, sources say

OMG what a pair!

The Bernie Sanders campaign is in talks with Hillary Clinton's campaign about an event next Tuesday in New Hampshire during which the Vermont senator would endorse Clinton's White House bid, sources told Fox News on Wednesday.
Clinton and Sanders officials declined to comment on the possible rally, but campaign sources told Fox News "we aren't there yet."
Sanders has withheld his endorsement of Clinton since the end of the Democratic primaries in mid-June, pressing for policy commitments from the campaign and party leaders developing the platform that will be considered at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. But he has shown signs of coming around.
The senator praised Clinton's announcement of a proposal earlier Wednesday to tackle the rising cost of college tuition and the burden of student loan debt, calling it a "very bold initiative." In a positive sign for Democratic unity, Sanders said he hoped to find more areas of agreement with Clinton "sooner rather than later."
The new policy proposal from Clinton would place a three-month moratorium on loan payments for all federal borrowers. It would also ensure that families with annual incomes up to $125,000 pay no tuition at in-state public colleges and universities.
A campaign source told Fox News that the Clinton proposal was an "olive branch" to Sanders and his supporters.

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Sanders trounced Clinton in the New Hampshire primary, and holding the event in the Granite State would put the two rivals in a fall battleground state where Clinton will compete against Republican Donald Trump.
It would also draw comparisons to 2008, when then-Sen. Barack Obama joined Clinton for an endorsement event in Unity, New Hampshire, a symbol-rich town where Obama and Clinton split the vote in the primary.
Sanders was wildly popular with young voters during the Democratic primaries, with many drawn to his calls for free tuition at all public colleges and universities. Clinton cast her opponent's proposals as unrealistic, saying that while she shared his concerns about rising debt, she didn't want wealthier families to be able to take advantage of opportunities aimed at the middle and lower classes.
Sanders said the plan combined "some of the strongest ideas which she fought for during the campaign with some of the principles I fought for. The final product is the result of the work of both campaigns."

FBI Hillary Cartoons

Why the FBI's non-indictment still offers plenty of evidence against Hillary Clinton

In the end, James Comey issued a non-legal indictment against Hillary Clinton, accusing her of recklessness in mishandling classified information while concluding that no criminal charges should be brought.
That, of course, unleashed a storm of partisan commentary, even though the FBI director hardly gave her a clean bill of health. And in declining to recommend an indictment, Comey removed the last shred of doubt that the onetime first lady will be the Democratic presidential nominee.
I am going to approach the subject as a former Justice Department reporter who has covered every special prosecutor’s investigation in recent decades—not as a partisan who either believes that Clinton did nothing wrong or that she should already be behind bars.
The key sentence in Comey’s announcement yesterday is that despite the evidence uncovered by the bureau, “our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
I don’t agree with that. The former federal prosecutor laid out layers of facts that could have supported an indictment. The gross negligence in using her private email to send classified information—in direct contradiction of what the candidate has claimed—could have amounted to one or more criminal charges.
I also believe there was a higher bar with Clinton as the target. That’s not to say that Comey succumbed to political pressure, as he insists he did not. But a decision to indict Clinton would have knocked her out of the presidential race. In that kind of circumstance, a close call goes to the high-profile target.
Much of the reaction turns on whether Comey’s reputation as a straight shooter—he was deputy attorney general in the Bush administration before President Obama tapped him for the FBI—carries sufficient weight. None of us has seen the voluminous evidence compiled by the bureau, culminating in Saturday’s interview of Clinton—days after that spectacularly wrong-headed meeting between her husband and Loretta Lynch.
Donald Trump wasted little time in tweeting: “The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment.” Of course, Trump anticipated the outcome by declaring the system rigged last week, and has said that her offenses are such that she shouldn’t even be “allowed” to run.
It’s no accident that Comey front-loaded his remarks with paragraph after paragraph of criticism before announcing that Clinton would not be charged.
Among other things, Comey blew away Clinton’s repeated insistence that she never sent nor received classified information. To wit:
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is information that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”  And: “Even if information is not marked ‘classified’ in an email, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.”
In fact, the FBI found 110 emails in 52 separate chains that were classified when they were sent or received. And intent does not matter when it comes to bringing charges.
Comey did say he found no deliberate effort to destroy emails, beyond routine maintenance, but that some of those that were deleted will never be recovered.
And while the bureau uncovered no hard evidence that foreign entities had hacked Clinton’s private server, Comey said it was quite possible, and that the hackers could have covered their tracks.
Clinton’s campaign said it was “pleased” with the outcome and reiterated that using the private server was a mistake—though she spent months denying that after the New York Times broke the story last year.
By branding Clinton “extremely careless,” Comey has handed Trump, the Republicans and other Hillary detractors ample ammunition. Indeed, the RNC called the bureau’s findings “a glaring indictment of Hillary Clinton’s complete lack of judgment, honesty and preparedness to be our next commander-in-chief.”
It is, as I said, an indictment in all but the criminal sense.
As for any punishment, Hillary Clinton will not have to go to court. But she will be tried this fall in the court of public opinion.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz.