Clinton reportedly told FBI that Colin Powell urged her to use private email

Barking out more lies?

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton reportedly told federal authorities during her questioning over her email practices while at the State Department that former Secretary of State Colin Powell encouraged her to use a private email account.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Clinton’s revelation is part of the FBI’s notes that were given to Congress on Tuesday about the agency’s questioning in July that led Director James Comey not to pursue criminal charges against her over her use of private emails.
An email exchange emerged from 2009 between Clinton and Powell during the questioning that revealed that she had asked the former secretary of state about his email practices under George W. Bush, a source told The Times. Clinton had already setup her private email server during that time.
The Times reported that the conversations between Clinton and Powell are revealed in an upcoming book detailing Bill Clinton’s post-presidency, titled “Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton,” by Joe Conason.
The book details a conversation between Clinton and Powell at a party hosted by Madeleine Albright in Washington. The Times reported that Henry Kissinger and Condoleezza Rice also attended the event.
“Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel to the nation’s next top diplomat,” a passage details. “Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”
Clinton has repeatedly claimed that her personal email use was in line of that of her predecessors’. But this is the first time of any details of a personal conversation between the pair that revealed Powell recommended Clinton use a private email account.
According to The Times, Powell’s office said in a statement that he had “no recollection” of the alleged conversation between him and Clinton. He did confirm that he told Clinton via email about his use of a personal account for unclassified emails and “how it improved communications within the State Department.”
Howard Krongard, a former watchdog for the State Department, told Fox News in May that he would have immediately opened an investigation if he caught wind of a secretary of state used a private account.
Krongard shot down the notion that she was in line with her predecessors’ in using a private email account for State Department business. He pointed to a May 25 inspectors general report that stated Rice did not use personal email for government business. It said Powell used personal email on a limited basis to connect with people outside the department, and he worked with the State Department to secure the system. The report found Clinton did neither.
The report concluded Clinton’s use of a private server and account was not approved, and broke agency rules. The report said by the time she became secretary, the rules had repeatedly been updated, and were “considerably more detailed and more sophisticated.”
The Times reported that the State Department has asked to review the FBI’s notes from Clinton’s questioning before they are officially released.
Clinton campaign officials fear that materials could be leaked in order to hurt her campaign.

State Department says review into deleted briefing footage 'inconclusive'

State Dept. admits to deleting parts of Iran deal briefing, Your Crooked Government at Work.

 

The State Department announced Thursday, after a weeks-long review involving dozens of interviews, that it still does not know why several minutes of footage from a 2013 briefing were deleted from a public archive – leaving the department’s top spokesman on the defensive over the unusual incident.
“There’s no evidence to suggest [the edit] was made with the intent to conceal information from the public,” spokesman John Kirby said Thursday.
At the same time, he said they couldn’t rule out “nefarious” intent – but said the results of an extensive review were “inconclusive.”
The vague comments came as he announced the results of a “fact-finding review” into the deletion which apparently included interviews with more than 30 current and former employees and a review of emails and other documents.
The matter flared up more than two months ago when Kirby publicly acknowledged that an official had intentionally deleted video footage from a 2013 press briefing, where a former spokeswoman seemed to acknowledge misleading the press over the Iran nuclear deal.
“There was a deliberate request [to delete the footage] – this wasn’t a technical glitch,” Kirby said in June.
On Thursday, Kirby stood by the assessment that this was a deliberate edit, but couldn’t say why it was done.
“We may never know,” Kirby said, as he addressed tough questions from reporters.
At the 2013 briefing in question, then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News’ James Rosen about an earlier claim that no direct, secret talks were underway between the U.S. and Iran – when, in fact, they were.
Psaki at the time seemed to admit the discrepancy, saying: “There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.”
However, Fox News later discovered the Psaki exchange was missing from the department’s official website and its YouTube channel (though not from the transcript). Eight minutes from the briefing, including the comments on the Iran deal, were edited out and replaced with a white-flash effect.
The State Department report concluded that the effect was "evidence of deliberate editing," but added that it had "not found any evidence to support a conclusion that the video was edited to hide any content."
Kirby on Thursday reviewed what they know and don’t know. The spokesman reiterated that a technician came forward and acknowledged getting a phone call requesting the edit, and then making it.
However, Kirby said they can’t conclude who placed that call or why. Further, he said additional details call into question the suggestion this was done to conceal – including that the full transcript was always online, and that the video was seemingly shortened early on, even before the technician remembers getting the request. Kirby said it’s possible the white-flash effect was inserted because the video had lost footage due to technical problems.
“I understand these results may not be completely satisfying to everyone,” he said.
This may not be the last word on the matter. Judicial Watch, a conservative advocacy group, filed suit this week seeking all records regarding the video footage and its deletion.

Obama administration says $400M to Iran was contingent on release of prisoners

The Obama administration admitted Thursday that a $400 million cash payment to Iran in January was contingent on the release of American prisoners being held in the country – while still denying that the payment was a ransom.
State Department spokesman John Kirby said that the negotiations to return the money – originally from a 1979 failed military equipment deal made between Iran and the U.S. – were conducted separately from negotiations to free the four prisoners.
The four detainees who were released on January 17 were Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian; former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati; Christian pastor Saeed Abedini and Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, whose case had not been publicized before the release.
However, Kirby said that the U.S. withheld the cash delivery until Iran made good on its promise to release the prisoners.
“In basic English you are saying you wouldn’t give [Iran] the 400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?” asked a reporter at Thursday’s State Department briefing.
“That’s correct,” Kirby responded.
The new details, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, added to criticisms from Republicans that it was a ransom paid by the Obama administration. Kirby’s admission only served to add fuel to the controversy.
“What the State Department admitted today was the dictionary definition of a ransom payment and a complete contradiction of what they were saying just two weeks ago,” RNC Spokesman Michael Short said in a statement. “It’s time for the Obama White House to drop the charade and admit it paid a ransom to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.”
"If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. If a cash payment is contingent on a hostage release, it's a ransom,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. “The truth matters and the President owes the American people an explanation."
Earlier this month, after the revelation the U.S. delivered the money in pallets of cash, the administration flatly denied any connection between the payment and the prisoners.
"Reports of link between prisoner release & payment to Iran are completely false," Kirby tweeted at the time.
"This wasn’t some nefarious deal," Obama said during an August 4 press conference. "We do not pay ransom for hostages."
The agreement was the return of the $400 million, plus an additional $1.3 billion in interest, terms that Obama described as favorable compared to what might have been expected from a tribunal set up in The Hague to rule on pending deals between the two countries.
Abedini has claimed that he and the other hostages were kept waiting at an Iranian airport for more than 20 hours before their departure. Abedini said he was told by a senior Iranian intelligence official that their departure was contingent on the movement of a second plane.
State Department officials denied Abedini's claims to the Journal, saying the delay was due to issues locating Rezaian's wife and mother, who accompanied him on the flight.
According to the Journal, GOP leaders say they plan to hold hearings on the payment next month, when Congress returns from its summer recess. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., chair of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, last week sent letters to the Justice and Treasury Departments, as well as the Federal Reserve, requesting more information the transaction.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Cartoons

Chris Matthews: Get 'excited' about Clinton campaign, or 'don't vote'

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews has a striking message for disaffected Democrats: Get “excited” about Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the possibility of the party controlling Washington, or “don’t vote.”
The “Hardball” host offered the advice on air Tuesday night, while griping about some Democrats’ pessimistic attitude toward the election.
“Here’s my question. Why don’t they get excited on the left, and the center-left, about maybe … getting to run the government for four, or eight years, winning the House and the Senate, winning the White House? … Think about winning big,” Matthews said.
He continued: “Hillary Clinton’s got a very good chance right now of winning very big and running the table and actually getting to set U.S. policy on a progressive side of things. Get excited about that. If that’s not [enough] to get you to vote, don’t vote.”
That’s a turnaround from remarks Matthews made in 2012 that anyone not planning to vote was an “idiot.”
“If you don’t vote, you’re an idiot,” Matthews said at the time, to chuckles from his co-hosts.
On Tuesday, Matthews went on to talk up the notion of a Donald Trump “freefall” in the 2016 contest, arguing that Clinton should motivate Democrats to go for the “gold” – and aim for total control of the House, Senate and White House.

Trump recruiting 'election observers' to scout for fraud

Donald Trump is getting pro-active about concerns the White House race could be “rigged” against him, by recruiting “election observers” to help monitor the vote, though details of the program are unclear -- and are raising concerns about potential Election Day confrontations.
The campaign put out the call for volunteers in a newly added page on its website. The page asks visitors to register to become an election observer and help Trump “stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election.”
“I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged,” Trump said Friday at a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, before suggesting he could lose the battleground state if “cheating goes on” in some parts. Noting the state no longer has a voter ID law, he urged voters to “go around and watch other polling areas and make sure it’s fine.”
Trump appears to be tapping into concerns among members of both parties -- Republicans who warn about voter ID fraud and Bernie Sanders supporters who complained about a “rigged” system during the senator’s primary race against Hillary Clinton. Those claims were bolstered by leaked party emails showing Democratic leaders discussing how to undermine him.
But considering the tensions that already have flared outside Trump rallies to date, the possibility of vigilant Trump volunteers looking for voting irregularities has some analysts and officials warning about the implications for Election Day.
“It sounds more like voter intimidation than observation,” Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who specializes in election law, told FoxNews.com.

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Georgia Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp said he welcomes the monitors but warned, “We don’t want anyone getting unruly,” according to The Washington Post.
A group of GOP lawyers also reportedly is planning an anti-voter fraud effort that includes hundreds of observers on the ground and on call on Election Day.
The Trump campaign did not return a request Tuesday for specifics about its election observer program. But spokesman Jason Miller told The Los Angeles Times the campaign intends to put credentialed observers inside polling places in Pennsylvania and several other states in which they are permitted.
“They will help ensure lawful voters can vote,” he said. “What we’re advocating are open, fair and honest elections.”
As for what Trump’s election observers can or cannot do, election lawyers frequently point to the 1982 case DNC v. RNC.
A federal court essentially said observers can go to polling stations to watch voting and tell state officials about “irregularities unrelated to voter fraud” that could interfere with casting ballots -- including understaffing, long lines and malfunctioning voting machines.
However, they cannot question voters about their credentials, take pictures or videos of them, or hand out fliers about voter fraud and its consequences.
Some Trump critics suggest his comments about the potential for voter fraud in “some parts” of Pennsylvania were really code for saying it will occur in Democratic strongholds like Philadelphia which are heavily populated and where residents could vote multiple times because they don’t need ID.
Thirty-three states have laws requiring voters to show ID at the polls. Supporters of such laws, mostly Republicans, say they prevent election fraud, while Democrats and other opponents argue they were enacted to keep minorities, who mostly vote for Democrats, away from the polls.
On Monday, lawyers for North Carolina GOP Gov. Pat McCrory asked the Supreme Court to re-instate a photo-ID requirement for voters through November, after an appeals court ruled the 2003 law illegally restricts voting by African-Americans.
Critics of such laws argue there’s scant evidence of in-person voter fraud.
“That it could swing an election just isn’t true,” Levinson said. “It’s sad that it has to be conservatives vs. liberal idea. It’s a factual matter.”
Roger Stone, a longtime political consultant formerly on the Trump campaign, agrees with the nominee’s warning about the potential for a rigged election and implied the real problems might come if Clinton wins as a result of voter fraud.
“I think we have widespread voter fraud,” Stone said in a Breitbart News interview in late July. “I think he has to put [voters] on notice that their inauguration will be a rhetorical. And when I mean civil disobedience, not violence, but it will be a bloodbath. The government will be shut down if they attempt to steal this and swear Hillary in.”

Trump gets first intelligence briefing as presidential nominee

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump got his first look Wednesday at classified intelligence on threats to the United States and other security issues.
The more than two-hour briefing was held at an FBI field office in New York City and was led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
Trump left the briefing in lower Manhattan without talking to reporters.
On Wednesday morning, Trump seemed to downplay the potential value of the briefing and questioned whether he could put trust in the information.
“Not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country,” he told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “Look what’s happened over the last 10 years. … I won't use them, because they’ve made such bad decisions.”
Trump has argued that apparent intelligence failures led to the  2003 invasion of Iraq, which resulted in the removal of dictator Saddam Hussein but also created a vacuum for radical Islamic terrorists to thrive.

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The briefing comes after months of Trump also railing against the foreign policies of President Obama and Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton, who was Obama’s secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
Trump has repeatedly argued that failed administration policies, particularly in the Middle East, have left the United States weakened and vulnerable to attacks by the Islamic State and other international terrorist networks. However, the first-time candidate, despite having foreign policy advisers, has limited intimate knowledge of the inter-workings of U.S. intelligence agencies.
Presidential nominees do not need to have a special security clearance to receive the briefings. The campaigns typically work with the ODNI to set up the sessions and discuss topics of interest.
The briefing also followed Trump’s major foreign policy address Monday in which he placed the blame for the rise of Islamic terrorism across the globe at the feet of the administration, and in particular Clinton.
Trump was accompanied to the roughly one-hour briefing by retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie.
“With one episode of bad judgment after another, Hillary Clinton's policies launched ISIS onto the world stage,” Trump said. “All we got from Iraq and our ventures in the Middle East was death, destruction and tremendous financial loss.”
Trump, who has suggested support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, also argued for an end to nation-building abroad, a new “extreme vetting” of immigrants seeking to enter the U.S., and a “bipartisan and international consensus” to defeat Islamic extremism.
He has been attacked throughout his campaign for a perceived lack of foreign policy credentials, with Clinton accusing him Monday of being “all over the place on ISIS.”
It was not immediately clear if a briefing had been set up for Clinton or when it would take place.
Republicans have called for Clinton not to be given classified information in light of FBI Director James Comey’s conclusion that she had been "extremely careless" in her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

Trump slams Obama, Clinton for 'politically correct' war against ISIS, warns of more attacks

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has accused the Obama administration of waging a 'politically correct' war against ISIS and warned that more terror attacks will take place.
"We're not taking it to them," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity at a Wisconsin town hall. "And we have to take it to them."
Trump reiterated his call for "extreme" vetting of would-be immigrants to the United States, saying, "We are just allowing people into our country that some are going to be a problem. And we have enough problems in our country right now."
"We can be nice about it, say it's never going to happen again, there will be more [attacks]," Trump later added. "What we're doing by allowing tens of thousands of people in ... we don't know anything about, it's going to happen again because there's something wrong, and until we figure it out, we have to stop it."
Trump appeared with Hannity at a town hall at Milwaukee's Pabst Theater. The program was recorded Tuesday and aired Wednesday night.
Trump criticized the Obama administration for completing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011, which he called "ridiculous" and "absolutely insane." He also hit his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for backing U.S. intervention in Libya during her tenure as secretary of state.

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"We did the stupid attacks on Libya and got nothing out of it," Trump said, "and ISIS has taken over the oil and it's some of the finest oil in the world."

At one point, Trump was joined on stage by survivors of three terror attacks that took place during the Obama administration: The 2009 shooting at Fort Hood, Texas; the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya; and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Benghazi attack survivor Kris Paronto said Trump's call for increased vetting was "necessary," adding "terrorists utilize our strengths, compassion and empathy against us. That's what they are doing right now."
On Wednesday, Trump received his first classified intelligence briefing, meeting with national security officials for more than two hours at an FBI field office in New York City. Earlier in the day, Trump suggested he would be skeptical of its contents when he was asked if he trusted the nation's intelligence materials.
"Not so much from the people that have been doing it for our country," Trump told "Fox & Friends". "I mean, look what's happened over the last 10 years...it's been catastrophic."
Also Wednesday, Trump gathered several advisers for a security round table at Trump Tower.
The advisers, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, encouraged the GOP nominee to press for more surveillance and more information-sharing with local police departments to fight terror threats if he's elected president. The FBI does share with local police agencies through Joint Terrorism Task Forces.