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How the FBI is trying to meet Clinton email deadline |
Buried in the
189 pages
of heavily redacted FBI witness interviews from the Hillary Clinton
email investigation are details of yet another mystery -- about two
missing “bankers boxes” filled with the former secretary of state’s
emails.
The interviews released earlier this month, known as
302s, also reveal the serious allegation that senior State Department
official Patrick Kennedy applied pressure to subordinates to change the
classified email codes so they would be shielded from Congress and the
public.
The details about the boxes are contained in
five pages of the FBI file
– with a staggering 111 redactions – that summarize the statements of a
State Department witness who worked in the “Office of Information
Programs and Services (IPS)." The employee told the FBI that,
“Initially, IPS officials were told there were 14 bankers boxes of
former Secretary of State Hillary CLINTON’s emails at CLINTON’s
Friendship Heights office.” Friendship Heights is a neighborhood that
straddles the Northwest neighborhood of the District of Columbia and
Maryland.
The State Department witness further explained to the
FBI that “on or about December 5, 2014, IPS personnel picked up only 12
bankers boxes of CLINTON’s emails from Williams & Connolly.”
The officials were not sure if the boxes “were consolidated or what could have happened to the two other boxes. “
Clinton’s chief lawyer at Williams & Connolly,
who leads all Clinton-related legal matters, is David Kendall. He has
successfully represented Bill and Hillary Clinton together and
separately throughout decades of their legal entanglements since the
1980’s, ranging from the former president’s sex scandals to missing
billing records for Hillary Clinton’s work as a partner in The Rose Law
Firm on behalf of the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan and
Capital Management Services.
In the documents provided by Kendall’s law firm, the
witness told the FBI they were “unable to locate any of her emails from
January-April 2009.” This timeframe is crucial as it covers the start of
Clinton’s term as secretary of state and when she set up a private
server for all government business, in turn skirting public records
laws.
In the same Aug. 18, 2015, interview, on page 42, the
State Department witness also told the FBI there was a deliberate
effort to change sensitive Clinton emails bearing the “B(1)” code --
used in the Freedom of Information Act review process to identify
classified information -- to the category of “B-5.” That category covers
Executive Branch deliberations, “interagency or intra-agency
communications including attorney client privileges,” and makes material
exempt from public release.
Over five pages of the single-spaced summary notes,
the witness, whose name is redacted, alleges Clinton’s team which
included Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy played
classification games to confuse and obfuscate the formal FOIA review
process.
“(Redacted) believed there was interference with the
formal FOIA review process. Specifically, STATE’s Near East Affairs
Bureau upgraded several of CLINTON’s emails to a classified level with a
B(1) release exemption. (Redacted) along with (redacted) attorney,
Office of Legal Counsel called STATE's Near East Affairs Bureau and told
them they could use a B(5) exemption on an upgraded email to protect it
instead of the B(1) exemption."
In early May 2015, the witness reported, "… KENNEDY
held a closed-door meeting with (redacted) and (redacted) DOJ's Office
of Information Programs where KENNEDY pointedly asked (redacted) to
change the FBI's classification determination regarding one of CLINTON's
emails, which the FBI considered classified. The email was related to
FBI counter-terrorism operations.”
This appears to be one of two emails that kick-started the FBI probe in the summer of 2015. Fox News
first identified
the two emails containing classified information as well as sensitive
law enforcement information sent by Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Jake
Sullivan to Clinton’s unsecured server.
State Department spokesman John Kirby consistently
has stated the majority of the 2,100 Clinton server emails containing
classified information were "retroactively classified" and not
classified at the time they were sent and received. But that explanation
is disputed by seasoned intelligence officials. Even the State
Department witness cast doubt on the claim in the FBI interview:
"(Redacted) heard the argument that some of CLINTON'S
emails were unclassified back in the 2009-2012 timeframe when they were
initiated, but were later classified due to various circumstances. It
was very rare for something that was actually unclassified to become
classified years after the fact."
Asked this week about the FBI 302 and the claims
Kennedy, one of the department's most senior executives, tampered with
the FOIA review process, State Department spokesman Elizabeth Trudeau
said they "strongly refute those claims."
She added, "The department has complete confidence
that the … attorneys performed the highest professional and ethical
standards, including, with connection, with the review and release of
Secretary Clinton's emails."
Kennedy, in his FBI interview on Dec. 21, 2015,
“categorically rejected” the allegations of classified code tampering.
While the section is partially redacted, it appears the FBI asked
Kennedy about the credibility of the accusing witness. He said she “says
it like it is” and has “no fear of telling truth to power.”
The conflicting statements indicate either the junior
State Department employee or Kennedy misled or lied to federal agents
which can be a criminal offense.
Fox News
first reported
on the intelligence community’s deep concerns that the process was
tampered with, as lawyers with Clinton ties were alleged to be involved
at the State Department.
Fox News was told in August 2015 that Kennedy was running interference on Capitol Hill. Two sources
confirmed
that Kennedy went to Capitol Hill and argued one of the emails that
kick-started the probe did not contain classified material, citing a
2011 Irish Times newspaper report to claim the information was already
public.
According to congressional testimony, at least one of
the lawyers in the office where the changes were made is Catherine
“Kate” Duval, who was at the IRS during the Lois Lerner email scandal
and later handled the release of documents to the Benghazi congressional
committee.
Duval once worked for the same firm as Kendall and has since left the State Department.
Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence
correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She
covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of
Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based
correspondent.