Last week, the FBI and State Department released documents related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. The FBI released 299 pages of internal records detailing a fight between the bureau and the State Department over the classification of an email regarding arrests related to the attacks on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. The report includes internal emails as well as internal memos that shed additional light into the investigation of Clinton’s emails by the FBI. Read the report below or download a PDF copy HERE.
Meanwhile, the State Department released 371 of the 15,000 emails that were turned over to the department by the FBI. The total document dump totaled over 1,000 pages and are “near duplicates” of the documents turned over by Clinton’s team in 2014. The State Department has been reviewing the emails turned over by the FBI since late summer 2016 and has reported that about 60% of the emails were personal in nature and not related to business. Of the emails that relate to Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, the department reports that a “substantial number” of them are duplicates of those that have been previously reviewed. The State Department will continue to review and release the emails until all 15,000 have been examined. You can access the latest batch of emails by following the steps below:
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered that the search warrant that many have faulted for Hillary Clinton’s loss be unsealed. The warrant called for the investigation of emails between Clinton and aide Huma Abedin that were found on a laptop belonging to Abedin’s ex-husband, former Congressman Anthony Weiner. The document does not provide in detail what the FBI hoped to find, and the investigation ultimately turned up nothing. The warrant was approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Nathaniel Fox.
Many people have criticized the timing of the investigation by the FBI and the manner in which FBI director James Comey handled the investigation. He sent a letter to Congress two weeks before the election saying that the email investigation had been reopened. A few days later they concluded that no new evidence was found, but the damage to Clinton had been done. Despite winning the popular vote, Clinton lost the electoral college and the presidency. Clinton and her former campaign staffers blame Comey and the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary for America chair John Podesta for their loss.
Read a copy of the warrant below or download a PDF copy HERE.
Earlier this week, the State Department released 362 of the 15,000 emails that were turned over to the department by the FBI. The total document dump totaled over 1,000 pages and are “near duplicates” of the documents turned over by Clinton’s team in 2014. The State Department has been reviewing the emails turned over by the FBI since late summer and has reported that about 60% of the emails were personal in nature and not related to business. Of the emails that relate to Clinton’s time as Secretary of State, the department reports that a “substantial number” of them are duplicates of those that have been previously reviewed. The State Department will continue to review and release the emails until all 15,000 have been examined. You can access the latest batch of emails by following the steps below:
On Sunday morning, representatives for Hillary for America made the talk show rounds and spoke about the final strategies before Tuesday’s election. Tim Kaine was on CBS’s Face the Nation and John Dickerson and Kaine discussed the affect the FBI investigation has had on the campaign. “We’ve seen it add to the energy on our side. People on our side view this campaign as so important, the ‘Stronger Together’ message as so important and people don’t want it to be distracted. So there has been a great uptick in energy on our side in the early vote,” Kaine said. Watch a video of the full interview below.
John Podesta was interviewed on ABC’s This Week and NBC’s Meet the Press. During each interview, Podesta explained that while he is optimistic, the Clinton campaign is leaving nothing to chance before election. Podesta was also asked about the leaks of information coming out of the FBI and Podesta responded saying, “I think the men and women of the FBI are doing a tremendous job out here across the country. But the leakers should shut up.” Watch videos of Podesta’s interviews below.
HFA representative Joel Benenson was interviewed on this morning’s episode of Fox News Sunday. Benenson was asked about the FBI investigation into Clinton’s email and the campaign’s strategy for the final days of the campaign. Benenson said that they are “playing offense in every state” and will continue to do so through Monday. Watch a video of the interview below.
Yesterday, the State Department released a new batch of emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server. These emails are part of a group of emails that were recovered by the FBI and turned over to the State Department for review. The release includes 1,280 pages and more are expected to be released on Friday. None of the newly released emails contained classified information and there are several duplicate emails from those already released by the State Department. The emails were released following an agreement between a federal court and the State Department stating that the emails would be reviewed and released prior to the election. To access the emails, follow the steps below:
On Sunday, representatives for Hillary for America appeared a number of Sunday morning talk show. Tim Kaine was interviewed by George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week, campaign manager Robby Mook was interviewed by Chuck Todd on NBC’s Meet the Press, and campaign chair John Podesta was interviewed by Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union. Each were asked about the FBI’s renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Kaine called for FBI Director James Comey to release additional details about the investigation and questioned whether Comey had even seen the emails in question.
Mook said that while it seems the emails were discovered on a computer owned by former Representative Anthony Weiner, he is confident that there is no new information to be found and that Weiner’s wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, has cooperated with the FBI’s investigation. On CNN, Podesta called on Comey to explain the move adding, “This is something that has been tossed into the middle of the campaign. We would have preferred that that not happen, but now that it has happened, we would prefer that Mr. Comey come forward and explain why he took that unprecedented step.” Videos of the interviews are below.
On Friday, FBI Director James Comey sent a letter to a Congressional Judiciary Committee explaining that the FBI had decided to reopen the case investigating Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. The three page letter did not go into much detail which lead the Clinton campaign to respond. Campaign Chair John Podesta released a statement calling on Comey and the FBI to release more information surrounding their reasoning considering the election is less than two weeks away. The statement from Podesta is below.
“Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call. In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
FBI Director Comey should immediately provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter he sent to eight Republican committee chairmen. Already, we have seen characterizations that the FBI is ‘reopening’ an investigation but Comey’s words do not match that characterization. Director Comey’s letter refers to emails that have come to light in an unrelated case, but we have no idea what those emails are and the Director himself notes they may not even be significant.
It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election.
The Director owes it to the American people to immediately provide the full details of what he is now examining. We are confident this will not produce any conclusions different from the one the FBI reached in July.”
The FBI did elaborate later in the day saying that additional evidence related to the Clinton investigation was discovered on a laptop seized during the investigation of Rep. Anthony Weiner. FBI officials said that the bureau will investigate the newly discovered emails on the laptop and that it is possible that the emails could be duplicates of ones previously turned over by the Clinton camp. State Department officials said they have not been made aware of the FBI’s new evidence. More details are likely to be released in the coming weeks, but the news of a reopened investigation could affect Clinton at the polls.
Read the letter from Comey to Congress below (download the letter HERE).
UPDATE (10/28): Following an event in Des Moines, Iowa, Hillary Clinton spoke at a press event and addressed the issues of the FBI reopening its investigation. Clinton said that the FBI needs to release additional details regarding its investigation with the election being less than two weeks away. “Voting is underway, so the American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately,” she said. She said that she was confident that nothing new would be found and that she did not know what new evidence the FBI might be referring to adding, “Right now, your guess is as good as mine, and I don’t think that’s good enough.” A video of Clinton’s statement is below.
UPDATE (10/29):The Washington Post obtained a copy of an internal memo sent by FBI director James Comey to FBI employees. In the letter, he briefly explains his reasoning for taking the early details of an investigation to Congress. Read the letter below:
To all:
This morning I sent a letter to Congress in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation. Yesterday, the investigative team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case. Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them.
Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.
Jim Comey
UPDATE (10/29): Hillary for America responded to the news with several press releases and a post on Medium from campaign chair John Podesta.
UPDATE (10/30): The FBI announced that it obtained a warrant to search the emails found on a laptop belonging to former Congressman Anthony Weiner. While it is unclear how many emails on the laptop, if any, are relevant to the Hillary Clinton email investigation, an official revealed that there are over 650,000 emails on the computer. It is likely that the majority belong to the former Congressman, but his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin, also used the laptop. FBI officials also revealed today that several lower level investigators knew the emails existed weeks ago, but only recently brought them to the attend of Director James Comey. It is also unclear why a warrant was received after Comey briefed Congress of the investigation on Friday.
Hillary for America campaign chair John Podesta and campaign manager Robby Mook have been on the defensive since the revelations were announced. The campaign released a video about the facts of the case and calling for more details to be released considering the timing. The video released by The Briefing is below.
UPDATE (10/31): Former Attorney General Eric Holder wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he called FBI director James Comey “a good man,” but said that he made a mistake by telling Congress about evidence that may have nothing to do with the Hillary Clinton email case. In the editorial, Holder says, “The department has a practice of not commenting on ongoing investigations. Indeed, except in exceptional circumstances, the department will not even acknowledge the existence of an investigation. The department also has a policy of not taking unnecessary action close in time to Election Day that might influence an election’s outcome. These rules have been followed during Republican and Democratic administrations. They aren’t designed to help any particular individual or to serve any political interest. Instead, they are intended to ensure that every investigation proceeds fairly and judiciously; to maintain the public trust in the department’s ability to do its job free of political influence; and to prevent investigations from unfairly or unintentionally casting public suspicion on public officials who have done nothing wrong.” Read the full editorial HERE.
Tim Kaine appeared on this morning’s episode of NBC’s Meet the Press. During an interview with Chuck Todd, Kaine spoke about a number of issues including Hillary Clinton’s thoughts on the Trans Pacific Partnership and the future of trade, some of the content of emails leaked by WikiLeaks, and the proposed merger between telecom giant AT&T and Time Warner. Kaine suggested that a Clinton administration would be skeptical of the merger. Several politicians have expressed their concern about the consolidation of various types of media. Kaine said, “I share those concerns and questions. We’ve got to get to the bottom of them. Less concentration I think is generally helpful, especially in the media.” Watch a video of the interview below.
Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor Jake Sullivan released the following statement today after news reports by Esquire and Motherboard confirmed for the first time publicly that Russia is behind the hack of John Podesta’s emails. Also, according to Esquire, Guccifer told journalists that he gave the DNC emails to WikiLeaks:
“The new public data confirming the Russians are behind the hack of John Podesta’s email is a big deal. There is no longer any doubt that Putin is trying to help Donald Trump by weaponizing WikiLeaks. Despite all the evidence, including the conclusions of the US intelligence community, Donald Trump went on the debate stage and acted as Putin’s puppet, defending Russia and refusing to admit and condemn the Kremlin’s actions. This behavior has gone from bizarre to disqualifying. In light of his associate’s admitted ‘back-channeling’ with Assange, and Trump’s own undisclosed business ties with Russia, it’s time for Trump to tell the American people what he knew about these hacks and when he knew it.”
“In the weeks that followed, Guccifer offered interviews and batches of documents to several journalists, but he wrote that “the main part of the papers, thousands of files and mails, I gave to WikiLeaks.”
“So far U. S. investigators have not said publicly who was responsible for the Podesta hack, but the data harvested by SecureWorks makes it clear that Fancy Bear broke into the Clinton chairman’s account as early as late March. The CIA briefed Trump about the origin of the kompromat, but he continued to cite the material, telling a Pennsylvania crowd, “I love WikiLeaks!”
Months later, on October 9, WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of Podesta’s hacked emails. Almost everyone immediately pointed the finger at Russia, who is suspected of being behind a long and sophisticated hacking campaign that has the apparent goal of influencing the upcoming US elections. But there was no public evidence proving the same group that targeted the Democratic National Committee was behind the hack on Podesta—until now.
The data linking a group of Russian hackers—known as Fancy Bear, APT28, or Sofacy—to the hack on Podesta is also yet another piece in a growing heap of evidence pointing toward the Kremlin. And it also shows a clear thread between apparently separate and independent leaks that have appeared on a website called DC Leaks, such as that of Colin Powell’s emails; and the Podesta leak, which was publicized on WikiLeaks.
Six Key Developments Today On Trump, WikiLeaks, And Russia
Esquire published a deep dive on the full extent of Russia’s unprecedented hacking campaign to influence the U.S. election, including new details about the operation.
Motherboard confirmed that government-backed Russian hackers were behind the cyberattack on John Podesta’s emails, publicly detailing new, undeniable evidence.
Politico documented Trump’s haunting propensity for defending Putin’s crimes. Beyond the cyberattacks, Trump defended Putin in the killing of journalists, the assassination of a former Russian spy, and the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17.
Dallas Morning News reported that Trump had been personally briefed by House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul that Russia was behind these cyberattacks before he debate, in which he again denied their culpability.
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on MSNBC this morning that she was completely comfortable with the campaign exploiting documents that were stolen by Russian agents.
Former director of the NSA and CIA, Michael Hayden, told NBC News: “[Trump] reject[ed] a high confidence judgment from the American intelligence community that the Russians are breaking in to DNC emails. That’s troubling on two counts. First, what will it take for him to criticize Russia? And second, here is a man who would be president, rejecting an intelligence judgment because it is politically inconvenient.”
This morning, Tim Kaine appeared on three of the Sunday morning news shows: ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation, and Fox News Sunday. During each of the interviews, Kaine focused on the WikiLeaks email leaks and Russia’s alleged role in hacking and how Donald Trump and his campaign were also involved. Kaine stressed that it is possible that the emails released by WikiLeaks have been “doctored.” Kaine said, “I don’t think it’s funny when you have a nation like Russia that has engaged in activity to destabilize elections in countries. And somebody running to be president of the United States shouldn’t be encouraging another nation to cyber hack the U.S.” Watch videos of Kaine’s interviews below.
Hillary Clinton Speeches 