Huma Abedin (second row) aide to Hillary Clinton, and Hillary Clinton, attend Women’s Empowerment Principles event at the 59th Session Of The Commission On The Status Of Women United Nations headquarters in New York, NY, on March 10, 2015. (Photo by Anthony Behar)
Last week, a conservative watch dog group released 725 pages of emails that it obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The emails released were not from Hillary Clinton, but instead from Clinton’s top aide Huma Abedin. The group, Judicial Watch, claims that the emails prove that donors to the Clinton Foundation were given preferential treatment and special access to Clinton. In fact, the emails reveal that while Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band attempts to set up meetings for donors with Clinton, Abedin is reluctant to do so or offers to set up meetings through official channels.
Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin responded to the release saying, “Once again this right-wing organization that has been going after the Clintons since the 1990s is distorting facts to make utterly false attacks. No matter how this group tries to mischaracterize these documents, the fact remains that Hillary Clinton never took action as secretary of State because of donations to the Clinton Foundation.” A full set of the emails can be downloaded HERE.
Over the past week, several news outlets have been reviewing Hillary Clinton’s daily schedule as Secretary of State. The 3,721 page document was released by the State Department and includes Clinton’s daily schedule from January 22, 2009 to June 30, 2011. Clinton left the State Department in February 2012, and the rest of her daily schedule will be released later this year.
The schedule is interesting because of it’s detail. It is a minute-by-minute account of Clinton’s time as Secretary of State. The schedule includes names of people she met with, countries she visited, and when she was in her office. The report has revealed that Clinton met with a number of people in an official capacity (heads of state, diplomats, etc.), and she met with a number of guests including Bill and Melinda Gates, actor Ben Affleck, and musician Jon Bon Jovi. Clinton has been criticized recently for allegedly meeting with donors to the Clinton Foundation, and some have suggested that Clinton’s time was for sale via donations to the foundation. While there is some overlap between those Clinton met with and donors to the foundation, there is no evidence that any influence was bought.
What the schedule provides is an intimate look at the life of the most traveled Secretary of State in the history of the post. Of course, there were a number of redactions made the State Department, but the extreme detail is interesting to read. A copy of the schedule is embedded below and a full PDF copy can be downloaded HERE.
Today, Hillary for America released a fact sheet combating conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health. The release references the official physicians report released by Clinton’s doctor in 2015 and denies all allegations that Clinton’s health is failing. The full release is below.
Trump Pushes Deranged Conspiracy About Clinton’s Health To Distract From Tax Return Questions
Facing withering criticism from national media outlets, state editorial boards and even some Republicanallies over his refusal to release his tax returns, Donald Trump is once again peddling deranged conspiracy theories in a desperate attempt to change the subject – this time with absurd and debunked claims about Hillary Clinton’s health.
This is hardly the first time Trump and his allies have donned tin foil hats when things weren’t going his way. When his back was previously up against the wall, he’s suggested President Obama was a Muslim with ISIS sympathies, that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered and that Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Now, with the help of his well-oiled network of conspiracy peddlers – from Roger Stone to Sean Hannity – Trump is desperately trying to give life to already busted myths about the health of a woman whose stamina and focus was publicly lauded following an 11 hours long hearing about the tragedy in Benghazi.
Per his long pattern, Trump will clearly say or do anything to avoid the barrage of questions only his tax returns can answer: Whether he’s worth as much as he dubiously claims? Whether his pro-Kremlin policies stem from financial conflicts of interest with Russian oligarchs? Or whether he actually gives as much as he says to charity?
“While it is dismaying to see the Republican nominee for president push deranged conspiracy theories in a foreign policy speech, it’s no longer surprising,” said Jennifer Palmieri. “Donald Trump is simply parroting lies based on fabricated documents promoted by Roger Stone and his right wing allies. Hillary Clinton has released a detailed medical record showing her to be in excellent health plus her personal tax returns since 1977, while Trump has failed to provide the public with the most basic financial information disclosed by every major candidate in the last 40 years. It’s time for him to stop using shameful distractions to hide his own record.”
Two Deranged, Debunked Conspiracies About Clinton’s Health
The Doctors’ Letters
Trump confidant and discredited conspiracy peddler Roger Stone and his right-wing allies have been pushingfake medical documents supposedly leaked from Hillary Clinton’s physician that purport to show grave health problems.
However, here’s a statement from the actual Dr. Lisa Bardack, Hillary Clinton’s real internist and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at CareMount Medical, debunking the veracity of these false documents:
“As Secretary Clinton’s long time physician, I released a medical statement during the campaign indicating that she is in excellent health. I have recently been made aware of allegedly ‘leaked’ medical documents regarding Secretary Clinton with my name on them. These documents are false, were not written by me and are not based on any medical facts. To reiterate what I said in my previous statement, Secretary Clinton is in excellent health and fit to serve as President of the United States.”
Here’s a link to the actual medical records about Hillary Clinton released by Dr. Bardack (written on actual letterhead) with the concluding summary directly below:
Now compare that to the medical records released from Donald Trump’s gastroenterologist – not internist — that makes several peculiar claims that Kurt Eichenwald, senior writer at Newsweek, dissected in a must watch segment on CNN this morning:
Eichenwald: “This is not a real letter because what you have, number one, it’s not from an internist. It’s from a doctor who treats digestive problems.”
Eichenwald: “He says that all of Mr. Trump’s medical tests are positive. That means that everything he was tested for, he has. No competent or real doctor would write this.”
Eichenwald: “It also says such things as ‘Donald Trump will be the healthiest president in the history of the United States.’ That sounds a lot like Donald Trump.”
Eichenwald: “It doesn’t have a real letter letterhead. The letterhead was written on Microsoft Word.”
Hannity Drafts Urologist To Diagnose Potential Head Trauma Via Video Tape
To push the baseless narrative about lingering head trauma, Trump surrogate Sean Hannity drafted a urologist – not a neurologist – wearing a white physician’s coat to help diagnose whether a video tape was evidence of repercussions from previous head trauma.
Yesterday [July 31, 2015], the State Department released another batch of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails from her tenure as Secretary of States, and Clinton released two additional disclosures. The first release is common among those seeking public office: tax returns. The Clintons’ released their tax returns for 2007-2014, meaning that 38 years of personal tax records are now available to the public. But she also released something that isn’t common for a presidential candidate: a note from her doctor.
The campaign released a letter from Dr. Lisa Bardack, chair of internal medicine at the Mount Kisco Medical Group and Clinton’s personal physician since 2001. The letter contained information from her latest physical (dated March 21, 2015) including her blood pressure (100 over 65), cholesterol scores (Overall: 195; LDL:118; HDL: 64), various test results, and a list of her current medications (Coumadin, Armour Thyroid, antihistamines, and Vitamin B12) Dr. Bardack also addressed a concussion and blood clot Clinton suffered in 2012 for which Clinton still takes an anticoagulant. Dr. Bardack stated, “She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States.”
There have been questions about Clinton’s health and age since she announced her candidacy in April [2015]. She and her campaign have opted to address the issue head on by releasing Clinton’s personal medical information. You can read the full letter by CLICKING HERE.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi concluded its multi-year investigation into the terrorist attack on the United States Diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. The attack resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith. After reviewing evidence and conducting countless interviews, the committee released its findings at the end of June.
There has been controversy surrounding the committee since its creation in 2014. Democrats have accused Republicans as using the attacks in Benghazi as a way to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations. Its critics point to the endless investigations, many of which concluded before the committee was created in 2014. Because of this, the Republican majority and the Democratic minority of the committee have agreed on little. In fact, they even have separate websites covering the investigation. These divisions were made more apparent when Clinton testified for over 10 hours before the committee in October 2015.
On June 27, the minority members of the committee released their findings in a report led by Representative Elijah Cummings. In the report, the minority members focus on the way the committee has acted and the cost to tax payers for an investigation that ultimately yielded no new findings. They also complained that they were largely left out the process of writing the primary report that was released the next day. The report, which consists of 340 pages, is primarily a criticism of the handling of the investigation by the Republicans on the committee and their limited focus on Clinton.
The Republicans released their final report on June 28, a day after the Democrats. In 869 pages, the committee’s Republicans, led by Representative Trey Gowdy, harshly criticized the State Department, Defense Department, and CIA for failing to fully understand the situation that led to the attack in Benghazi. The report criticizes the delayed action by the Obama administration following the attacks. Overall, the committee failed to find any new evidence that changed the narrative of the attack nor could they prove that Clinton was in any way negligent. Instead, the report largely blames systemic issues for the poor response to the attack.
While the committee is responsible for discovering that Clinton used a private email server as Secretary of State, the findings of the committee largely echo that of an investigations conducted by the State Department in 2012 and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2013. During the Senate hearings in January 2013, Clinton accepted full responsibility for the State Department’s failures leading up to and following the attack. She also spoke about security funding that was cut by Congress arguing that those cuts have made United States diplomatic posts less secure around the world and she urged Congress to increase funding to ensure the safety of diplomats.
Since the release of the report early this week, Clinton has been asked for her thoughts. While she has not had much to say, she did offer a comment late this week saying, “I’ll leave it to others to characterize this report, but I think it’s pretty clear it’s time to move on.”
While many agree that it is time to move on, we want to ensure that the report, and every other report released on the Benghazi investigation are fully available to readers in the interest of full transparency. Therefore, we have gathered all the internal investigations and reports into the Benghazi attack into one place. Below, you will find a collection of websites for each the investigative committees as well as a collection of hearings and reports released by Congress and the State Department.
Earlier this week, the State Department Inspector General released the findings of their investigation into the state of department email security, including Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. The report is critical of Clinton’s decision to exclusively use a private email address and not one that was government issues. The report said that Clinton did not seek approval before using an alternate email address, and the Inspector General said that she did not follow proper procedures in turning over all work related email before leaving the State Department. All emails have since been turned over.
The report is also critical of the State Department admitting that the current policies for record preservation are outdated and the technology is outdated as well. The report mentions former Secretaries of State that used private email addresses and failed to turn over any work related content. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell also used a personal email address to conduct government business, but he has stated that he is unable to turn over records because they no longer exist. While Clinton is not the first Secretary of State to use a private email address to conduct business, she is the first to exclusively use a private server.
Clinton and team immediately responded, and she spoke to several news outlets by phone to address the report. Clinton spoke with reporters from Univision, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN, all of which asked a number of questions surrounding the report and its findings. Clinton, once again, admitted that using a private email server was a mistake, but she quickly turned the conversation to the election and Republican nominee Donald Trump. Speaking with Chuck Todd on MSNBC’s Meet the Press Daily, she said, “I said this many times, it was still a mistake. If I could go back, I would do it differently. And I understand people have concerns about this, but I hope and expect voters to look at the full picture of everything I’ve done and stand for. And the full threat posed by Donald Trump. If they do, I have faith in the American people that they will make the right choice.”
The State Department’s review is the first report regarding her emails to be released. A report from the FBI is expected to be released sometime this summer. A full copy of the State Department’s report can be read HERE. Clinton has said on several occasions that she wants the emails from her private server available to the public in the interest of transparency. The State Department released the final batch of emails at the end of February. Since the release of the emails was part of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), all the emails were posted to the State Department’s FOIA website. To access the emails, follow the steps below:
Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, gestures as she addresses the summer meeting of the Democratic National Committee, Friday, Aug. 28, 2015, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)
Tonight, the State Department released another batch of emails from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. The department reports that this batch contains roughly 7,000 pages of emails and that what they have released so far constitutes about 25% of emails that Clinton turned over. To date, 188 of the emails have been marked as classified, but a State Department spokesman said that the emails were not marked as classified at the time they were sent or received.
Clinton has said on several occasions that she wants the emails available to the public in the interest of transparency. News organizations release quotes from a few of her emails, but many average Americans have asked how they can access the emails. Since the release of the emails is part of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), all the emails are being posted to the State Department’s FOIA website. To access the emails that have been released so far, follow the steps below:
You will get results with a mix of emails and other documents
Click on the arrow next to the “Posted Date” column header and select “Sort Descending” so that the recently released documents show first
Click the title of the document in the “Subject” field to open a PDF copy
As of this posting, the search yields 4,172 emails and documents, and this number is going to continue to grow. The State Department will release batches of Clinton’s emails at the end of each month through the end of 2015.
Clinton takes part in a New Hampshire Independence Day Parade
Yesterday, the State Department released another batch of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails from her tenure as Secretary of States, and Clinton released two additional disclosures. The first release is common among those seeking public office: tax returns. The Clintons’ released their tax returns for 2007-2014, meaning that 38 years of personal tax records are now available to the public. But she also released something that isn’t common for any candidate: a note from her doctor.
The campaign released a letter from Dr. Lisa Bardack, chair of internal medicine at the Mount Kisco Medical Group and Clinton’s personal physician since 2001. The letter contained information from her latest physical (dated March 21, 2015) including her blood pressure (100 over 65), cholesterol scores (Overall: 195; LDL:118; HDL: 64), various test results, and a list of her current medications (Coumadin, Armour Thyroid, antihistamines, and Vitamin B12) Dr. Bardack also addressed a concussion and blood clot Clinton suffered in 2012 for which Clinton still takes an anticoagulant. Dr. Bardack stated, “She is in excellent physical condition and fit to serve as President of the United States.”
There have been questions about Clinton’s health and age since she announced her candidacy in April. She and her campaign have opted to address the issue head on by releasing Clinton’s personal medical information. You can read the full letter by CLICKING HERE.
Hillary Clinton Speeches 