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The FBI can question Hillary, but access to her for a few minutes requires a $2 million donation to the Clinton Foundation.
This is the last op ed Kim Strassel will write before coming to Savannah this Tuesday and then to Atlanta, Wednesday. Kim will be discussing her new book as well as responding to questions about the election and the new revelations regarding Comey's re-opening the Hillary Server Scam and related matters. (See 1 below.)
Also, coming before Halloween this has to be very scary for Hillary. Rest assured the pressure on Comey must have been huge in view of the timing and because he had no desire to re-open this can of worms he helped create. Is Comey trying to redeem his tarnished reputation? Was Comey persuaded by an open revolt among FBI agents?
Meanwhile, I was listening to Hillary's double speak speech in Iowa, as all of this was breaking and she did not even mention the re-opening of the investigation.
(Weiner, Huma Devices Led to Renewed FBI Probe
The new emails related to the FBI’s closed investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server were found on devices belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin and husband Anthony Weiner, which were seized as part of a probe into Weiner’s sexting.) (See 1a and 1b below.)
However, she castigated Trump for his boorish "language" towards women but never discussed the "behaviour" of her husband, She attacked Trump for using Chinese steel to build hotels and accused him of losing a billion dollars. From my perspective, Donald was smart to buy lower price steel and to take advantage of legal write offs. That makes him a good businessman in my mind. I would hope he would apply these same policies, should he become president, when it comes to buying military equipment etc. which always involves cost over-runs.
Hillary attacked Trump for the way he treated women and reminded us of how many nations she visited but she did not say she would return money given their Foundation from countries who abuse women like Saudi Arabia etc.
She ignored reporters seeking replies from Hillary as if she was deaf. The Clinton's have always been effective in allowing mud to fall off their white shirts and letting time wash the stench away. (See 1c and 1d below.)
Will any of this change the minds of those who have not voted? Will voters be willing to pull the lever for Hillary knowing this re-opening could lead to criminal charges subsequent to her being elected?
Remember, Obama could pardon Hillary, should she become president and I would put nothing past him because his legacy could be dented if not mauled!
The only way this sordid mess can be resolved is with an independent investigation and prosecutor.
What say Conant?
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I know, three memos today, but they were brief and considering all the news breaking I could not resist.
Have a great weekend and stay tuned.
===
Dick
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++1) Grifters-in-Chief
The Clintons don’t draw lines between their ‘charity’ and personal enrichment.
Hillary and Bill Clinton in New York City, Sept. 22, 2014. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
In an election season that has been full of surprises, let’s hope the electorate understands that there is at least one thing of which it can be certain: A Hillary Clinton presidency will be built, from the ground up, on self-dealing, crony favors, and an utter disregard for the law.
This isn’t a guess. It is spelled out, in black and white, in the latest bombshell revelation from WikiLeaks. It comes in the form of a memo written in 2011 by longtime Clinton errand boy Doug Band, who for years worked simultaneously at the Clinton Foundation and at the head of his lucrative consulting business, Teneo.
It is astonishingly detailed proof that the Clintons do not draw any lines between their “charitable” work, their political activity, their government jobs or (and most important) their personal enrichment. Every other American is expected to keep these pursuits separate, as required by tax law, anticorruption law and campaign-finance law. For the Clintons, it is all one and the same—the rules be damned.
The memo came near the end of a 2011 review by law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett into Clinton Foundation practices. Chelsea Clinton had grown concerned about the audacious mixing of public and private, and the review was designed to ensure that the foundation didn’t lose its charitable tax status. Mr. Band, Teneo boss and epicenter of what he calls “ Bill Clinton, Inc.,” clearly felt under assault and was eager to brag up the ways in which his business had concurrently benefited the foundation, Clinton political causes and the Clinton bank account. The memoed result is a remarkably candid look at the sleazy inner workings of the Clinton grifters-in-chief.
Hillary and Bill Clinton in New York City, Sept. 22, 2014. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
In an election season that has been full of surprises, let’s hope the electorate understands that there is at least one thing of which it can be certain: A Hillary Clinton presidency will be built, from the ground up, on self-dealing, crony favors, and an utter disregard for the law.
This isn’t a guess. It is spelled out, in black and white, in the latest bombshell revelation from WikiLeaks. It comes in the form of a memo written in 2011 by longtime Clinton errand boy Doug Band, who for years worked simultaneously at the Clinton Foundation and at the head of his lucrative consulting business, Teneo.
It is astonishingly detailed proof that the Clintons do not draw any lines between their “charitable” work, their political activity, their government jobs or (and most important) their personal enrichment. Every other American is expected to keep these pursuits separate, as required by tax law, anticorruption law and campaign-finance law. For the Clintons, it is all one and the same—the rules be damned.
The memo came near the end of a 2011 review by law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett into Clinton Foundation practices. Chelsea Clinton had grown concerned about the audacious mixing of public and private, and the review was designed to ensure that the foundation didn’t lose its charitable tax status. Mr. Band, Teneo boss and epicenter of what he calls “ Bill Clinton, Inc.,” clearly felt under assault and was eager to brag up the ways in which his business had concurrently benefited the foundation, Clinton political causes and the Clinton bank account. The memoed result is a remarkably candid look at the sleazy inner workings of the Clinton grifters-in-chief.
Teneo’s incestuous behavior also included Mrs. Clinton’s State Department. The Band memo boasts that Mr. Kelly (while he was Mrs. Clinton’s State envoy) introduced the then-head of UBS Wealth Management, Bob McCann, to Bill Clinton at an American Ireland Fund event in 2009. “Mr. Kelly subsequently asked Mr. Mccann [sic] to support the Foundation, which he did . . . Mr. Kelly also encouraged Mr. Mccann [sic] to invite President Clinton to give several paid speeches, which he has done,” reads Mr. Band’s memo. UBS ultimately paid Bill $2 million.The cross-pollination is flagrant, and Mr. Band gives example after example of how it works. He and his partner Declan Kelly (a Hillary Clinton fundraiser whom Mrs. Clinton rewarded by making him the State Department’s special envoy to Northern Ireland) buttered up their clients with special visits to Bill’s home and tête-à-tête golf rounds with the former president. They then “cultivated” these marks ( Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, UBS) for foundation dollars, and then again for high-dollar Bill Clinton speeches and other business payouts.
American Ireland Fund meanwhile became a Teneo client, and made Mr. Kelly (of former State envoy fame) a trustee, where he “ensured that the AIF is a significant donor to the Foundation.” AIF then bestowed upon Mrs. Clinton a major award on her final trip to Northern Ireland in 2012, in an event partly sponsored by . . . Teneo.
Not that this is all one way. Mr. Band let slip just how useful all these arrangements were for Teneo, too, when he backhandedly apologized in the memo for hosting 15 client meetings in a hotel room rented by the Clinton Global Initiative.
The memo removes any doubt that the foundation is little more than an unregistered super PAC working on the Clintons’ behalf. Donors to the charity are simultaneously tapped to give Bill speech requests and other business arrangements, including the $3.5 million he was paid annually to serve as “honorary chairman” of Laureate International Universities. Mr. Band’s memo also notes his success at getting donors to “support candidates running for office that President Clinton was supporting.”
It’s now 2016 and Bill’s most favorite candidate is running for the presidency. There’s no question foundation donors are being “leveraged” for Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Band wants credit in the memo for prodding existing foundation donors to pony up more money, though the donation statistics he provides paint a different picture. By and large, donations to the foundation begin to spike dramatically in 2009 and 2010. Mr. Band didn’t form Teneo until 2011. What was happening in 2009? Mrs. Clinton was sworn in as one of the most powerful politicians on the planet.
The obvious question is where are the prosecutors? (For that matter, where is Lois Lernerwhen you need her?) Any nonprofit lawyer in America knows the ironclad rule of keeping private enrichment away from tax-exempt activity, for the simple reason that mixing the two involves ripping off taxpayers. Every election lawyer in the country lives in fear of stepping over the lines governing fundraising and election vehicles. The Clintons recognize no lines.
Here’s the lasting takeaway: The Clintons spent their White House years explaining endless sleazy financial deals, and even capping their exit with a scandal over whether Bill was paid to pardon financier Marc Rich. They know the risks. And yet they geared up the foundation and these seedy practices even as Mrs. Clinton was making her first bid for the presidency. They continued them as she sat as secretary of state. They continue them still, as she nears the White House.
This is how the Clintons operate. They don’t change. Any one who pulls the lever for Mrs. Clinton takes responsibility for setting up the nation for all the blatant corruption that will follow.
American Ireland Fund meanwhile became a Teneo client, and made Mr. Kelly (of former State envoy fame) a trustee, where he “ensured that the AIF is a significant donor to the Foundation.” AIF then bestowed upon Mrs. Clinton a major award on her final trip to Northern Ireland in 2012, in an event partly sponsored by . . . Teneo.
Not that this is all one way. Mr. Band let slip just how useful all these arrangements were for Teneo, too, when he backhandedly apologized in the memo for hosting 15 client meetings in a hotel room rented by the Clinton Global Initiative.
The memo removes any doubt that the foundation is little more than an unregistered super PAC working on the Clintons’ behalf. Donors to the charity are simultaneously tapped to give Bill speech requests and other business arrangements, including the $3.5 million he was paid annually to serve as “honorary chairman” of Laureate International Universities. Mr. Band’s memo also notes his success at getting donors to “support candidates running for office that President Clinton was supporting.”
It’s now 2016 and Bill’s most favorite candidate is running for the presidency. There’s no question foundation donors are being “leveraged” for Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Band wants credit in the memo for prodding existing foundation donors to pony up more money, though the donation statistics he provides paint a different picture. By and large, donations to the foundation begin to spike dramatically in 2009 and 2010. Mr. Band didn’t form Teneo until 2011. What was happening in 2009? Mrs. Clinton was sworn in as one of the most powerful politicians on the planet.
The obvious question is where are the prosecutors? (For that matter, where is Lois Lernerwhen you need her?) Any nonprofit lawyer in America knows the ironclad rule of keeping private enrichment away from tax-exempt activity, for the simple reason that mixing the two involves ripping off taxpayers. Every election lawyer in the country lives in fear of stepping over the lines governing fundraising and election vehicles. The Clintons recognize no lines.
Here’s the lasting takeaway: The Clintons spent their White House years explaining endless sleazy financial deals, and even capping their exit with a scandal over whether Bill was paid to pardon financier Marc Rich. They know the risks. And yet they geared up the foundation and these seedy practices even as Mrs. Clinton was making her first bid for the presidency. They continued them as she sat as secretary of state. They continue them still, as she nears the White House.
This is how the Clintons operate. They don’t change. Any one who pulls the lever for Mrs. Clinton takes responsibility for setting up the nation for all the blatant corruption that will follow.
1a) FBI Reviewing Newly Discovered Emails in Clinton Server Probe
Says it has discovered new emails ‘that appear to be pertinent to the investigation’
U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaking in Warren, Mich., on Aug. 11. PHOTO: CHRIS KEANE/REUTERS
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has uncovered and is reviewing new evidence in connection with its investigation of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email server, a probe that the FBI had closed this summer.
In a letter to Congress, FBI director James Comey said the FBI had discovered new emails in an unrelated case that “appear to be pertinent to the investigation” into whether Mrs. Clinton or her aides mishandled classified information while she was serving in the State Department.
“I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation,” Mr. Comey wrote Friday to a group of congressional committee chairmen and ranking members.
In Friday’s letter, Mr. Comey said it wasn’t clear whether the new emails would be important to the probe. “The FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work,” he wrote.
Mr. Comey recommended no charges against Mrs. Clinton or her aides when the investigation was closed this summer.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. After landing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for a campaign speech, Mrs. Clinton didn’t respond to shouted questions from reporters about the FBI’s announcement.
The announcement of a renewed probe into Mrs. Clinton’s handling of sensitive and classified information comes with just 11 days left in the presidential contest between her and Republican opponent Donald Trump.
The revelations re-inject the issue of Mrs. Clinton’s private server back into the closing days of an increasingly bitter race, as Mr. Trump has argued to voters that his opponent’s possible lapses in judgment make him the stronger candidate.
“I have great respect for the fact that the FBI and the Department of Justice are now willing to have the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Manchester, N.H., shortly after the announcement.
The FBI is part of the Justice Department, which declined to comment on the announcement on Friday.
The department has a longstanding policy that discourages investigators or prosecutors from taking overt investigative steps right before a primary or general election, in order to avoid the appearance of trying to sway an election.
That practice isn’t absolute, however, and at times in the email probe Mr. Comey has decided to deviate from standard practice involving investigations, saying greater transparency is in the public interest.
The FBI made the decision to notify Congress about the newly discovered emails on its own, according to people familiar with the matter. Those emails weren’t found as part of the FBI’s investigation of the stealing of Clinton campaign emails and their release by WikiLeaks, these people said.
The FBI investigation into Mrs. Clinton was closed in early July, after an exhaustive forensic review of the private email server Mrs. Clinton used for all her government business. The probe also included interviews with the candidate herself and many of her staff members.
“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 evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” Mr. Comey said in an unusual press conference at the time.
FBI Director James Comey speaking before a Senate panel in Washington on Sept. 27. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
Mr. Comey also said no reasonable prosecutor would have brought charges in the case, and that similar cases had not been brought in the past.
That led to an outcry from Republicans, including Mr. Trump, who alleged that Mr. Comey was doing special favors for Mrs. Clinton because she was running for president. Mr. Comey rebutted these claims, telling the House Judiciary Committee in September that “you can call us wrong, but don’t call us weasels.”
Mr. Comey was a Bush administration appointee to the Justice Department and became FBI director under President Barack Obama. He has said recently that he isn’t registered as either a Democrat or a Republican.
The FBI has taken the unusual step in recent months of releasing hundreds of pages of material related to an investigation that was closed without charges, shedding new light on how and why Mrs. Clinton came to use an email server run from her basement for all her government work.
Republicans immediately seized on Friday’s announcement, saying that it renewed the debate about Mrs. Clinton’s judgment and her handling of records and secrets while serving as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.
At his Manchester rally, Mr. Trump said closing the investigation “was a grave miscarriage of justice that the American people fully understood, and it is everybody’s hope that it is about to be corrected.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said the decision should have been made earlier. “She was entrusted with some of our nation’s most important secrets, and she betrayed that trust by carelessly mishandling highly classified information,” he said in a statement.
The FBI in 2015 launched its initial investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, following a referral from the intelligence community’s inspector general. The inspector general’s office asked the FBI to look into whether classified information was being shared on that email system.
Mrs. Clinton left the State Department in 2013 and turned over 30,000 of her emails to the State Department the following year. The FBI reviewed those emails and found that 110 emails in 52 email chains contained classified information “at the time they were sent or received.”
—Beth Reinhard, Damian Paletta and Devlin Barrett contributed to this article.
1b)
Congressional Republicans put out the word Friday that the FBI is reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state. This shocking development comes just eleven days before the general election. FBI Director James Comey announced the news in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.
1c)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1b)
Breaking: FBI to Reopen Investigation into Hillary Clinton's Email Server
Congressional Republicans put out the word Friday that the FBI is reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state. This shocking development comes just eleven days before the general election. FBI Director James Comey announced the news in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.
"In previous congressional testimony, I referred to the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had completed its investigation of former Secretary Clinton's personal email server. Due to recent developments, I am writing to supplement my previous testimony," Comey wrote.
"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation," he added."Although the FBI cannot yet assess whether or not this material may be significant, and I cannot predict how long it will take us to complete this additional work, I believe it is important to update your Committees about our efforts in light of my previous testimony," Comey concluded.
1c)
How Clinton Corruption Works
By JONATHAN S. TOBIN+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
