Explosive New Clinton Email Revelations

[WEEKLY UPDATE]

HILLARY CLINTON APOLOGIZED TO FBI OVER EMAILS, BUT IT WAS NOT RECORDED
ON FBI INTERVIEW DOCUMENT!

[[link removed]]


We keep digging into the chain of events surrounding the FBI’s
non-investigation of Hillary Clinton and her email misconduct. The
correspondence between Peter Strzok and his lover Lisa Page is proving
to be a treasure trove.

We have now received 191 pages
[[link removed]]
of
emails between former FBI official Strzok and former FBI attorney Page
that include an August 26, 2016, email in which Strzok says that
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her interview with the
FBI about her email controversy, apologized for “the work and
effort” it caused the bureau and saying she chose to use it “out
of convenience” and that “it proved to be anything but.”

Strzok said Clinton’s apology and the “convenience” discussion
were “not in” the FBI 302 report which summarized the interview.

The emails also suggest that Strzok had information on an intelligence
briefing for then-candidate Trump that may have been a ruse to spy on
Trump.

The emails are the latest production from our January 2018 Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit
[[link removed]]
filed
after the DOJ failed to respond to a December 2017 request for all
communications between Strzok and Page (_Judicial Watch v. U.S.
Department of Justice_
[[link removed]]
(No.
1:18-cv-00154)).

The FBI is processing the records at a rate of only 500 pages per
month and has refused to process text messages. At this rate, the
production of these communications won’t be completed until late
2021.

The new records include an August 26, 2016, email
[[link removed]]
from
CNN’s Even Perez to Michael Kortan, the FBI’s assistant director
for public affairs, saying: “Do you know if Gowdy is right that the
FBI didn’t ask Clinton about her intent? And is that weird?”

Kortan forwards the email to Strzok, saying, “The question of the
day …”

Strzok replies to Kortan, “I know, I was getting increasingly
irritated at Gowdy last night. I don’t know the basis for him saying
that. We certainly asked her. She said she did it for convenience,
because she wanted one system for email. We also asked those close to
her – Abedin and Mills specifically – who said the same thing.

“[Redacted] but we can find the references in the 302
[[link removed]]
which
discuss it.

“Though not in the 302, at the end of the interview she apologized
for the work and effort it created for the FBI. She said words to the
effect of, I’m sorry this has caused so much work and expenditure of
resources by the FBI. I chose to use my own server out of convenience;
it proved to be anything but.”

Strzok forwarded the exchange to Page, saying, “Need to nip this in
the bud.”

In an August 25, 2016, email thread
[[link removed]]
with
the subject line “Found him,” which was initiated by an
unidentified Chicago FBI field office agent and sent to agents in New
York, Cleveland and Washington field offices as well as someone in the
counterintelligence division, the Chicago agent writes: “Address is
[redacted]. Photo attached.”

A Washington agent (identity redacted) forwards the email to Strzok
and FBI Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Jonathan
Moffa, writing: “Getting there. Also Pete, let me know if you will
when you call CG SAC [redacted] is in a weird spot and even though
I’ve made calls I didn’t call SAC Once call is made I’d like to
tell [redacted].”

Strzok then forwards the email thread to Page, writing: “Located our
source of predication…”

The records also include an August 18, 2016, email
[[link removed]]
from
FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Bill Priestap to
Strzok, Moffa and a FBI official (identity redacted), asking if they
“happen to know when Clinton will receive the brief? And where will
it occur, and which two people has she designated to receive it with
her?”

Strzok replies, “She has not designated her people and no date is
set. I believe brief will be HVRA [the FBI’s Hudson Valley Resident
Agent] or WPRA [FBI’s White Plains Resident Agent].”

Further on in the email exchange, the unidentified FBI official from
the Washington field office writes, “There is no additional or new
info as of this morning when I checked with the DNI scheduler. There
is a policy that briefs will not be provided a week prior to a debate.
If the other candidate does not ID people soon, there was talk that
they may not be able to do them. That’s all I know at this
time.”

Strzok forwards the exchange to Lisa Page and says, “And now we’ve
got sources in dni <smiley emoji>.”

Page replies, “Yup, I knew the same. Just hadn’t shared yet.”

Strzok responds, “What?! You holding out? <wink emoji>”

Page replies, “Time, dude. Time.”

Strzok responds, “I know, dudette. Hence, the <wink emoji>. Same
realization of shit, haven’t even told you about Trump brief…”

The DOJ’s Inspector General report
[[link removed]]
on
“Crossfire Hurricane” describes the FBI’s use of a national
security briefing to the Trump campaign in August 2016 to try to
further its investigation by planting an agent in the room:

[W]e learned during the course of our review that in August 2016, the
supervisor of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, SSA 1,
participated on behalf of the FBI in a strategic intelligence briefing
given by Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to
candidate Trump and his national security advisors, including Michael
Flynn, and in a separate strategic intelligence briefing given to
candidate Clinton and her national security advisors. The stated
purpose of the FBI portion of the briefing was to provide the
recipients “a baseline on the presence and threat posed by foreign
intelligence services to the National Security of the U.S.” However,
we found that SSA 1 was selected to provide the FBI briefings, in
part, because Flynn, who was a subject in the ongoing Crossfire
Hurricane investigation, would be attending the Trump campaign
briefing.

On August 19, 2016, the same day as Paul Manafort’s resignation from
the Trump campaign, Dave Bowdich in FBI Director James Comey’s
office initiates an email exchange
[[link removed]]
with
the subject line “OGA” [Other Government Agency], in which he
tells the top management of the FBI (Randy Coleman, Josh Skule,
Michael Steinbach, Amy Hess, Valerie Parlave, James Turgal, James
Trainor, Laura Bucheit, Bill Priestap and WL Bean), “We are clear to
[redacted]. DJ [likely Associate Executive Assistant Director Dave
Johnson] will determine the composition of the team with your
collective input. This gets our foot in the door, but we can scale as
necessary later.”

Jim Trainor responds, “10-4. Per DJ’s voice mail [redacted]. Stand
by for the names.”
Preistap forwards the exchange to Strzok and Moffa, saying, “Pete,
Please see the bottom email. We’ve been asked to send 1 person with
the FBI team tomorrow. Our 1 person will then be responsible for
providing you/me with a recommendation as to what CD’s
[Counterintelligence Division’s] resource commitment should be
moving forward. Please provide the name of the person who can
participate tomorrow, beginning in the AM (details to follow).”

Strzok replies, “OK. Stand by for name”

Strzok then forwards the exchange to Page, who replies “Bowdich sent
separately as well.”

Strzok responds, “Oh good <smiley emoji>”.

On August 29, 2016, Strzok forwards
[[link removed]]
a _Daily
Beast_ article
[[link removed]]
titled
“FBI vs. State Department Over Hillary Clinton’s Secrets” to
Page, Moffa and a redacted General Counsel office official, with a
note saying, “Good job, State… \u-19179?” – presumably
suggesting that the four of them meet to discuss. The article begins,
“The FBI and the State Department are at odds over whether Hillary
Clinton’s personal lawyers had the proper government-issued security
clearances that they needed to keep copies of her emails in a
Washington, DC law office last year.”

On August 30, 2016, former FBI Director James Comey emails
[[link removed]]
then-Assistant
Director Andrew McCabe, copying Page, James Baker, Priestap and James
Trainor
[[link removed]]
with
the subject line “WH” and said “Both meetings went well and I
was well prepared.… I will need an update briefing on [redacted]
next week. As you might imagine, there was great interest in what each
of us is doing on that front and in understanding what more we can do
and the obstacles we see.” Page forwards the email to Strzok, who
replied, “Thanks. Bill asked me as I was leaving if I thought it
should be in CD [Counterintelligence Division]. Guessing this prompted
it. I said yes then described and endorsed Allies reorganization
idea.”

On August 31, 2016, a redacted FBI General Counsel official asks
[[link removed]]
Strzok
and Page if they should respond to a _Washington Times_ article that
asserts that the FBI found “hundreds, and likely thousands, of
violations of the Federal Records Act” by Clinton in her
non-government email server use. Strzok’s immediate reply is
redacted. Strzok ends up asking for the article to be sent to him.

On September 2, 2016, Chief of Staff James Rybicki sent an email
[[link removed]]
titled
“All Member Briefing” to the same top FBI officials as in the
August 19 exchange and discusses a “9/8 Director all-member briefing
on FBINet. Action is needed by Tuesday (9/6) by CyD [Cyber Division]
and CD.” Rybicki follows up on September 2 with an update, saying,
“NSC determined that this would be a classified briefing” and that
it would “be a briefing for leadership and chairs/rankings of
homeland and intelligence committees (12 members).”

In another email exchange
[[link removed]]
on
September 2, 2016, FBI agent Stephen Laycock tells Strzok and Moffa
that the meeting referenced in the previous exchange on September 2
relates to “the project”. FBI Congressional Affairs Chief Jason
Herring is looped in and reveals that the meeting involves alleged
“foreign hacking activity.”

Laycock writes, “Hey guys. Sorry to bother at this hour. Are either
of you aware of a cyber brief to the D and HPSCI [House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence] Tuesday that I believe is related to
the project? Just got a call from a buddy who is tdy to cyber as SC
and was privy to this presentation where he noticed a few CD centric
things that CD may have an interest in taking a look at and scrubbing.
This may already have been coordinated but just wanted to make
sure.”

On September 7, 2016, a redacted FBI official sent an email
[[link removed]]
to
Strzok and Moffa with the subject line “Another quote from Assange
on Hannity,” and provides the quote as “We have thousands of
examples where she herself [likely Clinton] has a ‘C’ in brackets
& signed it off.” Strzok forwards the email to Page, saying
“Interesting.”

In a September 8, 2016, email
[[link removed]]
from _New
York Times_ reporter Michael Schmidt to Kortan, Schmidt gives the DOJ
an early “heads up on something we’re planning on reporting
today,” which was about Clinton’s email server technician, Paul
Combetta
[[link removed]],
deleting Hillary’s subpoenaed emails, and saying “The fact that
Combetta was given immunity takes much of the air out of the idea that
DOJ needs to investigate the deletions.”
So now we know that the FBI report of Clinton’s ‘interview’ is
incomplete and that Peter Strzok may have details on the classified
briefing of candidate Trump that were used as pretext for a spy
operation. No wonder the FBI had been stonewalling the release of
these emails.

CIA, DOJ STONEWALL ON EXISTENCE OF ERIC CIARAMELLA RECORDS

Once again the federal government is pretending it doesn’t know what
everyone else in the world seems to know.

We have received letters from the CIA and the Department of Justice
(DOJ) stating they will neither confirm nor deny the existence of
emails and other communications related to CIA official Eric
Ciaramella, who reportedly worked on Ukraine issues while on detail to
both the Obama and Trump White Houses.

We received these letters in response to our two December 2019 Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits
[[link removed]]
filed
after the CIA and DOJ failed to respond to November 2019 requests for
communications between Ciaramella and former FBI agent Peter Strzok,
former FBI Attorney Lisa Page, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew
McCabe, and/or the Special Counsel’s Office (_Judicial Watch v. U.S.
Department of Justice_
[[link removed]]
(No.
1:19-cv-03809)) and all of Ciaramella’s emails from June 1, 2016, to
November 12, 2019 (_Judicial Watch v. Central Intelligence Agency_
[[link removed]]
(No.
1:19-cv-03807)).

Ciaramella is widely reported
[[link removed]]
as
the person who filed the whistleblower complaint that triggered the
impeachment proceedings. His name reportedly was “raised privately
in impeachment depositions, according to officials with direct
knowledge of the proceedings, as well as in at least one open hearing
held by a House committee not involved in the impeachment inquiry.”

The CIA letter
[[link removed]]
stated:

In accordance with section 3.6(a) of Executive Order 13526, the CIA
can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records
responsive to the requests. The fact of the existence or nonexistence
of such records is itself exempt from FO IA under exemption (b)(3) and
Section 6 of the CIA Act of I 949, 50 U.S.C. § 3507, and, to the
extent your request could relate to CIA intelligence sources and
methods information, the fact of the existence or nonexistence of such
records is exempt from FOIA under exemption (b)(I) and exemption
(b)(3) in conjunction with Section 102A(i)(l) of the National Security
Act of 1947, 50 U.S.C § 3024(i)( I).

This completes our response to the above referenced cases.

The Justice Department also refused
[[link removed]]
to
confirm or deny the existence of responsive records, citing, among
other justifications, the personal privacy of Ciaramella.

Ciaramella’s name appears in a footnote in Special Counsel Robert
Mueller’s report
[[link removed]]
on
the 2016 presidential election. It concerns a May 2017 meeting between
President Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian
Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office:

(5/9/17 White House Document, “Working Visit with Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov of Russia”) … (5/10/17 EMAIL, CIARAMELLA TO KELLY ET
AL.). [Emphasis added] The meeting had been planned on May 2, 2017,
during a telephone call between the President and Russian President
Vladimir Putin, and the meeting date was confirmed on May 5, 2017, the
same day the President dictated ideas for the Comey termination letter
to Stephen Miller…. (5/10/17 EMAIL, CIARAMELLA TO KELLY ET AL.).
[Emphasis added]

Information about this meeting was subsequently leaked
[[link removed]]
to _The
New York Times_.

The CIA and Justice Department are covering up information about the
alleged whistleblower behind the abusive impeachment of President
Trump. CIA operative Ciaramella is documented to be involved in the
Russia collusion investigation and was a key CIA operative on Ukraine
in the both the Obama and Trump White Houses. The incredible secrecy
about his activities shows that the DOJ and CIA are trying to cover-up
rather than expose any agency abuses that led to unprecedented attacks
on President Trump.

SOROS-TIED GROUP RUN BY DEM OPERATIVES PROMOTES LEFTIST AGENDA

Where have all the Obama minions gone? Some, of course, remain
embedded in the halls of government, conducting a rear guard action
against the Trump administration. But some have found a home with
George Soros, as our _Corruption Chronicles_ blog reports
[[link removed]].


Another influential group aiming to spread leftist billionaire George
Soros’ radical global agenda has popped up in the United States.
It’s called the Transatlantic Democracy Working Group
[[link removed]]
(TDWG) and it is an offshoot of the Soros-funded German Marshall Fund
[[link removed]],
a liberal foreign policy think
tank based in Washington D.C.

The TDWG is operated by dozens of former senior government
bureaucrats, national security experts and human rights advocates,
including former Obama administration officials and staff members of
Democratic politicians. The group’s director, Susan Corke, was
previously Deputy Director of the Europe Section in the State
Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Corke is
a registered Democrat and all her federally reported campaign
contributions have gone to the Democratic fundraising clearinghouse
Act Blue
[[link removed]],
which has raised billions.

Obama’s law school classmate, Norm Eisen, is the co-chair of the
TDWG’s steering committee. Eisen also served as the deputy counsel
of Obama’s presidential transition team and ambassador to the Czech
Republic. During President Donald Trump’s impeachment inquiry,
Eisen, a longtime Trump critic, served as counsel to the House
Judiciary Committee. In 2003 he co-founded the liberal nonprofit
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) with
fellow Democratic operative Melanie Sloan and others. Eisen has
contributed approximately $94,000 to Democratic candidates and
committees through the years, according to records obtained by
Judicial Watch.

The TDWG was founded in April 2018 purportedly to combat what it
perceives as “democratic erosion in key NATO and EU countries.”
The organization, which is housed at the German Marshall Fund
headquarters, advocates for strengthening the NATO alliance,
increasing integration among European Union member states, a more
active U.S. role in Europe, and effective measures against Russia’s
influence in the West. The group has been highly critical of the Trump
administration’s foreign policy and has used its podcast
[[link removed]]
to promote Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

A chunk of the TDWG’s attention has focused on three
countries—Hungary, Poland, and Turkey—that it accuses of becoming
increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic. While legitimate concerns
exist involving the Tayyip Erdoğan regime in Turkey, the group’s
criticisms of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Poland’s
governing Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice) party largely
focus on efforts to preserve their national identity, reduce the
influence of foreign governments and nongovernmental organizations in
their domestic affairs and limit third-world immigration. In November
2019 testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on
Europe, Eurasia, Energy, and the Environment, Corke claimed that,
“Hungary is no longer a democracy, and Orbán is the architect of
its transformation into an illiberal autocracy.”

Of particular interest to the TDWG have been Hungarian and Polish
initiatives to combat the influence of Soros and his generously funded
OSF. One of the policy statements posted on the TDWG’s website
specifically deals with Orbán’s successful effort to expel Soros’
Central European University from Budapest. The statement
[[link removed]],
whose signatories include Corke, Eisen, and several former State
Department officials, alleges that Hungary’s, “campaign against
the CEU is a highly symbolic move against a vital institution founded
to promote the transatlantic values of democracy, openness, and
equality of opportunity.” In her November 2019 Congressional
testimony
[[link removed]],
Corke claimed that Orbán, “relied on one tired trick in particular,
one that served as a dog whistle for the far right; he used the
spectral image of George Soros, using anti-Semitic tropes, as the
ultimate bogeyman to stir up fear of migrants and other
non-Christians.” Orbán counters
[[link removed]]
that it has nothing to do with Soros’ religion or background. It’s
about his politically driven activity aimed at undermining national
governments that oppose his pro-migration agenda. The Hungarian prime
minister assures a migration crisis in the Balkans was organized by
the Soros network
[[link removed]].


Soros’ OSF donated between $100,000 and $250,000
[[link removed]]
to the German Marshall Fund in
2019, records obtained by Judicial Watch show.

I’m always fascinated watching those who became staggeringly wealthy
through capitalism turn their guns on that very system.

PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, CLINTON CONNECTION IN DUNCAN HUNTER CASE

I previously informed
[[link removed]]
you of the two assistant attorneys general who partied it up at a
Hillary Clinton fundraiser. In our _Investigative Bulletin_, Micah
Morrison, our chief investigative reporter, has more
[[link removed]]
on this evidence of the close ties between Clinton and the Justice
Department.

It looked like a classic Justice Department squeeze play: pile a
boatload of corruption charges on then-Representative Duncan Hunter,
Republican of California, drag in his family, and plead it down to a
single count and a resignation. But Hunter fought back. And now
Judicial Watch has uncovered new evidence supporting allegations of
misconduct by prosecutors in the case allied with Hillary Clinton.

Hunter and his wife were indicted
[[link removed]]
in August 2018 on dozens of corruption charges related to misuse of
campaign funds. Later, in separate court actions, they each pleaded
guilty to a single charge. Hunter resigned from Congress in January.

In a June 2017 motion to dismiss
[[link removed]],
Hunter’s attorneys noted that the two lead Justice Department
lawyers on the case, Alana Robinson and Emily Allen, had attended a
2015 political fundraiser for then-presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton at the La Jolla mansion of a wealthy supporter. Hunter was a
vocal critic of Mrs. Clinton and an early supporter of Donald Trump.

“In light of subsequent events and their initiation of the criminal
investigation of Congressman Hunter,” Hunter’s lawyers wrote, the
attendance at the fundraiser by the two prosecutors “raises serious
concerns regarding a conflict of interest and a loss of
impartiality.” Both prosecutors are registered Democrats. “The
undeniable facts are that both attended [the fundraiser] for one
purpose and one purpose only—they attended to meet the person they
believed would be the next President of the United States.”

The Justice Department responded with a mystifying claim. It told a
San Diego court that Robinson and Allen were asked to attend the
fundraiser “in the event of a protective security related incident
where immediate prosecutorial guidance would be necessary.”

An earlier Justice Department letter said that the prosecutors were at
the event “in their official capacity assisting law enforcement.”

Now, here at Judicial Watch, we’ve been around a long time. We
can’t remember ever hearing of a fundraiser that needed the presence
of two U.S. Attorneys in case “immediate prosecutorial guidance
would be necessary.” It’s a laughable claim—except that
someone’s freedom is at stake.

So let’s call this for what it really is: a lie to cover-up
inappropriate conduct.

New documents
[[link removed]]
obtained by Judicial Watch support the conclusion that Robinson and
Allen were at the Clinton fundraiser because they were Clinton
supporters, not on standby for “prosecutorial guidance” while the
monied class gathered on the glittering lawns of La Jolla. The
documents raise serious questions about whether prosecutors misled the
court. Lying to a judge of course is illegal. Violations of the Hatch
Act
[[link removed]]
may come into play
here too, as well as violations of Justice Department guidelines.

The documents—emails obtained by Judicial Watch under a Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit
[[link removed]]
against the Justice Department—suggest that Robinson and Allen were
thrilled to be at the Clinton event. Although names are blacked out in
the heavily redacted emails
[[link removed]],
it’s clear that the correspondence is between the two prosecutors,
who were the subjects of the Judicial Watch lawsuit.

“Thank you so much for the invitation to this morning’s event,”
one email reads. “I was blown away by your incredible hospitality
and can’t thank you enough for allowing us to crash that fabulous
party. It was a really memorable morning.”

Another email says: “you totally downplayed that amazing invitation!
I had no idea it would be so spectacular. I didn’t even realize
we’d be invited in! I am so grateful for the invitation, thank
you.”

Robinson has left the U.S. Attorney’s office and is running for a
judgeship
[[link removed]]
in Southern
California. Allen is head of the federal public corruption unit
[[link removed]]
in San
Diego. Duncan Hunter is scheduled to be sentenced in March. That’s a
good time for the judge to address charges of prosecutorial bias and
misconduct in the case.

As you can see, the corruption in the DOJ goes way beyond the criminal
spying against President Trump or the abusive prosecutions of Roger
Stone and General Flynn. The DOJ needs a top to bottom ethics and
personnel overhaul.

Until next week,





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