A new Podesta email released by WikiLeaks today reveals direct coordination between the State Department and the Clinton campaign during what should have been a confidential investigation. The following email chain starts with a note from Clinton Deputy Communications Director, Kristina Schake, on April 9th, informing Mook, Palmieri, Mills, Podesta and Samuelson that “Someone here just got a tip that the State Department may be planning to release her Benghazi emails tomorrow or Monday.“
The emails further reveal a continued coordination between the State Department and the Clinton campaign with Heather Samuelson providing frequent status updates over the course of the following week.
As legal experts pointed out previously, ultimately another month passed before the State Department finally released the first Clinton emails on May 22, 2015. It is unclear what accounted for the delay. It is also extremely unclear why Samuelson would have received frequent updates from the State Department on the status of ongoing FOIA requests as she was no longer employed by the State Department in 2015.
It’s also unclear why all of the controversial conversations, like this one, always seem to be conducted through gmail rather than official campaign email addresses…curious.
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And, of course, this new discovery comes after we just noted other instances of the State Department seemingly “tipping off” the Clinton campaign on the timing of FOIA releases (see “Leaked Email Reveals Potential Collusion Between State Department And Clinton Campaign“)
Today, we may have stumbled on the real reason why Samuelson got immunity.
In the following email dated March 17, 2015 disclosed today by Wikileaks, we find troubling details of the internal State Department process, which somehow made its way to Samlueson with details so nuanced it may only have come as a result of direct communication between the State Department (or DOS as Samuelson calls it) as Hillary’s young confidant, and which in turn she promptly conveyed to her team, regarding the FOIA request, in what appears to be a material breach of confidentiality. This is what she said :
DOS is soon releasing another round of documents and email traffic (not hers) in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request on DOS’s process for reviewing WJC’s speaking engagements.
It’s 116 pages with approx. 50 sponsor/subsponsor requests. No objections by DOS in this batch, but some lengthy internal discussions among DOS officials that I highlighted below.
There is one request where speaking fee would have been paid by Turkish govt — WJC’s office declined this. And one speaking engagement with fee from Canadian government, which he did do.
Let me know if you have any questions.
We have one question, Heather: is this legal, and are emailed exchanges such as this one why you received DOJ immunity in exchange for “turning over your laptop”?
From the original email, bolding ours.
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From: Heather Samuelson [mailto:hsamuelson@cdmillsGroup.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2015 10:53 AM
To: Maura Pally; Craig Minassian; Philippe Reines; Nick Merrill; Jennifer Palmier I
Cc: Cheryl Mills; Tina Flournoy
Subject: JW FOIA | WJC Speeches
All — DOS is soon releasing another round of documents and email traffic (not hers) in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request on DOS’s process for reviewing WJC’s speaking engagements.
It’s 116 pages with approx. 50 sponsor/subsponsor requests. No objections by DOS in this batch, but some lengthy internal discussions among DOS officials that I highlighted below.
There is one request where speaking fee would have been paid by Turkish govt — WJC’s office declined this. And one speaking engagement with fee from Canadian government, which he did do.
Let me know if you have any questions.
[Jen — happy to give you more background on prior releases since it’s your first go around]
Thx
1) UNIQFEST/Turkey: There are 20 pages of internal, heavily redacted email traffic among DOS officials on request for WJC to speak at UNIQFEST in 2009 — a climate change conference sponsored by the Turkish government with Turkish officials as featured speakers. According to the traffic, WJC would receive compensation from “government and non-government sources.”
— WJC’s office decided to decline the invitation. There is no final determination in the materials by the Department.
— Some of email traffic has subject line “Clinton Foundation” and refers to this as request from “Clinton Foundation.” I only flag as may be twisted to say DOS did not even understand what they were reviewing for, blurred lines between personal and BHCCF etc…
2) Canadian National Exhibition: Email traffic indicates WJC’s compensation for this speaking engagement would come from the Canadian government via their program to promote tourism, “Industry Canada.” There is heavily redacted email traffic between DOS officials, including our Embassy in Canada, with several emails from WJC’s office asking for status update, at one point saying they only have “about more 30 minutes before we lose the offer.”
— Jim Thessin (Deputy Legal Advisor) responds: “I do not have a problem with this so long as President Clinton is not serving as a U.S. government at the time of his appearance and when he is paid an honorarium. If not an employee, he may accept reimbursements of expenses and an honorarium for his speech/talk, but he may not receive any gifts from the Canadian government.”
— HRC’s financial disclosure form indicates that WJC received $175,000 from Canadian National Exhibition for this speech on 8/29/09.
3) CISCO: Request is submitted for WJC to speak at CISCO two months before HRC awards CISCO the State Department’s Award for Corporate Excellence, holding a ceremony featuring the CISCO’s CEO. According to HRC’s financial disclosure form, WJC received $255,000 for this speech.
4) Other notable requests:
- Local foreign govt: Terife Island Council (local government of largest island in Canary Islands)
- Private Equity Firms/Banks: ICE Canyon LLC, VISTA Equity, Harris Private Bank, TD Bank Financial, Whitton Investment Groups (London)
- Foreign Based Organizations: Etisalat (UAE based telecomm co); Egyptian Junior Business Association; Friends of Cystic Fibrosis (Irish non-profit); Essex Regional Conservation Authority (Essex, Ontario); Wilbros Entertainment (Philippines, event to raise funds for Philippines charity); Miaor Entertainment Ltd (division of Grupo ABC based in Brazil); London Business Forum; Aditya Birla Management (Indian multinational conglomerate)
- Universities: Southern Methodist, Tufts, American Jewish University
5) GWB: Two requests are for events with Deloitte and Radio City Music Hall that are a joint appearance between WJC and George W. Bush. WJC did the event with Deloitte, but not Radio City.
In light of the ongoing speculation that there may have been collusion between the DOJ and Bill Clinton (and thus Hillary), following the infamous “tarmac encounter”, where Bill and Loretta Lynch spoke for 40 minutes about “Bill’s golf game and grandchildren”, the discovery that there was collusion between the State Department and Hillary Clinton, who formerly headed it, seems like a potential conflict of interest to us.
via http://ift.tt/2escRea Tyler Durden