Briefly Noted: Whither The Hillary Email Investigation?

You didn't know there was such an investigation? Yes, well, the wheels of the State Departments internal security process and the ICIG grind slowly but exceedingly fine. It seems the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security has finally finished reviewing three million emails that were found on Hillary's "basement server." They've determined which ones should have been classified and, therefore, not sent to non-secure addresses. Per Zerodedge, Clinton Emailers Rattled After State Department Fires Off 'Culpability Letters' For Homebrew Server Messages:

The State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security has finally finished sifting through millions of emails from Hillary Clinton's controversial 'basement server' - many of which were classified, and/or blind-copied to a Gmail address bearing the name of a Chinese company according to intelligence community inspector general (ICIG) Frank Rucker.

While State Department investigators began contacting former officials around 18 months ago, the probe actually began under President Obama. In recent weeks, the State Department has contacted approximately 130 officials whose emails which went through Clinton's special server have been retroactively classified and may now pose potential security violations, according to the Washington Post.

...

The flood of letters which began in August read "You have been identified as possibly bearing some culpability" regarding "security incidents," according to the report.

I imagine that's a nasty surprise for those 130 "folks." Indeed, Zerohedge reports that the hearts of "former Obama administration officials" bleed for them:

"It is such an obscene abuse of power and time involving so many people for so many years," said one former US official of the inquiry, adding "This has just sucked up people’s lives for years and years."

Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn, and Paul Manafort were, apparently, unavailable for comment.

Zerohedge quotes a WaPo report that claims to have reviewed at least some of the materials in question--which seems somewhat remarkable.

"[T]he incidents appear to center on the sending of information attributed to foreign officials, including summaries of phone conversations with foreign diplomats — a routine occurrence among State Department employees." 

... 

And while The Post may have no indication that any of the emails contained sensitive information about classified US initiatives or programs, they don't disclose how many of the underlying emails they reviewed, or who they came from.  

According to the report, many of those contacted in the probe have been found "not culpable" - with many letters reading that investigators "determined that the [security] incident is valid," but that the person did not "bear any individual culpability." 

Briefly Noted: Robert Mueller, Aaron Zebley, Hillary's Emails

The Boston Herald has an interesting tidbit on Robert Mueller's long time chief of staff, Aaron Zebley. It appears in a longer article--Mueller collapse raises more questions: John Durham may tie up loose ends. It appears that Zebley both ran the day to day operations of Team Mueller and also had represented a key defendant in the Hillary email case:

... reports are surfacing that reveal that Mueller was a no-show and others may have run the investigation and authored the report. According to the New York Times, Mueller, “Kept noticeably shorter hours than he had as FBI Director,” and he “Seemed to cede substantial responsibility to his top deputies, including Aaron Zebley, who managed day-to-day operations.”

Zebley was in private practice in 2015 and 2016, and he represented a man named Justin Cooper. Cooper was an adviser to the Clinton Foundation and an IT expert who set up and maintained Hillary Clinton’s private email server. According to the FBI, “Cooper did recall two instances where he destroyed Clinton’s old mobile devices by breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer.”

Unbelievable.

It is becoming clear that the Mueller report is a partisan document, carefully crafted to cut around nefarious activity perpetuated by Clinton et al., and focus on the most salacious moments of the Trump presidency.

I'm not familiar with DoJ internal guidelines, but I find it hard to impossible to believe that the way Team Mueller was staffed did not violate ethical rules/guidelines.

Don't Forget About Hillary's Emails

Holman Jenkins at the WSJ offers an instructive reminder today--behind the usual subscription wall: What Barr Should Declassify--Release the secret inspector-general report on the Hillary Clinton email case.

Jenkins begins by noting that, with Bill Barr having been given extensive declassification authority, most of the calls for declass are focused on the FBI's anti-Trump activity. However, in Jenkins' view it is at least equally important to declass the remaining classified documents from OIG's investigation of the FBI's dubious intervention in the Hillary Email investigation.

Here's Jenkins setting out what is at issue--just suspend belief regarding his statement that Comey did it all on his sole initiative:

Remind yourself what happened: James Comey, on his sole initiative, held a press conference to announce that, though Mrs. Clinton had behaved improperly, she did not merit prosecution. Except it wasn’t his decision to make: It was the Justice Department’s.

In other words, Comey--the head of the FBI, a purely investigative agency with no authority to make prosecutorial decisions--was ... making a prosecutorial decision. And prosecutorial decisions are the sole province of the DoJ. Of course, no complaints came from DoJ, so one assumes--I certainly do--that Comey's performance was undertaken with the full approval and, probably, the active encouragement of then AG Loretta Lynch.

But then comes the crux, for declass purposes:

Will The Tables Turn? The Lindsey Graham Interview

Earlier this morning I suggested that AG Bill Barr has loosed the reins that Rod Rosenstein had imposed on IG Michael Horowitz, regarding internal investigations of wrongdoing at the FBI and DoJ (Andrew Weissmann To Leave Team Mueller And DoJ). Last night, speaking to Sean Hannity, Lindsey Graham, new chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, referenced IG Horowitz's long anticipated report regarding FBI/DoJ abuse in the Carter Page FISA application, and he did it in an interesting way. Rather than say, We need to see OIG's report--long rumored to be complete--Graham spoke of the report as if there is still work to be done. As if Horowitz may have resisted release of the report because his hands had been tied.

Graham then went on to call for a Special Counsel to investigate the whole complex of highly irregular events surrounding the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the Russia Hoax. (Video below)

I'm not sure how AG Barr feels about the whole concept of a Special Counsel--he may oppose it on principled conservative grounds. However, recall that as far back as summer of 2017 AG Barr went on public record--that's what speaking to the NYT means, I think--regarding this complex of investigations:

Of 10 former attorneys general contacted Tuesday, only one responded to a question about what they would do in Mr. Sessions’s situation. 

“There is nothing inherently wrong about a president calling for an investigation,” said William P. Barr, who ran the Justice Department under President George Bush. “Although an investigation shouldn’t be launched just because a president wants it, the ultimate question is whether the matter warrants investigation.” 

Mr. Barr said he sees more basis for investigating the uranium deal than any supposed collusion between Mr. Trump and Russia. “To the extent it is not pursuing these matters, the department is abdicating its responsibility,” he said.

Possibly Senator Graham's call for a Special Counsel needs to be viewed in that perspective.