Althouse: "A week before becoming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton set up a private e-mail system that gave her a high level of control over communications, including the ability to erase messages completely..."

March 5, 2015

"A week before becoming secretary of state, Hillary Clinton set up a private e-mail system that gave her a high level of control over communications, including the ability to erase messages completely..."

"... according to security experts who have examined Internet records," Bloomberg reports.

142 comments:

MisterBuddwing said...: Hello, Rose Mary Woods!; 3/5/15, 8:23 AM
garage mahal said...: Private email system? Sounds really bad LOL.; 3/5/15, 8:25 AM
traditionalguy said...: Now, that's humor.The Professor has joined the War on a Woman.; 3/5/15, 8:26 AM
rwnutjob said...: Nixon in a pantsuit; 3/5/15, 8:26 AM
Jane the Actuary said...: A week prior? That's new to me, and makes it even harder to believe this is all innocent.; 3/5/15, 8:26 AM
MayBee said...: It was set up on the day of her Senate hearing. Probably after staffers had done research on her, so that domain didn't get picked up.; 3/5/15, 8:31 AM
MayBee said...: After the Administration had done its vetting on her too, I bet.

I'm serious in the other thread when I say I bet she wanted to hide her business from Obama as well as from Congress.; 3/5/15, 8:33 AM
traditionalguy said...: OMG, did you notice that the Professor has created a new tag of Hillary's in trouble.; 3/5/15, 8:35 AM
virgil xenophon said...: AS IF we'll EVER see more than a "smidgin" of the e-mails on her pvt server. we're totally at the mercy of Hills and her lawyers. And if things get really tight all she has to do is fry her server. Who's going to stop her--legally or physically?; 3/5/15, 8:35 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Hillary is history. Her own party is killing her chance at the Presidency.

Gotta move on: who's next? That Maryland guy seems like a loser. Warren would be like Goldwater in 1964.

I'd suggest Webb.; 3/5/15, 8:37 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Or maybe Michelle Obama.; 3/5/15, 8:38 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: AS IF we'll EVER see more than a "smidgin" of the e-mails on her pvt server.

Well, at least some of that stuff's classified, no? I mean, isn't that what this whole mess is about?; 3/5/15, 8:38 AM
garage mahal said...: Hillary should just refuse to answer answer any questions about it. Just say it's old news, and she wants to move America forward.

It's all a partisan witch-hunt!; 3/5/15, 8:39 AM
Michael K said...: Another Travel Office. That's all.

Hillary runs true to form.; 3/5/15, 8:40 AM
jr565 said...: So, back whe Palin was running for VP, the dems went after her because her email was hacked and a few of her communications were revealed to have been done through her personal email.

So, what's with the double standard libs?; 3/5/15, 8:42 AM
pfennig said...: I continuously preach to my municipal clients the necessity to conduct government business on government email accounts rather than personal accounts in order to be compliant with open records laws. This message has been ongoing since the inception of widespread email use and has been ingrained in how these people operate on a day to day basis. I am sure that across the country hundreds of thousands of town, village, city and county officers and employees have been bombarded with similar guidance and transact their governmental activities accordingly.

The debate raging in Washington is about whether the email use was secure or insecure, or whether all the records are being turned over or not, or whether Hillary's conduct was unlawful or not, and even whether the contents of the emails will ultimately be embarrassing or not.

I have to believe that the greater damage to Hillary across the country will be the perception in the minds of the hundreds of thousands of local officials that Hillary apparently feels that one set of rules apply to her, and another set of rules apply to everyone else.; 3/5/15, 8:43 AM
Bob Ellison said...: I'll take $2 on Webb, $1 on Michelle, $1 on Warren, and 25 cents apiece on Biden, and Governor Moonbeam for the nomination, Alex. And $0 for any Democrat to win in 2016.; 3/5/15, 8:43 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Hillary wasn't just worried about the law or the historical record.
She was protecting herself from people like herself.
I wonder how many of these reporters had their email hacked and then suddenly, coincidentally, found themselves being extorted by the Clinton machine.; 3/5/15, 8:44 AM
Bob Ellison said...: jr565, most of the lefties are not guilty of a double standard on this. They're trying to get rid of Hillary, as Rush noted.; 3/5/15, 8:45 AM
rhhardin said...: It seems to me that you ought to delete emails anytime you want anyway.

The legislation is intrusive and an invasion of privacy.; 3/5/15, 8:45 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "Hillary should just refuse to answer answer any questions about it. Just say it's old news, and she wants to move America forward. "

Agreed, because at this point, what difference does it make?; 3/5/15, 8:46 AM
Meade said...: "Private email system? Sounds really bad LOL."

I'm with garage. It's email. Who cares? It doesn't matter. Leave Hillary alone.; 3/5/15, 8:46 AM
David said...: garage mahal said...
Hillary should just refuse to an.swer answer any questions about it. Just say it's old news, and she wants to move America forward.

It's all a partisan witch-hunt!

Garage makes a funny. Good one too; 3/5/15, 8:47 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: The question is whether Hillary will choose to release the emails that include the naked selfies she sent to Huma?

We must keep abreast of this.

I am Laslo.; 3/5/15, 8:48 AM
jr565 said...: It was enough to get reporters to pore through emails. And mother jones had multiple articles on it. The media set up shop in Alaska to pore through 24,000 pages of emails.
But suddenly, Donna Brazille doesn't see what the fuss is about here?; 3/5/15, 8:48 AM
Brown Hornet said...: Surely she would not erase those messages. She was part of the Most Transparent Administration in History.; 3/5/15, 8:51 AM
Bob Ellison said...: With the arrival of every new communication and recording system (postal system, intercoms, email, Twitter, Facebook, phone cameras, etc.), people have to re-learn the lessons of history about not saying and doing stupid things for others to recount.

This should be a class subject starting in 3rd grade.; 3/5/15, 8:51 AM
garage mahal said...: "On top of that, county employees were doing campaign work on government time and, by extension, on the taxpayers’ dime—in violation of state law. As the story goes, one of Walker’s aides, Darlene Wink, copped to a misdemeanor guilty plea, and got off with probation for doing campaign work during office hours. Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker’s deputy chief of staff when he was county executive, pleaded guilty to a single felony count for spending “significant time” working as a fund-raiser on government time for Brett Davis, Walker’s running mate.

But it didn’t end there. Brian Pierick, one of the secret website’s webmasters, was convicted of enticing a minor. Another Walker webmaster, Timothy Russell, was sentenced to two years in prison and five years’ probation for stealing from a veterans group, using the money for trips to Hawaii and the Caribbean, and for meeting with Herman Cain’s presidential campaign on the veterans’ tab." Link

LOL!; 3/5/15, 8:51 AM
jr565 said...: If this was Christy's traffic gate, those trying to push the fact that he was complicit would demand to see his aides emails. And in fact they did. Imagine if all his aides said they had their email on personal accounts. Would thst fly with those saying there was a coverup?; 3/5/15, 8:54 AM
Sloanasaurus said...: Hillary flagrantly violated the Government Records Act - which was in part designed to reduce corruption among government officials.

But she seems to get away with it. While normal people are fired from their jobs and prosecuted every day for this sort of thing.

It's sad that Democrats would support such a corrupt individual.; 3/5/15, 8:55 AM
MayBee said...: Garage- you are "But Obama"-ing.; 3/5/15, 8:57 AM
Tank said...: This is so funny because Hillary is most like Nixon. That should be a tag (suggestion): Hillary is like Nixon.; 3/5/15, 9:00 AM
jr565 said...: Garage mahal wrote:
"On top of that, county employees were doing campaign work on government time and, by extension, on the taxpayers’ dime—in violation of state law. As the story goes, one of Walker’s aides, Darlene Wink, copped to a misdemeanor guilty plea, and got off with probation for doing campaign work during office hours. Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker’s deputy chief of staff when he was county executive, pleaded guilty to a single felony count for spending “significant time” working as a fund-raiser on government time for Brett Davis, Walker’s running mate.

why did you post thst garage? Are you trying to say thst repubs do it too? Note, in your article thst Darlene Wink COPPED A PLEA. And Kelly Rindfleisch PLEADED GUILTY.
Ok, then. So let's have the same standard for Hillary.

The rules may be arcane and even stupid, and certsinly used for partisan witch hunts. But if you're going to make people cop pleas because of those rules you can't then turn around and say of Hillary "It's just email!"
Well then fine, it's just working. On a campaign while on office hours. Is thst really something you would make someone plead guilty for violating? Well, yes, apparently.
So, Hillary has to face the music. Just like the little guys and gals, I'm sure you were more than happy were thrown before a court. because it besmirched Scott Walkers reputation.
Look, his underlings are copping pleas to minor infractions. He's corrupt!
Well, so's your gal Hillary.; 3/5/15, 9:02 AM
Tank said...: How many years has it been since Rush (I think) called her a congenital liar?

The best bit he ever did was that sing song parody of her (not) answering questions about (I think it was) billing records and others' tax returns. I almost had to pull over once in my car I was laughing so hard. Rush was a lot edgier in those days (remember the blender sound effect when he talked about abortion?).; 3/5/15, 9:03 AM
Anonymous said...: Its all about the fact that you can't trust Hillary with the security and welfare of the nation. In the oil industry it is said that if you can't trust the person drilling your well, you can't wake up early enough in the morning to catch him.; 3/5/15, 9:03 AM
PB said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/5/15, 9:04 AM
Wince said...: And it was the Republican party that was supposed to self-destruct, wasn't it?

November 20, 2013
Whatever happened to the "Republicans are committing suicide" meme?

It was all the rage back in September.

There was also "The death of the Republican Party."

Posted by Ann Althouse at 3:19 PM
Tags: metaphor, post-2012 GOP; 3/5/15, 9:04 AM
garage mahal said...: Ok, then. So let's have the same standard for Hillary.

Cool. Neither Walker or Hillary physically setup the secret email system. So.it's.no.big.deal.; 3/5/15, 9:05 AM
MadisonMan said...: It seems to me that you ought to delete emails anytime you want anyway.

The legislation is intrusive and an invasion of privacy.

Maybe. But it is the law.; 3/5/15, 9:06 AM
PB said...: Aside from the concern about Hillary and other members of the email domain being allowed to delete inconvenient emails and giving them sole control in determining what should be made available to the government and the people. The fun fact here is the "55,000" pages of emails. How did this come about?

Were there 55,000 emails or a much smaller number that were very long?

Does this include attachments?

Does this include all the internet email encoding stuff the is fairly lengthy for even short messages but typically hidden from the user?

Did they really print out 55,000 pages and send it to the State Deparment? Or were they nice and print it into PDF files that are text searchable and submitted it electronically?

That these were not turned over to the federal government on her last day as Secretary is a clear violation of the letter of the law. That she created this private email system when a more secure government email system was available is a clear violation of the spirit of the law.; 3/5/15, 9:08 AM
jr565 said...: But you want to hold Kelly Rindfleisch and sarah Palin accountable when they violate the rules. Is your view of prosecution of rules brokers so self serving it only applies to repubs? Asked and answered.; 3/5/15, 9:08 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Laslo Spatula said...
"The question is whether Hillary will choose to release the emails that include the naked selfies she sent to Huma?"

Poll:
What would you do with Hillary's naked selfies?

- Completely destroy them.

- Put them in a museum setting with labeling that explains the reason why she chose that pose.

- Leave them on the site where they were designed to appear.

- Make case by case decisions based on the pose, artistic merit, composition, humor, etc.; 3/5/15, 9:10 AM
traditionalguy said...: So how much does it cost to "set up a secret email system?"

Amazon needs to market one with 2 day delivery. It is the new fashion among the most powerful.; 3/5/15, 9:11 AM
Glenn Howes said...: @Tank, I think it was William Safire who referred to Hillary Clinton as a congenital liar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Safire; 3/5/15, 9:12 AM
garage mahal said...: Is your view of prosecution of rules brokers so self serving it only applies to repubs?

If Hillary or anyone on her staff violated law they should be investigated and prosecuted if laws were broken. I'm not a partisan hack like ya'll are. I've heard 4 yrs of partisan hackery in regards to investigations into Scott Walker.; 3/5/15, 9:15 AM
Tank said...: @Glenn

A toast then to Safire, the old devil.; 3/5/15, 9:16 AM
madAsHell said...: Hillary flagrantly violated the Government Records Act

Yeah....I don't get it. Shouldn't the FBI be gathering evidence? Of course, that would involve Eric Holder, and he would kill the investigation.

I remember Watergate, and I thought I saw a government that reacted effectively. I no longer have faith in government.; 3/5/15, 9:21 AM
jr565 said...: And at any rate, Garage, your article points out to instances where people were actually prosecuted for violating laws. Suddenly though, it's not a problem because it's Hilarry.
Even the title of your article, it's Not just Hillary: Scott Walker's email CONTROVERSY shows your bias.

For Scott Walker, the inference is thst there's a controversy, even though the people embroiled in the mess are his underlings, and they are the ones getting dinged.
But why would Scott walkers underlings issue be a controversy, but then Hilary's wouldn't? Both under law, and according to the Daily Beast.

You're now saying that Hillary's issue is not a controversy. Was Scott Walkers issue a controversy? Why then were his underlings brought before court? And why would the daily Beast say "it's not JUST Hillary, Scott walker ALSO has an email problem"

You seem to want to have the standard, It's Not Hillary at all, BUT SCOTT WALKER has an email problem!

when it's some underling of Scott walker who gets tripped up, I'm sure you're on the side lines cheering her being frog marched out of the office. But when it's Hillary herself it's suddenly a "Scott Walker did it too!" Argument.
Even though Scott Walker was not involved, it was his underlings. And even though they actually paid a price for their rules violations. Which I'm sure you were ok with.; 3/5/15, 9:21 AM
PackerBronco said...: Blogger garage mahal said...
I've heard 4 yrs of partisan hackery in regards to investigations into Scott Walker.

GM finally says something true.; 3/5/15, 9:22 AM
garage mahal said...: GM finally says something true.

Yep. Read jr565.; 3/5/15, 9:23 AM
Rae said...: If we had a sane government, the FBI would immediately raid the Clinton residence and secure the server. If official government business was conducted on it, I don't see how classified information isn't on it.; 3/5/15, 9:26 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: "Huma,

Only your lush exotic lips can bring moisture to the barren foothills of my loins. With each of your kisses it is like you planted a fig tree in my vagina.

PS: I had my Metamucil this morning so be ready, if you know what I mean.

Love,

HDR69"

I am Laslo.; 3/5/15, 9:28 AM
jr565 said...: I never heard of Kelly Rindfleisch Before you linked to an article mentioning her, garage. But if she was guilty of rules violations, albeit minor, she copped to them, and it doesn't exactly fall on on Scott Walker, since he's not the one charged.; 3/5/15, 9:29 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The Walker "secret routers" thing was about trying to keep campaign things separate from govt work. Clinton's email is about mixing everything together: government, campaign, foundation, personal. That's just crazy!; 3/5/15, 9:35 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The Walker "secret routers" thing is closer to the old Al Gore "no controlling legal authority" controversy.; 3/5/15, 9:37 AM
Meade said...: "Clinton's email is about mixing everything together: government, campaign, foundation, personal. That's just crazy!"

Or, as my dad would say to me (alas, more than once), about 50 years ago: Son, you used poor judgement.; 3/5/15, 9:45 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: ""Clinton's email is about mixing everything together: government, campaign, foundation, personal. That's just crazy!""

In Hillary's defense, the categories WERE color-coded:

Government: Green.

Campaign: Green.

Foundation: Green.

Personal: Green.

Huma: Pink.

I am Laslo.; 3/5/15, 9:48 AM
buwaya said...: In large private businesses, because of Sarbanes-Oxley and numerous other regulatory requirements, running company business over private email accounts is generally a firing offense.; 3/5/15, 9:51 AM
jr565 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/5/15, 9:56 AM
Gusty Winds said...: Hillary's priority was personal security not national security.

Who's surprised?; 3/5/15, 9:56 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: From what I have read, Hillary conducted all official government business using an improper email account. As SoS, I don't see how she could have avoided sending or receiving classified material. If so, wouldn't this be a felony?

I also don't understand how this was allowed to happen. Everyone in the Obama administration must have known about this. What was going through the minds of Obama and other high administration officials when they were exchanging emails with her through a private email account?

This is jaw dropping incompetence at all levels.; 3/5/15, 9:57 AM
jr565 said...: We hearda lot of partisan hackery when it came to Scott Walker too. Usually it was written by one Garage Mahal.

At least he's finally copping to it.; 3/5/15, 9:58 AM
jr565 said...: "From what I have read, Hillary conducted all official government business using an improper email account. As SoS, I don't see how she could have avoided sending or receiving classified material. If so, wouldn't this be a felony?

I also don't understand how this was allowed to happen. Everyone in the Obama administration must have known about this. What was going through the minds of Obama and other high administration officials when they were exchanging emails with her through a private email account? "

You can see it when you send an email. All the emails would have the same domain, except for Hillaries. They'd have to know when sending emails to her or fro her thst it was a technical violation since you can read the email address.
And apparently this was her ONLY email address. And we have 55,000 pages or so of her correspondence. you'd think someone might have noticed.; 3/5/15, 10:04 AM
jr565 said...: If this is allowed to stand, then all politicians should move to private email systems that allow them to delete emails without anyone being the wiser. Because it worked for Hillary.; 3/5/15, 10:05 AM
Curious George said...: "garage mahal said...
"On top of that, county employees were doing campaign work on government time and, by extension, on the taxpayers’ dime—in violation of state law. As the story goes, one of Walker’s aides, Darlene Wink, copped to a misdemeanor guilty plea, and got off with probation for doing campaign work during office hours. Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker’s deputy chief of staff when he was county executive, pleaded guilty to a single felony count for spending “significant time” working as a fund-raiser on government time for Brett Davis, Walker’s running mate."

So where is the part where Walker was using it? Did you fail to copy and paste it? BTW, "Brett Davis, Walker’s running mate." is factually incorrect. About par for you and your sources.

"garage mahal said...But it didn’t end there. Brian Pierick, one of the secret website’s webmasters, was convicted of enticing a minor. Another Walker webmaster, Timothy Russell, was sentenced to two years in prison and five years’ probation for stealing from a veterans group, using the money for trips to Hawaii and the Caribbean, and for meeting with Herman Cain’s presidential campaign on the veterans’ tab." Link"

Wait, these are the guys that were busted when Walker's office requested an investigation. And of course it has nothing to do with email systems, so why did you add it? And Walker had nothing to do with this at all.

Keep grasping at straws garage.; 3/5/15, 10:07 AM
garage mahal said...: Trying to determine who is the bigger Walker hack. Curious George, Althouse, or Meade. It's close, but the relentless boot-licking from Curious George wins by a nose.; 3/5/15, 10:11 AM
Gusty Winds said...: Could there be any emails regarding solicitation of funds from foreign governments for the Clinton foundation mixed in?

I would assume those were filtered out before emails were handed over to the State Department.; 3/5/15, 10:12 AM
MayBee said...: I guess one option is no one in the White House ever emailed Hillary Clinton.; 3/5/15, 10:14 AM
Michael said...: Garage:

She did not use a parallel system. Unlike the secret routers in Walker's office (which you originally and hilariously described as secret servers) Hillary actually had her very own server with her very own private email account that she used exclusively for government work, personal stuff and communication with donors.

Garage, I see now you are writing about secret web sites. Why would something be secret if it is on the web and why would you put up a website if you wanted it to be secret? You do know the difference between a domain name and a website? An email address and a server? A blackberry from a slide rule?; 3/5/15, 10:21 AM
Laura said...: "[Hilary], you used poor judgement."

That's what she's been trying to tell you. They were broke!; 3/5/15, 10:23 AM
Lyle said...: If she had done this as an accountant working under Sarbanes-Oxley she would face criminal charges.

Maybe the Clintons will go the way of Arthur Anderson.; 3/5/15, 10:23 AM
Jaq said...: “Our Constitution is being shredded. We know about the secret wiretaps, the secret military tribunals, the secret White House email accounts,” Clinton said. “It’s a stunning record of secrecy and corruption, of cronyism run amok. It is everything our founders were afraid of, everything our Constitution was designed to prevent.” - Hillary Clinton.

I think she forgot to carefully couch this language so that it only applied to Republicans.; 3/5/15, 10:28 AM
PackerBronco said...: Use Occam's razor: The reason why the White House didn't notice Hillary's private email account is because they too, have their own private email accounts.; 3/5/15, 10:29 AM
mccullough said...: I wonder if anyone hacked the server. Probably. It would explain Putin's actions. He read the playbook.; 3/5/15, 10:29 AM
Jaq said...: garage keeps his comments short because he knows too many details eviscerate his "case."; 3/5/15, 10:30 AM
Curious George said...: "garage mahal said...
Trying to determine who is the bigger Walker hack. Curious George, Althouse, or Meade. It's close, but the relentless boot-licking from Curious George wins by a nose."

Geronimo!; 3/5/15, 10:32 AM
Jaq said...: That's why I give garage credit for more smarts than the crazy lady. garage actually knows how weak his case is.; 3/5/15, 10:36 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Michael said, "...Hillary actually had her very own server with her very own private email account that she used exclusively for government work, personal stuff and communication with donors."

In her very own house. This is not easy stuff. Network-wise, it's a big deal. I'd like to see an investigation into how she pulled it off.

She's the Secretary of State and depends on immediate and unstoppable email communication.

So she installs, what, a T3 line? in a Chappaqua house? and some tech guy named Hothouse or something spends a few days wiring it up?

Unreal.; 3/5/15, 10:41 AM
The Godfather said...: And the ghost of Richard Nixon murmurs, "I should have burned the f*cking tapes."; 3/5/15, 10:41 AM
Curious George said...: "Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Everyone in the Obama administration must have known about this. What was going through the minds of Obama and other high administration officials when they were exchanging emails with her through a private email account?"

Wrong. He found out like everyone else when it ht the news.; 3/5/15, 10:41 AM
Bob Ellison said...: PackerBronco said, "Use Occam's razor: The reason why the White House didn't notice Hillary's private email account is because they too, have their own private email accounts."

This should be obvious, especially to politicians and prominent journalists in Washington.

Who doesn't have multiple email addresses?

When I email barack@whitehouse.gov, I never seem to get a personal response from the President. Why is that?; 3/5/15, 10:43 AM
Fritz said...: Which foreign government donated the money to the Clinton foundation to pay for the Clinton.com email system?; 3/5/15, 10:43 AM
David said...: Fritz said...
Which foreign government donated the money to the Clinton foundation to pay for the Clinton.com email system?

Even money at least that the Clintons did not pay for it.

Though one extra speech would have financed it no problem.; 3/5/15, 10:45 AM
jr565 said...: In 2012, the Clinton run state department fired an ambassador for using private email. (Among other things)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/clinton-state-department-ousted-ambassador-using-private-email_876183.html

But for Hillary, the regular rules don't apply.; 3/5/15, 10:52 AM
jr565 said...: The Godfather wrote:And the ghost of Richard Nixon murmurs, "I should have burned the f*cking tapes."

actually he should have just gotten his own tape recorder and brought it to the White House. Then apparently we'd never have to know what was on those tapes.; 3/5/15, 10:55 AM
Anonymous said...: The Walker "secret routers" thing was about trying to do campaign things while being paid to do govt work.

FIFY; 3/5/15, 10:57 AM
Paul said...: Since it WAS Hillary's own server, I can tell you they can erase all the backups OR they can use such as Perl to find only what they want to erase, like emails with 'Benghazi' in them (or in the heading) and only they get purged.

I have no doubt if her minions have not already done that they are doing it NOW.

BUT.. if they fail to set the file erasing software to replace all the file to be erased with zeros, or blanks, then there is a way to forensically find the data and recover alot of it.; 3/5/15, 11:01 AM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Wrong. He found out like everyone else when it ht the news.

I wonder how long it will take for a journalist to ask Obama why he didn't notice she was using a private email account.; 3/5/15, 11:01 AM
cubanbob said...: Garage leave the comedy writing to the professionals and don't quit your day job.; 3/5/15, 11:01 AM
Anonymous said...: My lefty friends were saying that the rules regarding email accounts didn't go into effect until after she left the State Department but she still should have known better. One of my righty friends pointed out that that the Clinton server was physically located in the British Virgin Islands while being ran by a company out of Dubai and that shouldn't be acceptable, period.

One of the few times I agree with both my right-leaning and left-leaning friends at the same time.; 3/5/15, 11:13 AM
Big Mike said...: As I wrote on another thread, I don't know whether this scandal will be the tipping point for Hillary Clinton, but if not then just sit back and wait for the next one. It's beyond any doubt that there will be an next one. It's who she is, it's who she surrounds herself with.

The chances that the Secretary of State would not be the recipient of extremely sensitive data, even if technically unclassified, is negligibly small. The chances that the communications lines to her server were properly secured are an order of magnitude smaller. Were the Emails encrypted in transit? Were the Emails stored in encrypted form or could someone surreptitiously make a copy of backup media?; 3/5/15, 11:15 AM
Sloanasaurus said...: Why would a secretary of state need private emails. They are working for the country and not for themselves... right?; 3/5/15, 11:15 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Paul wrote:
"Since it WAS Hillary's own server, I can tell you they can erase all the backups OR they can use such as Perl to find only what they want to erase, like emails with 'Benghazi' in them (or in the heading) and only they get purged."
You can rent a "cloud" server and do all of this, but unless you physically control the hardware you can't control if recoverable backups are made, and, of course, having physical possession of the machine would allow Hillary to decide whether to obey a subpoena ordering her to turn over the emails.
On the other hand, all the sent emails could be recovered, if you knew where to look for them.; 3/5/15, 11:18 AM
Big Mike said...: While I'm unloading on the former Secretary of State for her callous attitude towards InfoSec, I just want to say that this administration, including Hillary's time as Secretary of State, has set some sort of record for utter ineptitude.

Now South Korea, about as solid an ally as any the US has ever had, is pi**ed off at us and yesterday we nearly lost a second ambassador to violence. Is there a point where even Barack Obama, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, and Valerie Jarrett bring in someone smart to get our foreign policy back to where it was in 2008?

No, John "IQ of a billiard ball" Kerry does not count.; 3/5/15, 11:22 AM
Brando said...: Politics aside, no decent person could possibly want this couple back in power. They are corrupt on levels that will make Democrats pine for the open honesty of Bush, and Republicans pine for the lawfulness of Obama. The Clintons are simply in a separate league.

The warnings are here. Please, Democrats, find an alternative. You'd actually have a better chance of winning with a relative unknown, and you don't need to further disgrace your party for this couple, to whom you owe nothing.

And please, Republicans, don't throw this election away, as you have so many before, because the Dems may just give this one to her.; 3/5/15, 11:27 AM
buwaya said...: The biggest and most damning matter as far as the Clintons are concerned is that they have amassed enormous wealth through their political positions. Just the overt statements of the Clinton foundation report @300M in assets and $200M in annual contributions. This is corruption on a huge scale, whatever the technical legality.; 3/5/15, 11:45 AM
Big Mike said...: On second thought, instead of sending a subpoena to Hillary Clinton for her Emails, perhaps Trey Gowdy's committee could serve it on the Russian ambassador.; 3/5/15, 11:48 AM
President-Mom-Jeans said...: "
One of the few times I agree with both my right-leaning and left-leaning friends at the same time."

Quit pulling our legs, Madison Inga. Everyone knows that you don't have any friends.; 3/5/15, 11:57 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Couple of cute photos with added text at Legal Insurrection:
Hillary Clinton ran her own email servers… from home?
A flustered Marie Harf is grilled on Clinton’s private email

I especially like the first one, with her texting Bill: "Hey Bill. Email's down. Will you hit the reset button? In the basement. Next to the washing machine." As she sits in the first row of what appears to have been one of her many flights as Sec. of State.

I think that those who don't think that she did anything wrong because the new rules didn't go into effect until she left office are missing some things. First, and foremost, whatever she did as Secretary of State is an official record under U.S. law. Using her own email account for such means that she was misusing such. Those official records were not being properly maintained. This isn't about internal State Dept. rules, but federal law and regulations. Then, deletion of any of them is arguable both misappropriation of government records under 18 U.S. Code § 2071 (Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally) and/or embezzlement under 18 U.S. Code § 641 (Public money, property or records). The penalty under section 2071 is presumptively less than three years, but the penalty under the embezzlement statute is less than ten years - making both felonies.

Compounding this, possibly, is that several of her closest advisers apparently also had clintonemail.com email accounts, including Phillipe (?) and Huma (Weiner). It will be interesting to see who else in her department also had such email accounts (I expect that everyone else with a clintonemail.com account also had state.gov accounts except for Hillary - that they used their clintonemail.com accounts primarily to talk to her).; 3/5/15, 11:59 AM
Curious George said...: "madisonfella said...
The Walker "secret routers" thing was about trying to do campaign things while being paid to do govt work.

FIFY"

Penguin, if this is true, why did only one person use it for Walker? And use it so little that she only got her wrist slapped? Why wasn't everyone using it, and using it all the time?

The answer to these questions is that you are an idiot.; 3/5/15, 12:12 PM
PackerBronco said...: "madisonfella said...
The Walker "secret routers" thing was about trying to do campaign things while being paid to do govt work.

You mean like public teachers taking sick days to go protest at the capitol?; 3/5/15, 12:17 PM
holdfast said...: I suspect that Hillary did not actually do a lot of really high-level official business via this email address, which may be why it was not noticed before. Correspondence with the White House was likely handled via aids and proper inter-office memorandum. Official correspondence with foreign government officials was likely handled via diplomatic cables (or whatever they are called today), sent by and to offical State Dept offices. This would explain why Hillary's private email system was not outted earlier.

So what did she use her system for? Correspondence with aids and advisors, both in the State Dept (like Huma) and in the Clinton Foundation/Permanent Campaign (like Doug Band). Also foreign non--official contacts, likely with over-lap with the Clinton Foundation. All these folks have every incentive to cover for her on this.

I am surprised we didn't hear from a disgruntled former ambassador, but maybe a lot of that stuff was routed through her deputies.

Of course, this is all speculation, so I'd love to look at the emails that have been released to see who her correspondents were.; 3/5/15, 12:22 PM
richard mcenroe said...: Secret servers? Don't we have someone on this blog who knows all about those?; 3/5/15, 12:41 PM
richard mcenroe said...: No, no, Meade, it's "JUST LEAVE HILLARY ALONE! SHE'S DOING THE BEST SHE CAN!" *sob* *sob* *sob*; 3/5/15, 12:43 PM
avwh said...: I can envison a jail cell with a big banner on it:

"Ready for Hillary"; 3/5/15, 12:55 PM
Boltforge said...: Having her people setup an unsecured (in that any foreign govt could easily hack it) server for email is Clinton level brain damaged. I would bet that the server and every user's personal system is compromised. Taking those over would be a trivial task for any supported security team.

But Dems don't care. They are more interested in flying with Bill on the Lolita Express to Pedophile Island. Courtesy of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Hillary and Bill are such sickos.; 3/5/15, 1:00 PM
traditionalguy said...: The emails we need to see are the one arranging the Haitian relief donors morphed into bribes for the benefit of cronies and kicked back to the cronies friends, Bill and Hill.; 3/5/15, 1:17 PM
Bob Ellison said...: richard mcenroe asked, "Secret servers? Don't we have someone on this blog who knows all about those?"

Richard, I do not know all about those, but I know a little bit.

"Secret servers" on email and the web are probably a jiggly myth. If you send an email from a normal email account to another account, SMTP rules will tend to control. And if you type a web address into your browser, it's pretty difficult to hack that.

There's a lot of talk about secret mobile-phone thingies that the government deploys. Meh. Sounds pretty unlikely.

Sharyl Atkisson has been making news lately for claiming the government hacked her computers. Not likely.

This stuff is not that easy to do.; 3/5/15, 1:46 PM
Bob Ellison said...: If you want to hack a computer, the best way to do it is to actually sit at the computer and do it.

Much like killing a chicken.; 3/5/15, 1:49 PM
richard mcenroe said...: EDH the Repubicans ARE trying to commit suicide. It's just that given the quality of the party leadership they're going to need all six bullets and they've missed so far.; 3/5/15, 2:12 PM
JD said...: We should all care about secret /private internet systems used by elected officials to conduct official business. Not Clinton, not Walker and not Jeb Bush, not one of them should be given the nomination for Presidency. This should disqualify them if one were to be an honest supporter of transparency.; 3/5/15, 2:32 PM
Sigivald said...: Most. Transparent. Administration.; 3/5/15, 2:34 PM
Sloanasaurus said...: Reports are now coming out that Clinton's security for her servers were so bad that we should assume her top secret correspondence is in the hands of foreign parties such as Russia and China.

Thus, the CIA etc... will have to demand all of her information just to find out how much damage has been done.

All this because Clinton wanted to hide her emails from the American people.; 3/5/15, 2:56 PM
Quaestor said...: garage mahal wrote: Private email system? Sounds really bad LOL

LOL; 3/5/15, 3:28 PM
Quaestor said...: JUST LEAVE HILLARY ALONE! SHE'S DOING THE BEST SHE CAN

Maybe Garage can crawl under a bed sheet with a camcorder. Then Meade can do the Seth Green version.; 3/5/15, 3:36 PM
garage mahal said...: For fuck sake, someone actually wants me to click on gatewaypundit?; 3/5/15, 4:18 PM
Balfegor said...: Haha, oh goodness. Wow. Given this + the fact that her high level aides also used off-the-books email accounts for official business, I retract everything I said about this looking like innocent laziness.; 3/5/15, 4:18 PM
garage mahal said...: Penguin, if this is true, why did only one person use it for Walker?

Walker himself used it. Doh!; 3/5/15, 4:18 PM
MadisonMan said...: Reports are now coming out

A source would be helpful here.

Thanks!; 3/5/15, 4:39 PM
Gusty Winds said...: Wow. If the State Department bullshits us to this point, imagine how US allies feel.; 3/5/15, 4:41 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: "For fuck sake, someone actually wants me to click on gatewaypundit?"
You won't get cooties . . .
Oh, wait. Jim Hoft, the Oliver Willis of the Right.
I wouldn't click on it.; 3/5/15, 5:26 PM
Jaq said...: The "mentioners" seem to be mentioning Jim Webb.

He better get a food taster.; 3/5/15, 6:58 PM
Brian O'Connell said...: Hey now. Let's not got all bent out of shape. There must be a reasonable explanation for all of this.; 3/5/15, 7:08 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: If some group filed a FOIA doc request for State correspondence including Sec Hilldozer's and State knowingly didn't include emails from this private domain, would anyone face legal ramifications for that? I mean, should anyone, legally; of course none of the important people have to worry about something as trifling as following the law.; 3/5/15, 7:23 PM
Jaq said...: The static IP thing from a local ISP says to me that if there is other evidence it was in her home, it was probably in her home.

I have one of those to run my thermostat remotely, for example.; 3/5/15, 7:38 PM
Jaq said...: "I'm sure there was no ill intent." - Nancy Pelosi.

The Clinton defenders are coming out defcon five, phasers blasting, that's for sure.; 3/5/15, 7:40 PM
Jaq said...: Lanny Davis will give us the straight poop soon, I am sure.; 3/5/15, 7:41 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Hillary is counting on elderly Hillary-Women to have No Idea what any of this technobabble means.

Needlepoint.

I am Laslo.; 3/5/15, 7:56 PM
avwh said...: "I'm sure there was no ill intent." - Nancy Pelosi.

Well, that settles it. No one in govt is more perceptive & truthful than Nancy Pelosi [roll eyes].; 3/5/15, 8:34 PM
Hagar said...: James Rosen said on Megan Kelly tonight that a hacker got into Hillary!'s server, or something (I am almost as hazy as O'Reilly), and found that she had multiple e-mail addresses, dozens, though some may have been her employees'. Of course, that does not make it any better, since they likely also carried out official business on her behalf.; 3/5/15, 9:17 PM
furious_a said...: we're totally at the mercy of Hills and her lawyers.

The NSA, if Edward Snowden is to be believed, should have copies of all her e-mails.; 3/5/15, 9:36 PM
furious_a said...: Christians destroyed official government correspondence during the Crusades.; 3/5/15, 9:48 PM
Anonymous said...: You mean like public teachers taking sick days to go protest at the capitol?

Very much the same. If they wanted time off then they have to follow their contract. Lying about sick days is fraud, and both the doctors and the workers should have been prosecuted.; 3/5/15, 11:47 PM
Drago said...: LOL

I see that Garage is careening headlong towards another "Citizens United is a corporation?" and Anthony Wiener's Twitter account was hacked by "Breitbart ratfucking black ops" moment.

Should be fun to watch.; 3/6/15, 12:38 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Tim in Vermont wrote:
"The "mentioners" seem to be mentioning Jim Webb.
He better get a food taster."

Webb would do well to remember that the fightin' Scots-Irish tribe (of which I am a member) lost, over and over again.
Enjoying fighting doesn't mean that you are good at it.; 3/6/15, 1:06 AM
Quaestor said...: Bob Ellison wrote: So she installs, what, a T3 line? in a Chappaqua house? and some tech guy named Hothouse or something spends a few days wiring it up?

It's not that hard. I've done it myself. If your server is just going to service a handful of accounts, as in this case, a fiber-to-the-curb residential broadband hookup would be more than adequate. (In 2009 Verizon had already established fiber-optic pilot deployments in several major markets; Chappaqua may have been among them.) The DNS is a piece of cake. There are several DDNS providers who will handle all the configuration and maintenance for about $100 per annum. The server itself is also a piece of cake for somebody with a reasonable background in Linux. A $400 HP desktop with 8GB of RAM would suffice. Drop another $550 for Red Hat Enterprise and your nearly done. All that remains is to configure sendmail, and there are online HOWTOs for that. Conceivably this could all be done in a long afternoon.

If one is not Linux-savvy and one has a few large on hand (Poor, Hillary, she's sooo broke, dontcha know, she must have bought a Walmart PC and Red Hat.) one could buy a nice Mac Pro. OS X Server is just a downloadable app, and a super-expensive $19.95 one at that. OS X Server mainly consists of the MAMP stack, which is the Mac version of LAMP. Sendmail is included. There are even some neat little GUIs for administration.; 3/6/15, 1:53 AM
Fen said...: I'm just here to watch Garage beclown himself. Again.

Anyone want popcorn? I brought extra.; 3/6/15, 2:07 AM
Achilles said...: I used to send TS/SCI material via email. If I ever used a personal email account to do that I would have been at least fired and probably in jail. As SOS she had clearances above that and she wasn't using a secure server.

People die because of this. She at the very least risked peoples lives and almost certainly got people killed to protect her political career. This isn't even in the same galaxy as some political operatives in Walker's administration moonlighting on the public dime.

Nobody died in Watergate. This is far worse than that. And don't think people in the national security community haven't noticed what she did.; 3/6/15, 3:12 AM
Kirk Parker said...: Quastor,

"The DNS is a piece of cake. There are several DDNS providers who will handle all the configuration and maintenance for about $100 per annum. "

Heck, if your needs are simple enough, you can get a free Hurricane Electric DNS account (if you don't mind managing it yourself via their pretty easy-to-use web interface.)

And why on earth would you spend $$$ for RHEL when you can get the same thing labelled CentOS for free?; 3/6/15, 4:02 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: You don't really need a T1. All you need is a static IP address and a non-dial-up connection to the Internet. I ran an email (FTP, Web, and DNS) server at my house for several years. I did it for the experience, and because it was fun (being a computer geek at heart). I did have a dedicated machine, but it was essentially an older machine on which I had installed Windows Server 2003 (or so). I could also assert that I had a bit more confidentiality for clients. I don't even remember what commercial product I used for email (just that my web server was Apache). Bunch of them were available, and not that hard to set up. My volume was never high enough that email was affected using only a DSL line, though I ultimately did move to a commercial server for my web pages.; 3/6/15, 10:02 AM
Trashhauler said...: It makes one wonder how she did her job at all. Did they give out her real email address to every ambassador? The White House staff? How about the other Departments? Did she have a staffer monitoring the "official" email to see if anyone had tried to reach her? (The State ops center would have called her for any 3:00 AM problems.)

Presumably, any emails sent to her from a .gov or .mil account would have been saved on those systems. But still. These people just keep making it up as they go along.; 3/6/15, 11:00 AM
Mountain Maven said...: HRC is done. Not even Althouse will vote for her.

I am hoping for O'Malley.
So if the dems win we'll have someone in there with executive experience, not just a flipping senator.
That said, he is simply a party hack from a blue state. The voters had the sense to replace him with a conservative.; 3/6/15, 11:38 AM