Clinton could face indictment

Clinton could face Espionage Act indictment

Submitted by IWB, on May 5th, 2016

 

(TRUNEWS) Sources close to the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal say she may face indictment through the federal Espionage Act.

DC Whispers ,the Washington watchdog blog which reported this latest update, said the threat of the FBI indicting Clinton through the Federal Espionage Act was great enough that it recently prompted President Obama to ward off and downplay her crimes in an April 10th interview with Fox News Sunday.

During his first appearance on Fox News Sunday since being elected, President Obama told interviewer Chris Wallace that Hillary Clinton was an ‘outstanding Secretary of State’ and that he continues to believe that “she has not jeopardized America’s national security.” Obama did however concede that he believes Clinton was “carelessness” in the way she managed her emails, but quickly added that she had already “owned and recognized” this and that it “did not detract from her excellent ability to carry out her duties.”

In the end of his first interview on the Fox News Channel since 2014, Obama repeatedly made the definitive statement that he “guarantees, period”, that investigations from the Department of Justice and the FBI would not be political influenced; and that Hillary Clinton would not receive any preferential treatment. “Nobody gets treated differently when it comes to the Justice Department, because no-one is above the law,” Obama said.

Ironically, President Obama has used the 1917 Espionage Act — which may be leveraged against Clinton —  more than all previous presidents combined, and specifically against government whistleblowers. This was succinctly summarized by CNN’s Jake Tapper in a January 2014 exchange with Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post when he said “The Obama administration has used the Espionage Act to go after whistleblowers who leaked to journalists … more than all previous administrations combined.”

On Wednesday Emmet G. Sullivan,  the US District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, granted discovery to begin in Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit which seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin — former Deputy Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton.

Judge Sullivan ruled that Clinton may have to testify:

“Based on information learned during discovery, the deposition of Mrs. Clinton may be necessary. If Plaintiff believes Mrs. Clinton’s testimony is required, it will request permission from the Court at the appropriate time. [Emphasis in original]”

The Court also authorized Judicial Watch to seek the testimony of the following witnesses:

1. Stephen D. Mull (Executive Secretary of the State Department from June 2009 to October 2012 and suggested that Mrs. Clinton be issued a State Department BlackBerry, which would protect her identity and would also be subject to FOIA requests);
2. Lewis A. Lukens (Executive Director of the Executive Secretariat from 2008 to 2011 and emailed with Patrick Kennedy and Cheryl Mills about setting up a computer for Mrs. Clinton to check her clintonemail.com email account);
3. Patrick F. Kennedy (Under Secretary for Management since 2007 and the Secretary of State’s principal advisor on management issues, including technology and information services);
4. 30(b)(6) deposition(s) of Defendant regarding the processing of FOIA requests, including Plaintiff’s FOIA request, for emails of Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Abedin both during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State and after;
5. Cheryl D. Mills (Mrs. Clinton’s Chief of Staff throughout her four years as Secretary of State);
6. Huma Abedin (Mrs. Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff and a senior advisor to Mrs. Clinton throughout her four years as Secretary of State and also had an email account on clintonemail.com);
7. Bryan Pagliano (State Department Schedule C employee who has been reported to have serviced and maintained the server that hosted the “clintonemail.com” system during Mrs. Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State);

Judicial Watch president Tom Litton said in response to Judge  Sullivan decision: “This is a significant victory for transparency and accountability. Judicial Watch will use this discovery to get all of the facts behind Hillary Clinton’s and the Obama State Department’s thwarting of FOIA so that the public can be sure that all of the emails from her illicit email system are reviewed and released to the public as the law requires.”

On April 21st Judge Andrew Napolitano was interviewed by Bill O’Reilly on Fox’s “The O’Reilly Factor” and said the FBI is in the final stages of its investigation into Hillary Clinton and her private email server, and he believes the agency has more than enough evidence to indict and convict her.

“The evidence of her [Hillary Clinton] guilt is overwhelming,”  Judge Napolitano said.  “And the FBI knows a lot more about it than I do.” He added that he is “100-percent certain” that the FBI has enough evidence to indict and convict.

Judge Napolitano explained that the FBI hasn’t made a recommendation about an indictment to the Justice Department, because they are working in tandem with the Justice Department in their investigation.

Judge Napolitano ended by saying he was uncertain if the Justice Department or the FBI would actually follow through with an indictment due to political pressure.