State Dept. knew of Clinton email scandal in 2010!

Hillary Clinton (Photo: Twitter)

Judicial Watch announced Monday it has more information about the never-ending scandal of Hillary Clinton's emails.

It's over her transfer of classified information through an unsecured email system while she was secretary of state and her deletion of more than 30,000 subpoenaed emails.

Her use of the email system has been characterized as a closely held secret while she was using it. But Judicial Watch says it now has evidence the State Department knew of it system early as early as 2010.

Daniel Baer, an Obama State Department deputy assistant secretary of state, wrote to Michael Posner, then-assistant secretary of state in 2010 about Clinton’s private email address.

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He warned, "Be careful, you just gave the secretary's personal email address to a bunch of folks."

Baer noted she "guards it pretty closely."

But Clinton's email address had been in an email sent to State Department officials about WikiLeaks.

"It appears the State Department produced this email in 2016 in redacted form, blacking out Clinton’s personal email address and the discussion about Clinton’s wanting to keep her email address closely guarded," Judicial Watch said.

The watchdog sought the email after a former top Freedom of Information Act State Department official testified to Judicial Watch about reviewing it between late 2013 and early 2014.

Judicial Watch said the email production comes in discovery granted to Judicial Watch in a FOIA lawsuit in which Clinton also faces potential questioning under oath.

The court had ordered the production of the email, but the DOJ and State produced it only after Judicial Watch threatened to seek a court order.

"Judicial Watch just caught the State Department and DOJ red-handed in another email cover-up – they all knew about the Clinton email account but covered up the smoking-gun email showing this guilty knowledge for years," stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch has been hunting evidence of the email scandal for several years. It is probing whether Clinton used private email in an effort to evade the Freedom of Information Act; whether the State Department’s attempt to settle the FOIA case in 2014 and 2015 amounted to bad faith; and whether the State Department has adequately searched for records responsive to the request.

A federal judge recently raised concerns about the email scandal and urged Judicial Watch to "shake this tree" and see what it can find out.

The judge also criticized the State Department's handling and production of Clinton's emails in the case.

"There is no FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] exemption for political expedience, nor is there one for bureaucratic incompetence," the judge said.

The case includes court authorization for multiple depositions from Clinton associates and representatives.

Judicial Watch listed its discoveries about the scope of the Clinton email scandal:

• John Hackett, former director of information programs and services (IPS) testified under oath that he had raised concerns that Clinton’s staff may have “culled out 30,000” of the secretary’s “personal” emails without following strict National Archives standards. He also believed there was interference with the formal FOIA review process related to the classification of Clinton’s Benghazi-related emails.
• Heather Samuelson, Clinton’s White House liaison at the State Department, and later Clinton’s personal lawyer, admitted under oath that she was granted immunity by the Department of Justice in June 2016.
• Justin Cooper, former aide to President Bill Clinton and Clinton Foundation employee who registered the domain name of the unsecure clintonemail.com server that Clinton used while serving as secretary of state, testified he worked with Huma Abedin, Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, to create the non-government email system.
• In interrogatory responses, E.W. Priestap, assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division, stated that the agency found Clinton email records in the Obama White House, specifically, the Executive Office of the President.
• Jacob Sullivan, Clinton’s senior advisor and deputy chief of staff when she was secretary of state, testified that both he and Clinton used her unsecure non-government email system to conduct official State Department business.
• Eric Boswell, former assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, testified that Clinton was warned twice against using unsecure BlackBerry’s and personal emails to transmit classified material.