On Tuesday, Judicial Watch released 1,600 pages of documents, among them never before published emails from Hillary Clinton's confidant and former deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, which contain what could be incriminating evidence against the former secretary of state.
"Pay to play, classified information mishandling, influence peddling, cover ups – these new emails show why the criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s conduct must be resumed," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in a statement Tuesday. “The Trump Justice Department and FBI need to reassure the American people they have finally stopped providing political protection to Hillary Clinton.”
Fitton's statement comes in response to possible "pay-to-play" situations contained in the documents obtained from the State Department by an FOIA lawsuit as well as examples of classified government material being transferred by Clinton's aides via unsecured private email accounts.
The newly released documents contain a total of 91 email conversations that Clinton had previously not turned over, including, as LawNewz' Ronn Blitzer notes, "a number of messages involving information that either had been or were later marked classified, which had previously been withheld after Judicial Watch’s initial FOIA request, under FOIA exemption B1.4(D), which pertains to foreign relations and activities." Among the classified information was "a memo about Northern Ireland and details regarding a call between the Chinese Foreign Minister and State Department officials."
The existence of the 91 emails, as Daily Caller's Jack Crowe points out, contradicts Clinton’s claim that, "as far as she knew," she had turned over all government emails to authorities.
In one example of the Clinton aides' reckless handling of classified information, Clinton's executive assistant Joseph MacManus (now executive secretary of the State Department) refuses to send a document to Abedin specifically because it is "classified," writing, "The draft paper is classified so it cannot go by Blackberry email."
But what Fitton stresses as potentially the most damaging is the possible "pay-to-play" evidence. Here's Blitzer's summary of one example:
The emails also contained evidence of possible pay-to-play, including an executive who was a big donor to the Clinton Presidential Library pushing for someone else to be named Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The requestwas made to Abedin through Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band. It is not clear whether or not this person received an ambassadorship because the name was redacted in the email.
Here's Crowe's summary of other potential pay-to-play situations:
In a similar example of preferential treatment toward Clinton donors, the managing director of left wing fundraising organization Democracy Alliance, Kelly Craighead, emailed Abedin asking her to “reach out” to an “extremely loyal supporter” who was awaiting a response regarding an application for a senior position at the Department of State.
One year later in April 2010, Craighead reached out again with a State Department personnel request.
“It would mean a lot to me if you could help or advise on a personnel situation for a dear friend,” Craighead said.
Abedin appears to have prioritized the request. “We love [Redacted]. Looking into this asap,” she responded.
Will the DOJ and the FBI answer Fitton's call to end the "political protection to Hillary Clinton"? Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled that he will be ratcheting up his efforts against "deep state" forces, but right now it sure looks like the FBI is far too focused on the "coup" against Trump to do more digging on Hillary.