Judicial Watch: Hillary Clinton’s Problems Are Getting Worse

According to Judicial Watch, the emails released by the State Department as a result of its Freedom of Information Act requests, and subsequent lawsuits, demonstrate that Hillary Clinton’s problems are only getting worse.

The organization released nearly 300 pages of documents Thursday that had been previously undisclosed, and that Clinton herself said shouldn’t have existed. Among them:

• a Feb. 22, 2009, email exchange between Clinton and her then-Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, trying to communicate over a secure line after Clinton returned from a trip to Asia. Unable to set up a secure communication, Clinton told Mills, “I called ops and they gave me your ‘secure’ cells … but only got a high-pitched whining sound.”  When Mills suggested that Clinton try the secure line again, the former secretary wrote back, “I give up. Call me on my home #.”
• a Feb. 27, 2009, email in which Clinton apologized to health care activist/physician Mark Hyman for failing to respond to a message because, “no blackberry contact permitted in my office.”

“The previously unreleased Clinton emails date back as far as January 2009 and further contradict statements by Hillary Clinton that, ‘as far as she knew,’ all of her government emails were turned over to the State Department and that she did not use her clintonemail.com system until March 18, 2009,” Judicial Watch said in a press release that coincided with the documents’ release.

“The new Clinton emails cover topics such as: the administration’s Iran policy; Obama’s stimulus program; the sharing of ‘management issues’ with ‘Maggie’ Williams, former campaign manager for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign; confusion over voice mail versus text messages; image coaching from 2008 campaign adviser Doug Hattaway; and a thank-you note from Mark Hyman for ‘opening the door’ for a Senate hearing on functional medicine; as well email detailing incoming calls from China and Russia. The new Clinton documents also include a censored email that shows Clinton and Cheryl Mills were contacted by Maria Haley, a longtime Clinton aide (since deceased) who was implicated in the Chinagate scandal.”

This week’s release follows the release last week of more than 200 emails, some of which also dated back to January 2009. In March, Judicial Watch released emails that documented the battle between security officials in the State Department, National Security Administration, Clinton and her staff over attempts to obtain secure Blackberrys.

Judicial Watch says this new information contradicts her sworn statement in pending litigation, as well as statements the former secretary of state has made on the presidential campaign trail.

“This drip, drip of new Clinton emails show Hillary Clinton could not care less about the security of her communications,” the organization’s president, Tom Fitton, said. “How many other smoking gun emails are Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators in the Obama administration hiding from the American people?”

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg for Judicial Watch. The organization also released a report earlier this week that indicates Bryan Pagliano, the IT staffer who installed the private email server, wasn’t qualified to do the work—and his appointment was pushed through by a top Clinton campaign aide.

“[The emails show] that top Clinton aide Laura Pena helped push through the political appointment of former Hillary for President IT director Bryan Pagliano to a Schedule C position at the State Department in 2009,” the organization stated in a press release. “The new documents also show the involvement of Patrick Kennedy, Under Secretary for Management, in Pagliano’s hiring.

“The emails show others in the State International Resource Management (IT division) in which Pagliano would work questioned why a political appointee was being placed in the office. And the emails reveal that a political appointee could not even report directly to a superior in the International Resource Management division, raising further questions among Pagliano’s supervisors.”

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“These documents show that politics played a role in Clinton email witness Brian Pagliano’s hiring at the State Department,” Fitton said. “Why place a political appointee in the IT department of the State Department? And it is no coincidence that this same controversial political hire helped Hillary Clinton with her illicit email system. No wonder Pagliano reportedly has received immunity from the Justice Department.”