Sunday, October 30, 2016

"UNCLASSIFIED": Comey's October Surprise has NO link to Clinton's email server!

Comey's beautifully-crafted October Surprise was designed to link Anthony Weiner's computer to Clinton's email kerfuffle. Thanks to Comey, every pundit is wailing about Clinton's alleged dishonesty and secretiveness.

Yet she has nothing to do with any of this. Neither does her much-discussed server.

Kurt Eichenwald has exposed this story as a kind of hoax on the public:
This new evidence relates to how Abedin managed her emails. She maintained four email accounts -- an unclassified State Department account, another on the clintonemail.com domain and a third on Yahoo. The fourth was linked to her husband’s account; she used it to support his activities when he was running for Congress, investigative records show. Abedin, who did not know Clinton used a private server for her emails, told the bureau in an April interview that she used the account on the clintonemail.com domain only for issues related to the Secretary’s personal affairs, such as communicating with her friends. For work-related records, Abedin primarily used the email account provided to her by the State Department.

Because Clinton preferred to read documents on paper rather than on a screen, emails and other files were often printed out and provided to her either at her office or home, where they were delivered in a diplomatic pouch by a security agent. Abedin, like many State Department officials, found the government network technology to be cumbersome, and she had great trouble printing documents there, investigative records show. As a result, she sometimes transferred emails from her unclassified State Department account to either her Yahoo account or her account on Clinton’s server, and printed the emails from there.
(Emphasis added) Do you understand? UNCLASSIFIED.

The world seems to be finding it impossible to comprehend that word. If the material was unclassified, there was no breach of security -- period.

The media and James Comey have seemingly conspired to transform a Big Nothing into a Big Something.

The Politico article referenced in a previous post indicates that Huma used her Yahoo account. So how did her personal emails appear on her husband's computer? There's one obvious answer: He peeked at her emails. His computer used to be her computer; her password was still stored by the browser. This sort of thing happens all the time because people forget to clear their passwords when they give an old computer to a friend or family member. (Most people don't fully understand how browsers work.) Obviously, Weiner had plenty of motive to wonder about what his wife was saying about him.

This NYT piece by Richard Painter (who happens to be a Republican) asks: "On Clinton Emails, Did the F.B.I. Director Abuse His Power?" Painter appears to feel that the answer is yes. Increasingly, so do I.

Comey need not have made this matter public. In doing so, he violated standard Bureau procedure. He also may have violated the Hatch Act, as Painter argues.

If Comey did feel compelled to make the matter public, he could have at least stated that Huma has told agents that she transmitted UNCLASSIFIED material for printing back home. By leaving that key point out, he left everyone with the impression that this matter has some connection Hillary's server -- which it does not. Neither is there any link to classified materials.

Another telling point: The FBI acquired this computer on October 3. What took them so long? They should have examined everything by now.

At this moment, all of cable Teeveeland is saying that Comey is waiting on a search warrant -- but that bit of drama is utterly unnecessary. No search warrant is needed: The FBI need merely have asked Huma (whose Yahoo account this is) for permission to look at the emails. (When cops stop your car, they may want to look in your trunk for whatever reason. If you say "Sure," they need no search warrant.)

Huma surely would have given her permission weeks ago, if asked -- after all, right now the Clinton campaign is begging for everything to be put on the table ASAP. Weiner would also have given permission, if needed: He is, by all accounts, fully cooperating with the FBI.

Conclusion: All of this guff about a warrant is nonsense.

Let me repeat: The UNCLASSIFIED emails that Huma forwarded to her Yahoo account had nothing to do with Hillary. They were not written by her or to her. And they did not go through her server.

Comey turned an innocuous non-story into a national panic. Thanks to the FBI Director's big mouth, every mainstream editorialist is now spewing nonsense about Hillary's alleged penchant for secrecy and deception. Actually, she is the most transparent -- and hyper-scrutinized -- person on the national political stage; according to Politifact, her record for honesty exceeds that of Bernie Sanders.

Looks to me as though Comey wanted things to turn out this way.

Added note: This WSJ story speaks of as many as 650,000 emails linked to that investigation. The wording leaves the impression that Huma sent that many messages back home for printing -- but of course, that can't be true. "As federal agents prepare to scour roughly 650,000 emails to see how many relate to a prior probe of Hillary Clinton’s email use..." I don't know where they got that number. It seems high even if we are talking about every single email (including all the spam) generated by every single account used by Weiner and Abedin over a number of years.

One can easily guess how that right is going to spin this. 

7 comments:

Twilight said...

How does this fit your theory, Joseph? In another twist to the investigative saga over Hillary Clinton’s private emails, CBS News has learned that Huma Abedin, a top Clinton aide and longtime confidant, says she has no knowledge of any of her emails being on the electronic device belonging to her estranged husband, disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner. (CBS.com)

If your idea is valid, she'd know how a huge amount of her mails, many of which, according to meta records, have been shown to be to and from Clinton's server, arrived on her husband's laptop.

If your story is true, she's lying - not a good look in these circumstances!

Joseph Cannon said...

Twilight, this is the only foolish statement I've ever known you to make. My reconstruction is completely consonant with what Huma said. In fact, I had Huma's perfectly believable statement in mind as I wrote.

I can only presume that when you read my post, you completely misunderstood my point. To be honest, I can't really understand just what you are thinking or why you think Huma's statement conflicts with what I wrote. All I can say is: Please read the post again, and this time pay attention to my ACTUAL words.

That is the problem with times like these -- people are desperate for any reason to misconstrue simple English sentences.

By the way, that "metadata" remark comes only from the suspect WSJ story, which was deliberately written to make things seems horrible.

Joseph Cannon said...

Added note: I mean, seriously, WHAT "metadata"? Have you ever looked at the full header of a Yahoo message? Where would you find the label "This text originally came from Hillary Clinton's private server"?

I imagine that the agents saw the name Huma and State Department and jumped to the conclusion that this had something to do with that server. But in reality, says Eichenwald (whose reportage has been spot on throughout this campaign season), it was all from the unclassified State Department server.

gerry said...

It appears that Huma and Weiner utilized devices that had auto-sync whichallows all your e-mails to go to all your devices so you can look up your emails on any of your devices.

Either Huma forgot or never realized it was happening on Weiners computer


when i read this i looked it up and found auto-sync for e-mails does exist.

Twilight said...

Oh, I can be very foolish at times, Joseph, even so, I believe you are striving and protesting way, way too much, to protect Sec. Clinton. If I should look again, so, perhaps, should you.

Perhaps you've become one of Clinton's gaggle of surrogates.

Within 24 hours of being blindsided by Comey’s revelation to Congress that the FBI had come across new e-mails that may be pertinent to the Clinton probe, Clinton’s campaign sent a memo to dozens of its surrogates. It detailed talking points and suggested wording for casting doubt on Comey’s decision and Republicans’ spin, and spreading the idea that the e-mails may simply be duplicates of those already reviewed or have nothing to do with the nominee.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-10-30/clinton-s-attacking-strategy-to-blunt-comey-damage-carries-risks

Joseph Cannon said...

SO?

That's precisely what they SHOULD have done and said. What's next -- are you going to attack Hillary because she eats food at dinnertime? Because she urinates in a toilet? Because she breathes air?

What the fuck has gone wrong with you?

Clinton Derangement Syndrome is an insidious thing. To those who suffer from CDS, neither Hillary nor her supporters can create a single sentence in the English language without fools like you scrying evil into it. If Hillary said "Hello," you would respond "How DARE she?"

Anonymous said...

CDS? I think you willfully misrepresent Twilight's point.