Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
The Clinton Scandals
#71
Here is one Clinton scandal that has at least some uncomfortable elements, although not a full blown scandel:

Quote:Within a few days, both Brazile and Warren walked their statements all the way back. Brazile now says she found “no evidence” the primary was rigged. Warren now says that though there was “some bias” within the DNC, “the overall 2016 primary process was fair.” I have spent much of the past week trying to untangle this story, interviewing people on all sides of the primary and in a variety of positions at the DNC.

The core facts are straightforward: As Barack Obama’s presidency drew to a close, the DNC was deep in debt. In return for a bailout, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz gave Hillary Clinton’s campaign more potential control over its operations and hiring decisions than was either ethical or wise.

But those operations were mostly irrelevant to the primary and couldn’t have been used to rig the process even if anyone had wanted to use them that way; the primary schedule, debate schedule, and rules were set well in advance of these agreements. “I found nothing to say they were gaming the primary system,” Brazile told me. And while that contradicts the more sensational language she used in her book, it fits the facts she laid out both in her original piece and since.
Was the Democratic primary rigged? - Vox
Reply
#72
Sigh. Even according to a Fox News anchor, there isn't much "there there" but Judge Judy tears into Jeff Sessions for not (yet) opening an inquiry into Hillary and selling uranium to Russia, with the President an enthusiast.

Quote:During a private meeting with President Trump, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro reportedly tore into Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his refusal thus far to appoint a special prosecutor to probe former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the Uranium One deal.  The New York Times reported Tuesday that Pirro met with Trump early this month, during which she "excoriated" the attorney general for not investigating Clinton, Trump's Democratic opponent in the 2016 presidential race. The report follows weeks of critical coverage on Pirro's show, "Justice with Judge Jeanine," and elsewhere on Fox, of the 2016 deal that allowed a Russian nuclear agency to purchase Uranium One, a Canadian company that owns access to uranium in the U.S.
Fox News host tore into Sessions in private meeting with Trump: report | TheHill

Quote:Here’s the accusation: Nine people involved in the deal made donations to the Clinton Foundation totaling more than $140 million,” Smith said. “In exchange, Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton approved the sale to the Russians — a quid pro quo.” “The accusation [was] first made by Peter Schweizer, the senior editor at large of the website Breitbart, in his 2015 book, ‘Clinton Cash,’ ” Smith continued. “The next year, candidate Donald Trump cited the accusation as an example of Clinton corruption.” Smith then played a clip from a June 2016 speech Trump gave in New York City in which he repeated the claim. “Hillary Clinton’s State Department approved the transfer of 20 percent of America’s uranium holdings to Russia, while nine investors in the deal funneled $145 million to the Clinton Foundation,” Trump said in the speech.

Smith called the statement "inaccurate in a number of ways." "The Clinton State Department had no power to approve or veto that transaction. It could do neither," the Fox News host noted. Smith then laid out the approval process for the sale, which involves a nine-person committee made up of the heads of federal agencies, and noted that no one person could approve or veto the deal — only former President Obama could do either. The Fox News anchor also detailed Trump’s claim that the Clinton Foundation received money after the deal was completed. “Here, the timing is inaccurate,” Smith said, noting that the source of the majority of the donations, Frank Giustra, said he sold his stake in the uranium company before the company was sold and before Clinton became secretary of State.

“The accusation is predicated on the charge that Secretary Clinton approved the sale,” Smith said. “She did not. A committee of nine evaluated the sale, the president approved the sale, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and others had to offer permits, and none of the uranium was exported for use by the U.S. to Russia. That is Uranium One.” Trump has repeatedly called on the Justice Department to investigate Clinton, saying earlier this month that he was “very unhappy” that federal officials were not investigating her. "Hopefully they are doing something," Trump said of the Justice Department probing Clinton during a radio interview with host Larry O'Connor on Washington's WMAL. "At some point maybe we're going to all have it out."
Fox News's Shepard Smith hits Trump for 'inaccurate' claims on Uranium One deal | TheHill

Really, there is no there, there.. a big nothingburger. They can't even export the uranium to Russia.
Reply
#73
Remember the uranium "scandal" where Republicans argued (without any evidence) that Clinton approved of the sale of a uranium company in exchange for donations to her foundation? 

This is another bogus scandal.. That big informant the Republicans had lined up, well, he didn't exactly perform..

Quote:A former FBI informant who GOP lawmakers have claimed could implicate the Clintons in the so-called Uranium One scandal failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by the Clintons or anyone else during a February 7 interview with staffers of three congressional committees, Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee say in a summary of the meeting released Thursday.

For months Republicans have said the informant, a former lobbyist named William D. Campbell, had explosive information regarding the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian firm that owned mines in the United States, to Rosatom, a Russian-state owned company. They claimed that Campbell could shed light on how Russians exerted influence over then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—allegedly steering money to her family foundation—in order to win approval of the sale.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and several House Republicans cited Campbell’s claims to urge the appointment of a new special counsel to investigate the Uranium One sale. But lately, Republicans have largely stopped talking about Campbell. His recent congressional interview may help explain why.
Here’s Why Republicans Stopped Talking About a Uranium One “Whistleblower” – Mother Jones
Reply
#74
Remember Benghazi? The same Mike Pompeo who is now Secretary of State scolded then Secretary of State Clinton for not taking diplomatic security seriously

Quote:Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was grilled about funding for diplomatic security while testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning. Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) confronted Pompeo during the hearing about the decrease in spending on diplomatic security under the Trump administration. “Under the Obama Administration, over $3 billion went to diplomatic security, but once President Trump came in, I see it went to down $2.1 billion ... and down to $1.6 billion,” Meeks stated... 

Meeks later called Pompeo a hypocrite for saying Hillary Clinton failed on diplomatic security as secretary of State but not focusing on it now that he is in that position. “You didn’t give her any courtesy when Secretary Hillary Clinton was sitting in her seat before the Benghazi Committee and you scolded her. You went after her with venom,” Meeks said to Pompeo, adding that he hasn't heard him mention diplomatic security "one single time."
Dem lawmaker confronts Pompeo over spending cuts to diplomatic security | TheHill
Reply
#75
All that noise about Hillary's private email server..

Quote:Jared Kushner's application for a top secret clearance was rejected by two career White House security specialists after an FBI background check raised concerns about potential foreign influence on him — but their supervisor overruled the recommendation and approved the clearance, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The official, Carl Kline, is a former Pentagon employee who was installed as director of the personnel security office in the Executive Office of the President in May 2017. Kushner's was one of at least 30 cases in which Kline overruled career security experts and approved a top secret clearance for incoming Trump officials despite unfavorable information, the two sources said. They said the number of rejections that were overruled was unprecedented — it had happened only once in the three years preceding Kline's arrival.
Officials rejected Jared Kushner for top secret security clearance, but were overruled
Reply
#76
Quote:The state department has completed its years-long internal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email and found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information”. The investigation, launched more than three years ago, did find violations by 38 people, some of whom may face disciplinary action. Investigators determined that those 38 people were “culpable” in 91 cases of sending classified information that ended up in Clinton’s personal email, according to a letter sent to Republican senator Chuck Grassley this week and released on Friday. The 38 are current and former state department officials but were not identified. While there were no findings of deliberate mishandling of classified information, the report made clear that Clinton’s use of the private email while serving as the secretary of state in the Obama administration had increased the vulnerability of classified information.
Investigation of Clinton emails ends, finding no 'deliberate mishandling' | US news | The Guardian

Sooo:
  • This is the outcome of Senator Chuck Grassley's investigation, started when he was head of the Judiciary committee in 2016
  • No evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information by Clinton
  • But 38 other officials did violate, and some could face some disciplinary actions
  • No signs her server was hacked
  • So while the private server wasn't a good idea, it would have been no case for disciplinary action, the whole thing has been blown up out of any proportion.
Reply
#77
Quote:Last week, Congress received a brief, nine-page report from the State Department, which summarizes the department’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account to conduct work business while she was secretary of state. The report can be fairly summarized in two sentences: She shouldn’t have done that. But it wasn’t that big of a deal. Thus, America finally has closure on a minor scandal that many of the nation’s most powerful and influential news editors treated as if it were the most important issue facing voters in the 2016 election. “In just six days,” according to an analysis of 2016 coverage published in the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), “the New York Times ran as many cover stories about Hillary Clinton’s emails as they did about all policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election.” And the Times was hardly alone in this regard.

The State Department’s report reaches two broad conclusions. Clinton’s “use of a private email system to conduct official business added an increased degree of risk” that classified information would be compromised. But “there was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.” In 2016, the State Department’s inspector general also determined that Clinton’s Republican predecessors, Secretaries Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, also received classified information on their personal email accounts.

So Clinton committed the same mistake committed by her predecessors — Powell reportedly advised Clinton to use a personal email account for non-classified communications shortly after Clinton became secretary — and the State Department’s report found no systemic mishandling of information.
Hillary Clinton: the shameful conclusion to the But Her Emails debacle - Vox
Reply
#78
Quote:U.S. attorney John Huber reportedly intends to close, without bringing charges, his two-year review of the U.S. government's decision not to block the sale of the company known as Uranium One. The news serves as a stinging rebuke to the right-wing media figures who spent years massaging it into a scandal aimed at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- and the mainstream reporters who helped them.

Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, under pressure from Fox News critics and the president they regularly advise, appointed Huber in November 2017 to review the sale of Uranium One and other purportedly “unlawful dealings related to the Clinton Foundation” and determine whether they required further investigation. That probe is now winding down, with The Washington Post reporting that its sources say “Huber has largely finished and found nothing worth pursuing” and that the inquiry will involve “no criminal charges or other known impacts.”
The final, inevitable collapse of the right-wing media’s Uranium One conspiracy theory | Media Matters for America
  • Not a surprise, just like the 8 investigations into Benghazi ended up with nothing..
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)