Clinton Email Probe Reveals Hillary’s Aides, NSA, And Bureau Of Diplomatic Security Dismayed With Clinton

As the public and media wait patiently for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to finally release a report about the Clinton email probe and ongoing scandal, information has come out via Judicial Watch that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s determination to use a BlackBerry not only upset her aides but also greatly distressed both the National Security Administration and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, who would be responsible for safeguarding communications.

To underscore how strange the Clinton email situation seemed, per the documents and the story by reporter Richard Pollack over at the Daily Caller, Donald R. Reid, described as being the State Department’s senior coordinator for security infrastructure at the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, asked an important question at the time.

“Why doesn’t she use her desktop when in the office?”

Certainly, some in the press are for pushing harder on the State Department officials in the ongoing Clinton email probe, as it bears much examination if citizens want to make their vote in November’s general election a good one for the nation.

During a State Department press briefing last week, the press office director, Elizabeth Trudeau, took questions from the media on the issue of the ongoing Clinton email probe and the highly suspicious alteration job performed in the so-called “Iran video edit” by State department employees. Media locked on to video edits, first.

“With respect to the editing of the video, this department has rather perversely from this podium sought to claim that there is no determination as to whether or not the videos that the State Department shoots and uploads to the State Department website are in fact federal records,” came a question for Trudeau. “I believe you are aware that the National Archives and Records Administration has now weighed in on this subject… in collaboration with the State Department Office of Inspector General, and that both of those entities have now concluded that these are indeed federal records, just as I have been laboring to demonstrate in this setting for some time. What have you to say about that determination?”

Trudeau first replied that the State Department does “agree with NARA,” before hinting at the future of the records. She added that records can be treated as “permanent or temporary,” which must send red flags up to people hearing it. Her full answer also made it clear that all press briefings might not be permanently preserved.

“Records can be permanent or temporary, which I think you understand NARA had pointed out. The transcript is addressed in a disposition schedule on a permanent record. There is no disposition schedule as of right now that covers how the daily press briefing videos need to be preserved. We are working with NARA right now to create a disposition schedule for them, at which point it will be clarified if the videos will be temporary or permanent.”

The conversation at the State Department and the ongoing Clinton email probe simply conjures up visions of suspicious officials hiding things from citizens. Who can forget the 2005 decision to fine former NSA adviser Sandy Berger $50,000 after his illegal destruction of some documents and his removal of other “highly classified documents,” which was mentioned by CNN?

What happened after the court sentence was that Berger came out to make his obligatory apologies to the media.

“I deeply regret the actions that I took at the National Archives two years ago, and I accept the judgment of the court.”

But Trudeau last week was asked at the press briefing if “going forward,” as one reporter stated in the question to her, “tampering with one of these briefing videos would in fact be a crime, correct?”

Not happy to just say “yes” or “no,” Trudeau rambled into another answer.

“Well, what I would say is – and I also don’t want to establish what a crime is. What I will say is that we will set a disposition schedule; we’ll see if it will be temporary or permanent.”

The situation of reporter James Rosen came up then (see the Fox News exclusive on that video editing job by the State Department). Rosen had specifically confronted Jen Psaki “about the falsity of [Victoria] Nuland’s prior statement and asked if it was the policy of the State Department to lie in order to preserve ‘the secrecy of secret negotiations.'”

Mysteriously, the video of the conversation was replaced with a “white flash,” and the moment simply disappeared from the State Department’s website. So, whether or not press briefings are temporary or permanent may become a really big issue for citizens seeking information to hold their leaders accountable in the future it would appear.

“There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress,” Psaki said. “This is a good example of that.”

The State Department’s web page, per the Fox News report and the Alex Griswold story at Mediaite, for two years had “contained a version of the video in which that exchange was excised and replaced with a white flash.”

Switching topics to the ongoing Clinton email probe, Trudeau was asked about reports on the matter of Huma Abedin having left classified papers “in the pocket of a seat in a car, and then was reduced to asking another colleague to remove those papers from that location in Ms. Abedin’s absence from the car, and to store them in the trunk of that car. Did this conduct comport with State Department rules for the handling of classified information?”

Trudeau answered, “So I’ve read the article that you’re referencing. I’ve also read the emails. I’m loath to get into talking about specific emails.”

She added that the premise of the article was incorrect and did not initially answer the question as to whether or not the conduct revealed in these emails met State Dept. standards “for the handling of classified information.”

“We were – the email specifically references materials in a burn bag, and the story alleges that burn bags, which I think you’re all familiar with – they’re brown bags with stripes on it – can only be used for the disposal of classified information. It’s not the case. I use burn bags in my office for unclassified information all the time,” said Trudeau.

“As the regulations state,” Trudeau added, “sensitive but unclassified – what you guys would [h]ear as SBU – or personally identifiable information, PII documents, are often burned. It’s not accurate to say that any document going into a burn bag is a document that’s classified.”

The reporter and the press director then engaged in a discussion as to whether there was anything classified in this episode of the ongoing Clinton email probe. Another question was levied at Trudeau by the reporter.

“If the information contained in the back seat of this car was so innocuous, why was Ms. Abedin so urgently concerned with putting it in a trunk?”

“Well,” answered Trudeau, “I would say probably – and again – you know what, I don’t want to get too – because now I’m answering hypotheticals, and I shouldn’t do that.”

Getting nowhere on this, a final question was asked.

“To your knowledge, was Diplomatic Security ever alerted to this episode?”

“I have no information on that,” replied Trudeau. “I don’t.”

[Photo by Scott Applewhite/Pool/File/AP Images]