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Reports Say President Obama Used Pseudonym In Emails To Clinton

By Becky Barton
Published on: 12:35 PST, Sep 25, 2016

On Friday, the FBI released reports that say President Barack Obama used a pseudonym in emails to Hillary Clinton during her term as Secretary of State.

Huma Abedin, aide to Clinton, participated in an interview in April with the FBI. The interview included documentation that the president used this pseudonym in secret on more than one occasion. Records of almost 200 pages were reviewed during the investigation into the alleged pseudonym.

Washington Times reported that one of the pages discussed the part of the interview with Abedin in which the FBI showed her an email address that they believed was the pseudonym the president used.

The FBI summarized the April 2016 interview.

“Abedin did not recognize the name of the sender. Once informed that the sender’s name is believed to be a pseudonym used by the president, Abedin exclaimed ‘How is this not classified? Abedin then expressed her amazement at the president’s use of a pseudonym and asked if she could have a copy of the email.”

Clinton has been under investigation for release of classified information via email for months. Investigators released information in early September stating that no one could find, or analyze, the 10 plus Blackberry phones Clinton used during her Secretary of State tenure.

According to WTSP, one of Clinton’s aides, whose name was not released, said they were unaware that Clinton was operating with a personal server. However, the aide did say that it was unusual that emails from Clinton were labeled with “H.” The aide said that the State normally listed full names or email addresses, not from someone who used an initial or a pseudonym.

The FBI dug deeper into Abedin’s experience with Clinton and her communications during an extended interview. They asked for any information she had about any pseudonym used and general correspondence between Clinton and President Obama.

Abedin offered all the information she could in cooperation.

“The president received emails only from approved addresses… each time Clinton changed her primary email address, the White House had to be notified so that her communications would not be rejected.”

Investigators released several thousand emails from Clinton’s private email address. However, President Obama’s lawyers refused to allow any communication between him and Clinton to be released to the public, including any of the speculated correspondence in which the president used the alleged pseudonym.

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the State Department, said that the inspector found no evidence that President Obama used any pseudonym, nor that neither Clinton nor the president did anything wrong.

“We have been clear all along that our Freedom of Information Act review of former Secretary Clinton’s emails was a complex and multi-step process which included consultations with State Department policy experts and legal advisors, as well as other government agencies.”

Another aide to Clinton while she served as Secretary of State, told investigators that he also knew nothing of the secret emails.

“[The officer] must have had reason to believe it could be sent on an unclassified system… [Regarding the drone strike, the sender] may have believed the strike had already been reported by news outlets.”

The FBI issued a statement about Sullivan’s portion of the interview.

“Sullivan stated everyone he worked with at (State) worked hard while under pressure and used the best judgment they could to accomplish the mission.”

President Obama claimed that he was unaware of Clinton’s use of a secret email until it went public in news reports. However, if he used this pseudonym, that would mean he kept something secret during the initial investigations.

[Featured Image by Aude Guerrucci-Pool/Getty Images]

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