The clock that has been ticking on the likely indictment of Hillary Clinton is winding down quickly. The New American reported Monday that the FBI has begun informing close associates of the former secretary of state that they will be interviewed as part of the investigation. Now, it appears that Clinton herself will soon have to answer questions, as well.
Al Jazeera America (AJAM) reported Wednesday that the FBI has completed its examination of Hillary Clinton‘s private, unsecured email server and is preparing to question the Democratic front-runner within days. David Shuster, reporting for AJAM’s Wednesday night broadcast said that “law enforcement officials tell Al Jazeera America the federal investigation into her personal email system while she was secretary of state has reached a critical stage,” and that:
The FBI, led by Director James Comey, has now finished examining Clinton’s private emails and home server. And the sources add that Comey’s FBI team has been joined by the Justice Department prosecutors. Together, they are now examining the evidence, analyzing relevant laws, and attempting to arrange interviews with key figures in the investigation.
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Of course, this is not a revelation; The New American reported Monday that:
With prosecutors and investigators calling Mrs. Clinton’s closest advisors and alerting them that they will be interviewed in the coming weeks, it looks like the clock is running out on any chance for the former secretary of state to shake this off before the end of the primaries. In fact, it begins to look like she could be a defendant instead of a contender.
James McJunkin, former head of the FBI’s Washington field office, said, “The interviews are critical to understand the volume of information they have accumulated. They are likely nearing the end of the investigation and the agents need to interview these people to put the information in context.” He added, “They will then spend time aligning these statements with other information, emails, classified documents, etc., to determine whether there is a prosecutable case.”
What is a revelation is that Shuster’s sources also told him that:
Those interviews, according to attorneys, will include former State Department aides Philippe Reines, Former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, and Clinton herself.
Soon after those interviews — in the next few days and weeks — officials expect Director Comey to make his recommendation to Attorney General Loretta Lynch about potential criminal charges.
So Clinton — who has denied all wrongdoing and dismissed the seriousness of her use of a private, unsecured server — may be questioned by investigators “in the next few days.” Even if she manages to dodge indictment, the questioning could hurt her in the primaries. If she does not dodge indictment, she could wind up in jail.
Whether Clinton would drop out of the race if indicted is anyone’s guess, since she refused to answer that question when asked in the eighth Democratic debate. Debate moderator Jorge Ramos of the Spanish-language network Univision asked the former secretary of state point-blank, “If you get indicted, will you drop out?” Instead of answering, she replied, “Oh for goodness — that’s not going to happen — I’m not even answering that question.”
Considering the seriousness of the charges that could be brought against her, news of her pending interview with FBI investigators should concern her. As this writer has previously reported:
Despite Hillary Clinton’s claims that she “did not send or receive any e-mails marked classified at the time,” the CIA says differently. Last September, when the investigation was just gaining steam, an intelligence review by the CIA confirmed that at least two e-mails had already been found that did contain information that was highly classified at the time when those e-mails were received by then-secretary Clinton. As The New American reported at the time:
The major e-mail in question deals with North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and contains information gathered via satellite and spy-plane photography. Such intelligence is treated extremely seriously and violations of those laws carry severe penalties. Even 18 US Code 793, which is part of the Espionage Act, allows conviction and up to 10 years imprisonment for anyone who “through gross negligence permits” classified intelligence “to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone” without proper clearance.
Since that time, her private, unsecured server was found to have held at least 2,079 classified e-mails. Some of those e-mails were so sensitive that they were not even allowed to be released in redacted form.
If Clinton is indicted, she will finally have to answer the question about dropping out of the race. If she is not indicted, the timing of the conclusion of this investigation assures that it will chase her all through the primaries.
Photo: Hillary Clinton
