Hillary Clinton has — yet again — been found lying about her e-mails. Though Clinton claimed that she did not use her private, unsecured server for government business before March 2009, the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch reported Thursday on a batch of e-mails between Clinton and her close confidant, Cheryl Mills. Those previously undisclosed e-mails — and their contents — may spell serious trouble for the former secretary of state and current Democratic frontrunner.
In 2014, Mrs. Clinton claimed that she turned over all of her work-related e-mails, about 30,000. She also unilaterally deleted around 30,000 e-mails that she claimed were all personal. She also claimed that her use of the unsecured, home-brew server began in March 2009. The e-mails recently acquired and published online by Judicial Watch prove otherwise. First, they date back to February 13, 2009. And, they were never disclosed. The first e-mails in those released by the State Department are dated March 18, 2009.
This is not the first batch of e-mails found that contradict Mrs. Clinton’s account. The Hill reported in September of 2015 on an e-mail chain “between Clinton and retired Gen. David Petraeus that began before Clinton entered office and continued through to Feb. 1 [2015]. The chain of emails began on an earlier email system that Clinton used while serving in the Senate, but was reportedly transferred on to the clintonemail.com server.”
The difference here, though, is that these e-mails began on the system Clinton claims she was not yet using. And she tried to hide them. She may have had good reasons for never wanting these e-mails to see the light of day. They contain messages back and forth between then-secretary Clinton and her then-chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, as they discuss the process of having Mrs. Clinton’s personal BlackBerry secured so that she could use it, according to The Hill:
In the email released on Thursday, Mills told Clinton that an NSA official “indicated they could address our BB [BlackBerry] so that BB could work in” secure spaces, “based upon some modifications that could be done.”
“That’s good news,” Clinton responded.
Previous e-mails released as a result of Judicial Watch’s lawsuit have shown that the NSA dismissed initial attempts by Clinton’s team to secure her BlackBerry.
Tom Fitton, the head of Judicial Watch, released a statement saying the newly disclosed e-mails show that “contrary to her statement under oath suggesting otherwise, Hillary Clinton did not turn over all her government emails.” He added, “We also know why Hillary Clinton falsely suggests she didn’t use clintonemail.com account prior to March, 18, 2009 — because she didn’t want Americans to know about her February 13, 2009, email that shows that she knew her Blackberry and email use was not secure.”
Considering that she knew her mobile device was not secure, her continued use of it throughout her tenure as secretary of state amounts to a casual disregard for national security. Of course, coming from the woman who insisted on using her own unsecured e-mail server, this is no surprise.
It could serve as yet another charge in her likely indictment.
Photo of Hillary Clinton: Gage Skidmore
