The collusion between the Department of State and the Clinton Foundation seems to have continued well beyond the time when Clinton was secretary of state. If anything, it is worse now and has grown to encompass the Clinton campaign. In fact, it appears that — at least in some regards — the State Department is little more than an extension of the campaign.
E-mails published by WikiLeaks show that the Clinton campaign has had at least one operative inside the State Department who has provided inside information to the campaign and helped steer things in ways that benefit the campaign. And as always, Hillary’s old friend Cheryl Mills is right there in the thick of it.
On April 15 while normal Americans were filing their taxes, Heather Samuelson — a lawyer who has been part of the Clinton camp since working on the 2008 campaign — sent an e-mail from her cdmillsgroup (a consulting firm owned by Cheryl Mills) e-mail address to Jennifer Palmieri’s (Hillary Clinton’s communications director) Gmail address. It is of note that the messages going back and forth about campaign business were not sent over the official campaign e-mail account. This, of course, is par for the course with Team Hillary.
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That e-mail was part of a thread going back at least to April 9, 2015, which included an e-mail from Kristina Schake (who was Michelle Obama’s communications director). The other recipients of the e-mail were Robby Mook, John Podesta, and Cheryl Mills herself. That e-mail was a heads-up that the State Department was planning to release Hillary’s Benghazi e-mails in the coming days — a fact that had not been released. The e-mail makes it clear that a “source” provided a “tip” to the campaign of what was — at that time — unknown outside of the State Department:
From: Kristina Schake
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2015 12:21 PM
To: Robby Mook, Jennifer Palmieri, Cheryl Mills, John Podesta, Heather Samuelson
Someone here just got a tip that the State Department may be planning to release her Benghazi emails tomorrow or Monday. Not sure the source is reliable. Has anyone heard anything about this?
As the thread continued, the collusion between the Department of State and the Clinton campaign becomes even clearer. Four days later, Heather Samuelson — who helped Hillary decide which e-mails to delete before abiding by the order to turn over her now infamous private e-mail server — replied with what appears to be an answer to the question “Has anyone heard anything about this?” Having had the weekend to look into it, she replied:
From: Heather Samuelson
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 3:51 PM
To: Kristina Schake, Robby Mook, Jennifer Palmieri, Cheryl Mills, John Podesta, Nick Merrill
Quick update on this — DOS [Department of State] says the release of the 300 will likely happen on Thurs or Friday. Will keep you posted as I hear anything further on my end. Thx
This is not the first time Heather Samuelson provided information to the campaign about internal decisions at the State Department. Another e-mail published by WikiLeaks, dated March 17, 2015 is even more damning:
From: Heather Samuelson [mailto:hsamuelson @cdmillsGroup.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2015 10:53 AM
To: Maura Pally; Craig Minassian; Philippe Reines; Nick Merrill; Jennifer Palmier I
Cc: Cheryl Mills; Tina Flournoy
Subject: JW FOIA | WJC Speeches
All — DOS is soon releasing another round of documents and email traffic (not hers) in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA request on DOS’s process for reviewing WJC’s speaking engagements.
It’s 116 pages with approx. 50 sponsor/subsponsor requests. No objections by DOS in this batch, but some lengthy internal discussions among DOS officials that I highlighted below.
There is one request where speaking fee would have been paid by Turkish govt — WJC’s office declined this. And one speaking engagement with fee from Canadian government, which he did do.
Let me know if you have any questions.
[Jen — happy to give you more background on prior releases since it’s your first go around]
Thx
Just how Samuelson came to know that the State Department would be releasing 116 pages of e-mails and what they contained is not known. But it is obvious that she had access to detailed information coming out of the State Department and that she made sure the campaign got that information.
But the e-mail thread from April 9-15, 2015 makes it clear that there was — and possibly still is — at least one “reliable” “source” within the State Department working to keep Team Hillary in the loop. The next message in the thread is also from Samuelson:
On Apr 15, 2015, at 3:15 PM, Heather Samuelson <hsamuelson @cdmillsgroup.com> wrote:
Latest: Still aiming for Friday, but potential it gets delayed until early next week because still moving through interagency review process. Will check back tomorrow and keep you posted.
The collusion between all things Clinton and the State Department reaches out to the mainstream media, as well. Before helping out with the Clinton Campaign, Jennifer Palmieri was the director of communications at the White House. Two weeks before she left that job, Palmieri acted on behalf of the Clinton campaign to kill a story about Clinton’s e-mail scandal by making sure that Secretary of State John Kerry would not be asked about it on CBS’s Face the Nation. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that right after the story broke of Clinton’s misuse of private e-mail to send and receive classified information:
Ten days after the story broke, White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri emailed State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki to ask, “between us on the shows … think we can get this done so he is not asked about email.” That apparently referred to Mr. Kerry, who appeared in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” three days later.
Ms. Palmieri had previously announced she would be leaving the administration to join Mrs. Clinton’s campaign in mid-2015, but was still at the White House when she sent the email. Other emails show Ms. Palmieri helped arrange for Ms. Psaki to move from the State Department to the White House communications job Ms. Palmieri was vacating. “Agree completely and working to crush on my end,” wrote back Ms. Psaki, who would move to the White House weeks later.
A day later, Ms. Psaki added, “Good to go on killing CBS idea.” She continued, “And we are going to hold on any other TV options just given the swirl of crap out there.” Mr. Kerry wasn’t asked on CBS about the email server, though it isn’t clear how Ms. Psaki could have guaranteed that.
Teased by Ms. Palmieri about her use of the phrase “swirl of crap,” Ms. Psaki wrote back: “Ha I mean — the challenging stories out there.”
The collusion between the State Department and the Clinton campaign — along with the help of the mainstream media — demands that some reasonable questions be asked:
• Is Hillary Clinton still running the State Department for her own purposes?
• Is the State Department merely an adjunct of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton campaign?
• Is the incestuous relationship between the Clinton campaign/Clinton Foundation and the State Department the real reason both Mills and Samuelson were given immunity in the e-mail investigation?
• Is that incestuous relationship also the reason Hillary — while clearly guilty of knowingly violating federal laws and risking national security — was not indicted?
Two things are nearly certain: If Hillary wins in November, a new era of corruption and lawlessness will reign from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And the mainstream media will not behave like like the watchdogs they pretend to be. Instead, they will likely settle into Clinton’s lap for a nice long nap. After all, they will have earned it.