Saturday Politics : Hillary & Hacks Defend Emails and Clinton Foundation Pay-for-Play While America Holds Its Nose

Saturday Politics is often about the time bomb that is Hillary & Hacks -- ticking over America and threatening to destroy it. ~~~~~~ THE EMAILS. Last week a federal judge ordered the State Department to accelerate its production of nearly 15,000 previously-unreleased emails uncovered by the FBI. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg on Monday ordered the FBI to complete the first part of the process in a month’s time. On September 23, the court will convene to set a release schedule for the documents. The State Department is under intense pressure from Republicans to release the full set of new emails before the November 8 election. Experts and Hillary Hacks have been estimating that the first batch likely won't be released until mid-October -- just weeks before Americans head to the polls. It is not clear what the emails contain. All we know is that they weren't in the original set of 30,000 emails Clinton voluntarily turned over to the State Department in 2014, after she deleted 30,000 emails prior to turning over the other half , arguing that they were personal correspondences. ~~~~~~ The latest 14,900 emails were discovered by the FBI during their investigation into whether Clinton illegally transmitted classified information through her private server. In July, Director James Comey said investigators uncovered “several thousand” work-related emails that were not in those Clinton returned to State. Investigators pieced together the deleted emails from Clinton’s correspondence with other officials and reconstructed “fragments” from old servers and machines connected to her email domain. Many questions have not been answered about the emails. Self-styled experts have argued that the process and timing for handling them is complex. But, the FBI has committed to releasing the documents under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from Judicial Watch, and must first eliminate personal emails and duplicates of the 30,000 it already had. Then, State Department authorities must read through the emails to determine which ones are subject to the FOIA request and redact any classified information. State Department lawyers say State's part of the process is extremely time-consuming, especially if there are many emails to review and redact. Government lawyers are likely to push for as much time as they can get during the September hearing. Judicial Watch continues to accuse the FBI of slow-walking the release to guard Clinton against damaging revelations on the eve of the election. JW president Tom Fitton told TheHill : “Our concern is that politics will intrude upon the process and as, they’ve already done, delay the records unnecessarily,” calling State’s arguments that reviewing the documents is resource-intensive “ridiculous.” Fitton added : “Evidently they’re more concerned with not hurting Mrs. Clinton’s election prospects as opposed to complying with the Freedom of Information Act.” BUT, Hillary & Hacks got a surprise late this week when Judge Boasberg ordered the State Department to start releasing the additional 15,000 emails uncovered during the FBI's investigation into former Secretary Hillary Clinton's private server starting on Septembr 13, according to Reuters. The date is a full month earlier than agency officials had hoped to begin the release. ~~~~~~ The release of the 14,900 additional documents occurred on the same day, Monday, that the release of another set of emails exposed very close ties between Clinton’s staff and the Clinton Foundation during her tenure as Secretary of State -- just the latest development in a long controversy Hillary & Hacks have tried to ignore. That release from Judicial Watch, concerning the Clinton Foundation, led to heightened allegations that she ran a “pay-for-play” operation while in office. GOP nominee Donald Trump pounded Clinton over the emails Thursday night during an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper saying : "She should be in jail. You know it. The FBI knows it. We all do." The Justice Department cleared Clinton of illegally mishandling classified information, but Comey still damned her use of the server as “reckless.” On Tuesday, Trump called for the Justice Department to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate her. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has also repeatedly demanded the emails be released prior to the election. ~~~~~~ Bradley Moss, a lawyer who specializes in matters related to open records laws, told TheHill : "What everyone wants to know is, will any of the information [in the new emails] be deemed classified? Because that would be just one more nail in the proverbial coffin for Hillary.” Clinton’s campaign has claimed not to know what’s in the newly uncovered emails. Spokesman Brian Fallon said : "As we have always said, Hillary Clinton provided the State Department with all the work-related emails she had in her possession in 2014. We are not sure what additional materials the Justice Department may have located, but if the State Department determines any of them to be work-related, then obviously we support those documents being released publicly as well." ~~~~~~ THE FOUNDATION. FBI Director Comey famously said he could find no intent to break the law on Hillary's part by her use of a secret unsecured server that transmitted classified information. The new Foundation-related batch of emails may actually provide intent, showing that the emails were deliberately concealed as part of a Hillary-and-Bill scam using the Clinton Foundation as conduit for pay-to-play with Secretary of State Hillary. That wuold make the setting up of her private server and lying to Congress and the FBI part of a cover-up of criminal activities. ~~~~~~ And, TheHill published an article by contributor Kenneth R. Timmerman that suggests that "the Clinton campaign is attempting once again to sweep important questions under the rug about top aide Huma Abedin, her family ties to the Moslem Brotherhood and to Saudi Arabia, and her role in the ballooning Clinton email scandal." The New York Post published a detailed investigative piece last weekend about Abedin’s work at the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs from 1995 through 2008, a sharia law journal whose editor-in-chief was Abedin’s own mother. Huma Abedin was for many years listed as an associate editor of the London-based publication and wrote for the journal while working as an intern in the Clinton White House in the mid-1990s. Her mother, Saleha Abedin, sits on the Presidency Staff Council of the International Islamic Council for Da’wa and Relief, a group that is chaired by the leader of the Moslem Brotherhood, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Timmerman says : "Perhaps recognizing how offensive such ties will be to voters concerned over future terrorist attacks on this country by radical Moslems professing allegiance to Sharia law, the Clinton campaign on Monday tried to downplay Ms. Abedin’s involvement in the Journal and the Moslem Brotherhood. The Clinton surrogate group Media Matters claimed predictably there was “no evidence” that Ms. Abedin or her family had ties to the Moslem Brotherhood, and that Trump campaign staffers who spoke of these ties were conspiracy theorists. To debunk the evidence, Media Matters pointed to a Snopes.com “fact-check” piece that cited as its sole source...Senator John McCain, who met Libyan militia leader Abdelkarim Belhaj, a known al-Qaida associate, and saluted him as “my hero” during a 2011 visit to Benghazi. Further, Senator McCain and others roundly criticized Representative Michele Bachmann in 2012 when she and four members of the House Permanent Select Committee Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee cited Ms. Abedin in letters sent to the Inspectors General of the Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, warning about Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the United States government." Timmerman adds that after being criticized, Bachmann laid out the evidence in a 16-page memo, which has never been refuted by Senator McCain or the elite media. Timmerman says : "The evidence, in my opinion, is overwhelming: Huma Abedin is nothing short of a Moslem Brotherhood princess, born into an illustrious family of Brotherhood leaders. Her father, Syed Zaynul Abedin, was a professor in Saudi Arabia who founded the Institute for Moslem Minority Affairs, an institution established by the Government of Saudi Arabia with the support of the Moslem World League. The oslem World League was “perhaps the most significant Moslem Brotherhood organization in the world,” according to former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy. Its then-General Secretary, Umar Nasif, founded the Rabita Trust, “which is formally designated as a foreign terrorist organization under American law due to its support of al-Qaida,” McCarthy wrote. Timmerman says : "That is not guilt by association but what federal prosecutors would call a 'nexus' of like-minded people who shared the same goals. A Saudi government document inspired by Ms. Abedin’s father explains the concept of “Muslim Minority Affairs,” the title of the Journal Mr. Abedin founded, and its goal to 'establish a global Sharia in our modern times.' Simply put, Huma Abedin worked for thirteen years as part of an enterprise whose explicit goal was to conquer the West in the name of Islam. No wonder the Clinton campaign wants to sweep this issue under the rug." Hillary Clinton has referred to Huma Abedin as her “second daughter.” Whether it was because of this, or for some other reason, Clinton has, according to Timmerman, "done much to further the Moslem Brotherhood agenda while Secretary of State, and can be counted on doing more as President. As Secretary of State, she relentlessly pushed the overthrow of Libyan leader Mohammar Qaddafi, a dire enemy of the Brotherhood, even when President Obama and his Secretary of Defense were reluctant to go to war. Along with Obama, she pushed for the overthrow of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and his replacement by Moslem Brotherhood leader Mohammad Morsi. She pushed for direct US involvement in the Syrian civil war, including the arming of Syrian rebels allied with al-Qaida." ~~~~~~ New Abedin emails released to Judicial Watch this week show that Huma Abedin served as liaison between Clinton Foundation donors, including foreign governments, and the State Department. When foreign donors had difficulties in getting appointments with Clinton through normal State Department channels, Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band would email Huma Abedin, and the meetings would be quickly scheduled. Donald Trump has criticized this as “pay-for-play.” Can Americans vote for Hillary Clinotn to be President, knowing she will have even more power to aid the Moslem Brotherhood and impose its sharia agenda on America? [Timmerman is a Donald Trump supporter. He was the 2012 Republican Congressional nominee for MD-8 and is the author of "Deception:The Making of the YouTube Video Hillary & Obama Blamed for Benghazi," published by Post Hill Press.] ~~~~~~ Donald Trump is not the only one sounding the alarm over conflicts-of-interest urrounding Hillary Clinton's nonprofit Foundation. This week, government watchdog groups -- all of them champions of heightened transparency, campaign finance reform and other democratic priorities -- are also warning of potentially "very serious" conflicts of interest if the Clinton Foundation continues business as usual with Clinton in the White House. The transparency advocates are not calling for the Foundation to shut its doors, as Trump has done, but, they are urging the adoption of tough new firewalls to eliminate any perception that Clinton Foundation donors could use their wallets to gain undue access to a Hillary Clinton White House. Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, said Thursday : "The Clinton Foundation has posed a very serious conflict of interest for the entire time that it's existed. The conflicts of interest are very real, and that gives Trump some ammunition to throw at it, and we're going to hear about it [until the campaign ends]." Holman said Clinton's recent vow to bar all foreign and corporate donations to the Clinton Foundation if she wins the presidency is "a big, big step in the right direction," while many analysts say this would just be window-dressing and the Clinton pay-for-play scam would grow to new heights in a President Hillary White House. Holman also said : "The Clintons will have to snip all family ties to the Foundation, including the removal of Chelsea Clinton from the group's board -- a step the Clinton team said it's not ready to take. Chelsea Clinton's role on the board will only perpetuate the "pay-to-play" perceptions and accusations. As long as the Clinton Foundation is tied to the family," Holman said, 'very wealthy' people and special interests will try to find a way 'to throw money at the feet' of the Clinton family. And if Chelsea Clinton remains on the board -- especially if she retains a fundraising roll -- 'she would be the avenue.' Holman concluded : "If she really wants to get out from under the cloud, she should sever ties completely with the Foundation." Larry Noble, general counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, agreed. He warned that the State Department saga, even with no direct evidence that donors were given special access, has created "a very serious perception problem" that threatens to undermine the public's faith in the government and its institutions. Barring foreign and corporate donations to the Clinton Foundation is a start, he said, but that alone won't counteract appearances that the game is rigged. Noble said : "You'd still have large individual donations that could raise a question." Noble emphasized that the Clinton Foundation debate is illustrative of a larger systemic problem surrounding money in politics -- a system in which even the appearance that wealthy donors have special influence stirs distrust in the public's mind. Noble said : "Regardless of how well-founded a meeting is...the suspicion is always going to be there is some connection" to the donor's largess. In the case of the Clinton Foundation, I'd want to know what other safeguards they're going to have [to ensure] the Foundation is not being used as a conduit to get access to the White House. To do that, the Clintons must "sever all connections and not have any contact with the Foundation. I think the Foundation can still exist, but there are going to have to be a lot of safeguards there." ~~~~~~ Clinton Foundation conflict of interest charges exploded this week after the Associated Press reported that an outsized number of people "outside the government" who gained access to Clinton when she was State Secretary were donors to the Foundation -- "either personally or through companies or groups." Trump has repeated that "crooked Hillary" is simply too dishonest to merit the presidency : "She wants to sell out American security to the Clinton Foundation for a big, fat pile of cash," Trump said Wednesday during a speech in Jackson, Mississippi, "It's hard to tell where the Clinton Foundation ends and where the State Department begins." ~~~~~~ Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a letter Thursday to Secretary of State John Kerry. Chaffetz requested more information about State's relationship with the Clinton Foundation in the wake of reports that "give rise to a perception that access to our State Department's official resources were for sale." The response from Hillary & Hacks has been aggressive -- Clinton campaign officials asked the AP to remove a tweet announcing its story; they shot an email to reporters Wednesday highlighting a Vox analysis characterizing the AP story as "a mess" of inaccuracies. Brian Fallon, a top spokesman, has made the rounds on cable TV refuting the story; and other Clinton surrogates were employed Thursday for the same purpose. ~~~~~~ So, Hillary Clinton has been forced to play defense this week over the Clinton Foundation. In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday evening, she said her work as Secretary of State was “not influenced by outside forces. I know there’s a lot of smoke and there’s no fire,” she said. Aides and Democrats close to the Clinton campaign think their candidate can survive the recent pitfalls. As she faces increasing scrutiny, allies acknowledge it highlights the larger problem that looms over her campaign -- TRUST. David Axelrod, who served as Obama’s chief strategist said Wednesday on CNN : “There’s often smoke and that has followed her around like a cloud.” Other Democrats said the Foundation and email controversies are both problems for Clinton. Pollster John Zogby told Newsmax on Mondat that one group of voters that once supported President George W. Bush before defecting to back President Barack Obama is once again switching sides and getting behind Donald Trump. During an interview on "Newsmax Prime," Zogby told host J.D. Hayworth the race for the White House is "very, very close." "What's very interesting here is that initially, weekly Wal-Mart shoppers who we have been tracking for a decade and a half now, and NASCAR fans, were solidly with George W. Bush," said Zogby, whose most recent poll has Hillary Clinton leading Trump by 2 points. "And then their demographics actually changed in the last seven or eight years following the recession. They were solidly with Barack Obama in 2008 and in 2012. They're swinging back now, back over to Donald Trump." Asked about a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll that has Trump ahead by more than a point, Zogby said : "What it means obviously is the post-convention bounces are over. This is a very tight race. Whether a poll has Donald Trump up by actually 2 points in the last couple of hours in Southern California, or mine that has Hillary Clinton up by 2 points, the bottom line is this is a very, very close race right now." ~~~~~~ Dear readers, Donald Trump on Monday called for the Clinton Foundation to be shut down even before a potential Hillary Clinton presidency : "What they were doing during Crooked Hillary’s time as Secretary of State was wrong then, and it is wrong now. It must be shut down immediately. It is now clear that the Clinton Foundation is the most corrupt enterprise in political history." Trump, appearing on "Fox and Friends" on Monday morning, also called for the Foundation to return money from foreign countries with poor human rights records : "That money should be given back. They should not take that money." The Hillary & Hacks who say that nothing was actually "sold" while Hillary was Secretary of State are deliberately protecting her, or they are too naive to be taken seriously. And those who would like us to believe that the entire American system is corrupt, that every officeholder and administration sells favors, are pitifully mired in the Clintons' pals-to-all-who-love-us-and-in-danger-if-you-don't world and will not see the truth. America needs cleaning up, but the cleaning is not because every insider uses a Clinton pay-to-play scam -- they do not -- only Bill and Hillary have used public office for personal gain in a pay-to-play scam so destructive to America. The clean-up Donald Trump promises is related to streamlining bureaucracy, making the federal government work as it is supposed to under the Constitution so that Congress and the courts and the President have equal and separate roles, and electing officials who are "public servants" in the traditional sense, not pawns of special interests. The Clintons are scoundrels who have hijacked America for their personal financial gain. They will not succeed to "fool all the people" or even half of them on November 8. America will prevail.