A U.S. District Court judge has ordered that the U.S. State Department re-open its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, and to search for anything written about the Benghazi attack in 2012 that might be contained on the State Department’s email server, state.gov.
(Twitter)
District Court Judge Amit Mehta said the State Department did not do enough it looked for Benghazi-related emails that Clinton might have sent about the assault on the U.S. diplomatic compound. Four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, were killed during the Sept. 11, 2012, attack.
Kris “Tanto” Paronto said it was about time the State Department answer for this. Paronto is a former Army Ranger from 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and private security contractor who has deployed to several parts of the world. Paronto has performed low-profile security in high-threat environments and was one of the heroes during the Benghazi attacks in 2012.
“Hillary is a criminal, and individuals within the State Department continually protecting her are criminaln as well. All need to be held accountable – for the failed overthrow and occupation of Libya, for supporting terrorists who they classified as freedom fighters, for violating national security, for lying to family members of my fallen brothers and the American people, and for leaving us to die,” Paronto told American Military News.
Clinton turned over about 30,000 emails to the State Department in 2014, following Freedom of Information Act requests. The requests came after officials discovered that Clinton had sent emails using her personal email account, rather than her secure government account, during her tenure as U.S. Secretary of State.
Clinton’s emails and email etiquette were a prominent talking point of the 2016 Presidential Election, when Clinton ran against and lost to Donald Trump.
The State Department found 348 Benghazi-related emails or documents during its investigation, which were sent during a period nearly five months after the attack, according to a report in Politico. This included a search of the thousands of emails that were handed over by Clinton’s aides – Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan – and also emails the FBI found when looking into Clinton’s private email account and email server, Politico said.
But, the numbers did not add up.
“To date, [the State Department] has searched only data compilations originating from outside sources – [then] Secretary Clinton, her former aides, and the FBI. … It has not, however, searched the one records system over which it has always had control and that is almost certain to contain some responsive records: the [State Department’s state.gov] email server,” Mehta wrote in a 10-page ruling that was issued this week.
“If Secretary Clinton sent an email about Benghazi to Abedin, Mills or Sullivan at his or her state.gov e-mail address, or if one of them sent an email to Secretary Clinton using his or her state.gov account, then [the State Department’s] server presumably would have captured and stored such an email.”
“Therefore, [the State Department] has an obligation to search its own server for responsive records,” Mehta added.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the judge’s decision, Politico said; while a U.S. Justice Department spokesman said: “We are reviewing the judge’s opinion and order.”
[revad2]
