July 18, 2016
In a Congressional hearing early this month with FBI Director Comey being the witness, the following exchange took place with Congressman Trey Gowdy (SC):
Gowdy: “Secretary Clinton said she never sent or received any classified information over her private email. Is that true?”
Comey: “Our investigation found that there was classified information sent…”
Gowdy: “So it was not true!”
Comey: “That’s what I said!”
Gowdy: “Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her emails either sent or received. Was that true?”
Comey: “That is not true…”
Gowdy: Secretary Clinton said I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material. Was that true?”
Comey: “No, there was classified material emailed.”
Gowdy: “Secretary Clinton said she used just one device. Was that true?”
Comey: “She used multiple devices during the four years of her term as Secretary of State.”
Gowdy: “Secretary Clinton said all work-related email were returned to the State Department. Was that true?”
Comey: “No. We found work-related emails, thousands, that were not returned.”
Gowdy: “Secretary Clinton said neither she or anyone else deleted work-related emails from her personal account. Was that true?”
Comey: “… we found traces of work-related emails on devices. … there is no doubt that there were work-related emails that were removed electronically from the email system.”
Gowdy: “Secretary Clinton said her lawyers read every one of the emails and were overly inclusive. Did her lawyers read the email content individually?”
Comey: “No.”
Gowdy: “…False exculpatory statements, they are used for what?”
Comey: “Well, either for substantive prosecution or evidence of intent in a criminal prosecution.”
Gowdy: “Exactly, intent and consciousness of guilt, right?”
Comey indicated that was correct.
Gowdy: “Two days ago you said that a reasonable person in her position should have known that a private email was no place to send and receive classified information. You are right, an average person does know not to do that. This is no average person. This is the former first lady, former United States Senator, and former Secretary of State that the President now contends is the most competent, qualified person to be President since Jefferson. “ Yet “She affirmatively rejected efforts to give her a state.gov account. She kept these private emails for almost two years and only turned them over to Congress because we found out she had a private email account. So you have a rogue email system set up… thousands of what we now know to be classified emails, some of which are known to be classified at the time…” and you don’t know whether her email server was hacked. And “this scheme took place over a long period of time and resulted in the destruction of public records.”
Early on, the three of us decided we would talk about ideas; not level personal attacks. In this case, however, there are clear character issues, long-term patterns of inappropriate behavior, deceptiveness, corruptness, and a lack of safeguarding national security. Although some may try branding us, we still must ask the question, "Can Hillary Clinton really be trusted with the powers of the Presidency and conducting the people’s business?"
Bill, Mark, and John
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