NY Post Pushes Dubious Claim That Clinton Aides Improperly Circumvented Email Classification System

[SecularMotion]

The New York Post published a discredited conservative writer's thinly-sourced report that former State Department aides to Hillary Clinton illegally "cut and pasted" classified materials and sent them to Clinton's personal email. The report seems to be based solely on the claims of a former State Department official who has worked with the anti-Clinton organization Judicial Watch.

In his January 24 report, Paul Sperry, a visiting media fellow at the right-wing Hoover Institution, reported that "former State Department security officials" say that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is "investigating whether members of Hillary Clinton's inner circle 'cut and pasted' material from the government's classified network so that it could be sent to her private e-mail address." Sperry gave no indication how the unnamed former officials would have access to information about FBI investigations.

Citing no sources at all, Sperry claimed that the FBI is "zeroing in on" former Clinton State Department aides Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, and Jake Sullivan for their alleged involvement in improperly circumventing government classification systems.

The bulk of Sperry's piece consists of speculation from retired State Department Diplomatic Security agent Ray Fournier, who reportedly "says it's clear from some of the classified e-mails made public that someone on Clinton's staff essentially 'cut and pasted' content from classified cables into the messages sent to her." Fournier theorizes that "Clinton's staff would have simply retyped classified information from the systems into the non-classified system or taken a screen shot of the classified document"; he concludes, "either way, it's totally illegal."

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/01/24/ny-post-pushes-dubious-claim-that-clinton-aides/208136

[Iliyah]

1. Isn't that a RWer's newspaper

Thank the heavens Media Matters is on it.

[grasswire]

4. Media Matters is working for Hillary.

Did you not know that?

[riversedge]

7. A few months ago MM was posted by most all DU members as authoritative and now it seems they

are to be dissed and demeaned. Lets try to remember that media matters has always worked for the truth. --primarily against Fox and the RW.

[grasswire]

8. Sorry.

Since David Brock has put his thumb on the scale, I can no longer trust what MM might report regarding polilticians and elections and anything that might affect Democrats.

I have defended Brock for many years. No more.

[murielm99]

6. Now let's throw Media Matters under the bus.

Never mind that it has been a go-to source on DU for years.

[leveymg]

2. Note the source of this. attack the messenger hit piece: Clinton Campaign Captive

MMFA. Also noted that the substance of this article, similar to others published in recent days, isn't challenged or disproved by any facts.

[grasswire]

3. yes, David Brock's Media Matters.

I used to have a lot of respect for that watchdog site, until he started lying for Hillary.

[EdwardBernays]

5. Media Matters

Is run by David Brock and has long held ties to Hillary's campaign chairman... He even gave them their first office space. Hillary was also an official advisor to Media Matters.

[grasswire]

9. It is very sad that Brock has compromised the integrity of MMFA.

Very sad.

[Recursion]

10. Oddly enough the typing thing wouldn't always be illegal (though I certainly don't recommend it)

It's an example of how broken and Byzantine our classification system is. In the Marines we had interview notes that were unclass in their notebooks but the very same text was classified when entered into the company's laptop. We still in 2016 have a classification system that is primarily about documents rather than the information they contain.

[RiverLover]

11. Its not just the NYP reporting this

The Hill
Former AG: Clinton should be charged over classified emails
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/266691-former-ag-charge-clinton-for-mishandling-classified-docs

More than 1,300 emails released by the State Department from Clinton’s personal server have been classified at some level. This week, news leaked that the intelligence community inspector general has determined that the emails also contained information classified above top secret, on a “need-to-know” basis.

In his op-ed, Mukasey points to those revelations as well as indications that Clinton’s staffers rejected the idea of a State Department-run email address and that she asked an aide to send a “secure fax” via email.

“As the number of disclosed classified messages from Mrs. Clinton’s server has climbed above 1,300, her explanations have come to look increasingly improvisational and contrived,” he wrote.