Unpacking the Apparent Trump-Hillary Double Standard: For Her, the FBI Helped Obstruct Its Own Investigation | Investigative Reports

By Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations
September 15, 2022

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch obtained proof that a pc contractor working below the course of Hillary Clinton’s authorized group destroyed subpoenaed data that the former secretary of state saved on a personal e-mail server she initially stored at her New York dwelling, after which lied to investigators about it. Yet no fees had been introduced towards Clinton, her legal professionals, or her paid guide.

The leniency accorded to Clinton contrasts with latest strikes by Attorney General Merrick Garland to aggressively examine former President Trump and his legal professionals for allegedly obstructing investigators’ efforts to find subpoenaed data at his Florida dwelling. Legal consultants say the obvious double commonplace could present a helpful protection for Trump and his authorized group.

The therapy of Clinton included a take care of her protection group that required the FBI to, in impact, impede its personal investigation. During its 2016 probe, the bureau agreed along with her legal professionals’ calls for to destroy two laptop computer laborious drives containing subpoenaed proof instantly after trying to find recordsdata on them. They did so whereas the info was nonetheless being sought by congressional investigators and though the legal professionals had served below Clinton at the State Department and had been topics of the FBI’s investigation. In reality, the laptops had been theirs.

Long earlier than it bowed to the request, the FBI suspected Clinton’s legal professionals performed hide-and-seek with proof, making the concession that rather more baffling.

The scandal first erupted on March 2, 2015, when information broke that Clinton had secretly arrange a non-government e-mail server in the basement of her Chappaqua, N.Y., mansion in the weeks earlier than she began her job at Foggy Bottom in early 2009. She used the unauthorized and unsecured gadget to conduct official State Department enterprise – together with transmitting and storing categorized info – which allowed her to bypass legally mandated archiving of her authorities data.

The subsequent day, the House Select Committee on Benghazi despatched her lawyer David Kendall a letter advising his consumer to protect all digital data created since January 2009 and particularly to not delete any emails on her non-public server. The panel then issued a subpoena for data associated to the lethal terrorist assault on the U.S. consulate in Libya.

Three weeks later, on March 25, Kendall and former Clinton chief of workers Cheryl Mills, who additionally acted as her private lawyer, requested a pc contractor with Platte River Networks, which hosted Clinton’s secret e-mail server, to affix a convention name with them, in response to FBI paperwork. Over the subsequent week, the contractor, Paul Combetta, deleted the whole e-mail archive from Clinton’s server utilizing a software program program referred to as BleachBit, which digitally “shreds” recordsdata to forestall their restoration.

All informed, the paid Clinton agent scrubbed 31,830 emails from her server and backup recordsdata. In addition, he completely eliminated duplicates of the emails from the laptops of Mills and one other Clinton lawyer and aide, Heather Samuelson, the place in addition they had been saved. According to  FBI data, Combetta knew the paperwork he destroyed had been below subpoena. 

In July 2015, the FBI counterintelligence division opened a prison investigation, codenamed “Midyear Exam,” in response to a referral from the intelligence neighborhood inspector common regarding Clinton’s unsecure server. The FBI predicated the opening of the probe on the doable compromise of extremely categorized Sensitive Compartmented Information. Emails categorized at the SCI degree had been later discovered on Clinton’s server.

Some profession FBI brokers engaged on the case, which was tightly managed inside headquarters and deemed a “SIM,” or delicate investigative matter, thought that they had a slam-dunk case of obstruction, a key aggravating issue for prosecuting instances involving the mishandling of categorized info or authorities data. All they needed to do was get Combetta in a chair and strain him to implicate the high-level Clinton surrogates who informed him what they wished accomplished.

Several investigators believed “that Combetta’s truthful testimony was important for assessing prison intent for Clinton and different people, as a result of he would be capable to inform them whether or not Clinton’s attorneys — Mills, Samuelson or Kendall — had instructed him to delete emails,” in response to a 2018 report by the DOJ’s inspector common.

But throughout voluntary interviews with FBI brokers, Combetta falsely denied he had “deleted or purged” Clinton’s emails from the server or back-ups, and insisted Clinton’s authorized group by no means requested that he achieve this.

Combetta refused to speak to investigators about the essential March 2015 convention name with Clinton’s legal professionals that preceded his purge of proof, the solely matter he refused to talk about. So investigators and prosecutors agreed to offer him immunity and interview him once more. Still, they by no means acquired his account of the convention name. A written FBI abstract of the interview, often known as an FD-302 report, doesn’t reference the name, indicating that brokers did not comply with up on a key line of questioning in the investigation.

Investigators declined to pursue different points of the case as effectively. They obtained an e-mail through which Combetta informed a colleague he was a part of a “Hilary[sic] coverup operation” and mentioned he would elaborate later at a “occasion.” Asked about it, Combetta claimed he was simply joking; the FBI accepted his rationalization and didn’t seem to comply with up with the colleague to study what they mentioned at the occasion.

The FBI additionally accepted one other rationalization for why Combetta, utilizing the display screen title “stonetear,” sought technical help on the Reddit discussion board on the right way to “strip out” the e-mail addresses of a “VERY VIP” consumer from a “a bunch of archived e-mail,” in an obvious reference to Clinton. (After Internet sleuths revealed stonetear was a reputation Combetta utilized in different boards, he started scrubbing his posts from the internet.)

An FBI case supervisor informed the inspector common that “he believed Combetta ought to have been charged with false statements for mendacity a number of occasions,” in response to the IG report, however prosecutors refused to indict him. The FBI additionally obtained forensic proof from the server that would set up that Combetta made the deletions, however prosecutors balked at charging him with obstruction.

Then-FBI Director James Comey personally agreed with the DOJ determination to offer Combetta immunity reasonably than sweating him in a grand jury field, which generally is finished with topics who’re mendacity, to get them to inform the fact.

Comey was compelled to defend the deal in an October 2016 convention with FBI supervisors, who had been listening to complaints from rank-and-file brokers that headquarters handed out immunity offers “like sweet” to Clinton witnesses. Comey defined the bureau wasn’t concerned about prosecuting a small fish like Combetta, and sought solely to therapeutic massage him for info to “make a case on Hillary Clinton,” though inside FBI emails reveal Comey already had determined to let Clinton off the hook. He didn’t clarify why the contractor hadn’t been pressured extra with threats to convey fees towards him for mendacity to brokers, the conventional investigative methodology for getting such an uncooperative witness to show.

“With respect to Combetta, we discovered his actions in deleting Clinton’s emails in violation of a congressional subpoena and preservation order after which mendacity about it to the FBI to be significantly critical,” DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz mentioned in his report. “We requested the prosecutors why they selected to grant him immunity as a substitute of charging him with obstruction of justice.”

One DOJ prosecutor informed Horowitz’s investigators they wished to make Combetta “really feel comfy sufficient” that he would finally cooperate on his personal. Another mentioned they weren’t concerned about prosecuting a bit participant for mendacity and that doing so would simply bathroom down the investigation, which they had been speeding to wrap up “effectively earlier than” the November 2016 presidential election.

“I used to be involved that we might find yourself with obstruction instances towards some poor schmuck on the down that had a crappy lawyer who [was] hiding the ball,” the unidentified prosecutor mentioned.

“And so at the finish of the day, I used to be like, look, let’s immunize him. We’ve acquired to get from Point A to Point B. Point B is to make a prosecution determination about Hillary Clinton and her senior workers effectively earlier than the election if doable,” the prosecutor added. “And this man along with his dumb lawyer doing a little half-assed obstruction didn’t curiosity me. So I used to be completely in favor of giving him immunity.”

The prosecutors reported on to then-DOJ counterespionage official David Laufman, who would later play a key function in the discredited Russiagate probe, together with opening investigations on a number of Trump advisers and signing off on wiretap warrants focusing on at the very least one Trump aide, though he knew they had been based mostly on a fabricated file financed by the Clinton marketing campaign.

Prosecutors additionally gave Clinton aides Mills and Samuelson immunity offers, over the objections of some FBI investigators who wished to convey them earlier than a grand jury to elucidate their actions.

A handful of brokers additionally argued for issuing a search warrant to grab their private laptops, which they used to add all the emails from the Clinton server and cull away supposedly “private” messages that they claimed had been out of the attain of investigators. Instead, prosecutors opted to evaluation the laptops by an uncommon consent settlement, which restricted searches to sure recordsdata and particular dates – and nothing earlier than or after Clinton’s tenure as secretary, which put any e-mail exchanges with Combetta out of attain – and required the FBI to destroy the laborious drives after conducting the restricted search, in response to documents outlining the settlement.

“This is solely astonishing given the chance that proof on the laptops could be of curiosity to congressional investigators,” former Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and three different GOP congressional leaders complained in a letter to DOJ at the time.

In his discuss at the FBI convention, Comey defined that he needed to agree with prosecutors and protection legal professionals to restrict the search due to “enormous considerations” that attorney-client privilege and lawyer work product could possibly be found on the laptops, a priority that apparently did not register in the broad, sweeping search of Trump’s data. Agents scooped up at the very least 520 pages of attorney-client privileged info throughout their raid of Mar-a-Lago, in response to a federal decide who has ordered an impartial inspector to evaluation the seized data for privileged materials.

Mills and Samuelson, who agreed to reply solely a slender scope of questions to forestall investigators from soliciting privileged info, had been later allowed to sit down in on Clinton’s personal interview, which the FBI carried out after Comey had already drafted an announcement exonerating her of mishandling categorized info and obstructing justice. The director famously delivered the assertion in a July 5, 2016, press convention, proclaiming the FBI discovered “no proof” that Clinton’s emails had been “deliberately deleted in an effort to hide them.”

Trump Didn’t Get ‘the Same (Gentle) Treatment’

Grassley says the FBI “pulled its punches” investigating Clinton compared to Trump, who he says is being harshly investigated and prosecuted for the identical offenses.

“Trump has not been offered the identical (light) therapy given to Secretary Clinton and her associates,” Grassley asserted in a latest assertion. 

 

To make sure, the company has used extra intrusive strategies probing Trump for related allegations of mishandling categorized info and concealing paperwork below subpoena.

Unlike the Clinton probe, the place investigators and prosecutors sought to acquire proof by consent each time doable, the division has used a federal grand jury to subject subpoenas to Trump for 1000’s of paperwork, in addition to surveillance video footage, from his Palm Beach property. They additionally obtained a search warrant to raid his non-public workplace and household bedrooms. In addition to seizing greater than 11,000 paperwork, brokers confiscated some 1,800 private objects, together with items, picture albums, clothes, passports, and medical and tax data, in response to court records.

Clinton and her representatives had been spared such heavy-handed techniques and indignities, the senator identified.

“Even although Secretary Clinton and her attorneys didn’t hand over categorized data of their possession, they weren’t topic to a raid much like what occurred at Mar-a-Lago,” Grassley mentioned.

In the finish, computer-forensics investigators and intelligence analysts had been in a position to decide that at the very least 81 categorized e-mail chains had been transmitted and saved on Clinton’s unclassified private server. Their ranges ranged from CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET/SPECIAL ACCESS PROGRAM, a extremely delicate designation which makes entry to sure info restricted even to Secret and Top Secret clearance-holders with no “must know.” By comparability, the FBI recovered 100 paperwork with categorized markings from its raid of Trump’s dwelling. They vary in degree from CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET.

In a courtroom submitting final month, DOJ mentioned it developed proof that presidential data held in a basement storage room at Mar-a-Lago could have been hid or eliminated previous to a June go to by FBI brokers to select up categorized paperwork, suggesting doable makes an attempt to impede investigators.

Investigators issued a grand jury subpoena in May for the data and visited Mar-a-Lago on June 3 to select them up. When they acquired there, the submitting mentioned, a Trump lawyer handed them a big envelope containing paperwork. Another lawyer appearing as the official custodian of Trump’s data licensed in a sworn assertion that they carried out a “diligent” seek for categorized papers in response to the subpoena. Over the subsequent two months nevertheless, officers “developed proof that authorities data had been seemingly hid and faraway from the storage room and that efforts had been seemingly taken to impede the authorities’s investigation,” DOJ mentioned in its submitting, with out specifying what it believes was faraway from the room, or by whom. The affidavit defined that this suspicion is why it despatched some 30 armed brokers again to Mar-a-Lago early final month to conduct a large search of the property.

Prosecutors say the extra paperwork they discovered with categorized markings solid doubt on claims by Trump’s legal professionals that they had been absolutely cooperative with the subpoena. They are said to be focusing their investigation on Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, particularly, who allegedly acted as the custodian who signed the certification.

Bobb, who has not been charged with against the law, didn’t reply to requests for remark. Trump’s authorized group has informed the courtroom that the DOJ “considerably mischaracterized” the June assembly with Bobb and one other lawyer, however didn’t elaborate.

Laufman, the prime prosecutor in the Clinton case and a caustic critic of Trump in the media, believes Trump must also be frightened and “has vital prison publicity” to an obstruction rap. “Either [his lawyers] wittingly lied or they acquired that assurance from their consumer, through which case Trump has jeopardy,” Laufman, an Obama appointee and donor, informed Politico.

But at this level, investigators can solely speculate that paperwork had been deliberately moved or destroyed to keep away from compliance with subpoenas, which might be a felony. Legal consultants word that prosecutors had been cautious to say of their submitting that paperwork had been “seemingly” hid and that efforts had been “seemingly” taken to impede the investigation, indicating they nonetheless lack stable proof.

“It is just not clear from the submitting if the FBI has proof of intentional acts of concealment versus negligence,” George Washington University regulation professor Jonathan Turley mentioned.

By distinction, prosecutors had stable materials proof – together with emails, cellphone calls, work tickets and laptop forensics – that Clinton operatives conspired to not simply conceal however truly destroy paperwork below subpoena in violation of Section 1519 of the federal prison code, the identical statute cited by the FBI in its warrant to go looking Mar-a-Lago. It bars the destruction or falsification of any paperwork or supplies “with the intent to impede, impede or affect” an investigation.”

“Did Hillary Clinton violate 18 USC 1519 when emails from her non-public e-mail server had been destroyed throughout authorities investigation? Possibly, sure,” said Donald Skupsky, a lawyer specializing in authorities records-retention procedures.

“In December 2014, she did instruct her group to destroy remaining emails after 60 days. And finally, she by no means halted nor protested once more any data destruction,” he added. “Under 18 USC 1519, Clinton could have hid and coated up the destruction of data.”

Both the Trump and Clinton instances additionally invoke Section 2071, a federal statute which prohibits the willful concealment, elimination, or destruction of federal data. But in investigating Clinton’s homebrew server scheme, prosecutors declined to pursue a Section 2071 cost as a result of they argued the statute had “by no means been used to prosecute people for trying to keep away from Federal Records Act necessities by failing to make sure that authorities data are filed appropriately,” in response to the IG report. Some authorized consultants say the identical commonplace ought to apply to Trump, whom the DOJ mentioned tried to keep away from Presidential Records Act necessities.

Trump lawyer Jim Trusty mentioned Trump’s retention of allegedly categorized papers is akin to “an overdue library e-book” and complained that Biden administration prosecutors are holding him “to a unique commonplace than anybody else” as a result of he’s a Republican.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon earlier this month issued an injunction quickly barring the Justice Department from utilizing the seized materials in its espionage investigation till a Special Master can evaluation it for privileged and different info exterior the scope of the probe.

Despite the order, the obstruction a part of DOJ’s probe can transfer ahead. Among different issues, investigators can proceed to interview witnesses about whether or not subpoenaed paperwork had been moved or hid.

“DOJ is in the midst of an ongoing prison investigation pertaining to potential violations of the Espionage Act, in addition to obstruction of justice, 18 USC 1519, and illegal concealment or elimination of presidency data, 18 USC 2071,” DOJ chief counterintelligence prosecutor Jay Bratt acknowledged in a latest courtroom submitting.