Judicial Watch has just released the deposition transcript of Hillary Clinton’s Chief of Staff, Ms. Cheryl Mills:

“I don’t know that I could articulate that there was a specific discussion as opposed to her continuation of the practice she had been using when she was a Senator. … I don’t have a specific memory of the conversations that may or may not have occurred. I know that I understood she was going to be using her personal email and that’s what she did.” [page 45]

“when she was a Senator“?  A “Senator“.  Oopsies.

Cheryl Mills (left) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (right)

Cheryl Mills testimony covered Clinton’s use of emails; whether FOIA searches were done of Clinton emails, information about the set-up of the Clinton email server; Mills’ communication with Clinton email witness Bryan Pagliano; Mills’ involvement in prior Clinton email controversies; and the handling of politically sensitive FOIA responses.  Mills’ attorneys directed her not to answer many questions.
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During one part of the deposition Cheryl Mills admits that none of the Clinton email was able to be captured by FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, because the State Department did not have access.  Excerpt: (more…)

Last Thursday Judicial Watch released the deposition transcript of Ambassador Lewis Lukens, former deputy assistant secretary of state and executive director of the State Department’s executive secretariat.
The transcript pdf is embedded below.
Lukens was deposed last week as part of the discovery granted to Judicial Watch by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in response to its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit involving former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s unsecured, non-government email system (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)). (more…)

In 2012 it was revealed that Obama administration officials used pseudonym email accounts to hide their communications.  EPA head Lisa Jackson became embroiled in a scandal when it was discovered that she subverted FOIA concerns by using an account under the name “Richard Windsor”, a name attributed to her dog.
Later, as the EPA scandal evolved, Lisa Jackson quit her position. 

Now, it appears that IRS official Lois Lerner was doing the exact same thing.  Using the email name “Toby Miles” to hide her in house, and ex parte, communication.  The IRS plot thickens.
WASHINGTON DC – The IRS admitted to a federal court there was a second personal email account that Lois Lerner, the official at the heart of the Tea Party targeting scandal, used to conduct agency business.
The email account apparently was set up under the name, “Toby Miles,” which sources tell Fox News is the name of Lerner’s dog.   (more…)

Pass the popcorn, stuff is finally getting serious…

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the U.S. State Department to request that Hillary Clinton and her top aides confirm, under penalty of perjury, that they have produced all government records in their possession, return any other government records immediately, and describe their use of Hillary Clinton’s email server to conduct government business.

[…]  The text of Judge Sullivan’s minute order, which was issued at 5:46 pm:

♦ As agreed by the parties at the July 31, 2015 status hearing, the Government shall produce a copy of the letters sent by the State Department to Mrs. Hillary Clinton, Ms. Huma Abedin and Ms. Cheryl Mills regarding the collection of government records in their possession.  These communications shall be posted on the docket forthwith.

(more…)

…The wind began to switch – the house, to pitch – and suddenly the legal hinges started to unhitch.

What happened then was rich. The lie began to pitch; the lawyers sniffed a snitch.  The courtroom took a slitch; landing on the Wicked Witch while hiding in her ditch.

Which was not a healthy sit-u-ation for the Wicked Witch….

Via Judicial Watch […] During the a status hearing today, Sullivan warned that the failure to follow his order was serious and the IRS and Justice Department’s excuses for not following his July 1 order were “indefensible, ridiculous, and absurd.”

He asked the IRS’ Justice Department lawyer Geoffrey Klimas, “Why didn’t the IRS comply” with his court order and “why shouldn’t the Court hold the Commissioner of the IRS in contempt.” Judge Sullivan referenced his contempt findings against Justice Department prosecutors in the prosecution of late Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and reminded the Justice Department attorney he had the ability to detain him for contempt. Warning he would tolerate no further disregard of his orders, Judge Sullivan said, “I will haul into court the IRS Commissioner to hold him personally into contempt.”

Judge Sullivan then immediately issued a “Minute Order“: (more…)

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that confirm that the IRS used donor lists to tax-exempt organizations to target those donors for audits.

The documents also show IRS officials specifically highlighted how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce may come under “high scrutiny” from the IRS.  The IRS produced the records in a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking documents about selection of individuals for audit-based application information on donor lists submitted by Tea Party and other 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organizations (Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service (No. 1:15-cv-00220)). (more…)

The DOJ’s use of the IRS to target political groups opposed to President Obama’s fundamental change policies remains one of the biggest scandals ever in the history of U.S. politics.  Yet few within the national media have ever attempted to broadcast the story.

(Via Daily Caller) The Internal Revenue Service found 6,400 more Lois Lerner emails — but they’re not handing them over in court.  The IRS’ latest excuses are nothing short of infuriating.

Department of Justice lawyers Geoffrey J. Klimas and Stephanie Sasarak, acting as counsel for the IRS, submitted a U.S. District Court filing June 12 in the case Judicial Watch v. Internal Revenue Service.

The court filing, provided to The Daily Caller, claims the IRS received new Lerner emails from the Treasury Department’s inspector general (TIGTA) but can’t fork over the emails to Judicial Watch, a nonprofit group suing to get the emails. Why? Because the IRS is busy making sure that none of the emails are duplicates  – you know, so as not to waste anyone’s time. (more…)

(Via The Hill) An inspector general investigating the IRS’s improper scrutiny of Tea Party groups has found thousands of emails from Lois Lerner, the agency official at the center of that controversy, according to committees involved in the probe.
Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) said it found roughly 6,400 emails either to or from Lerner from between 2004 and 2013 that it didn’t think the IRS had turned over to lawmakers, the congressional committees said. The committees have yet to examine the emails, aides on Capitol Hill said. (more…)

Overnight thread – Long video but worth watching if you have time.

Judicial Watch hosted a panel at its headquarters discussing Hillary Clinton’s email scandal with Joseph E. diGenova (Founding Partner, diGenova & Toensing, LLP), Daniel J. Metcalfe (Adjunct Professor of Law, American University), and Paul Orfanedes (Director of Litigation, Judicial Watch). Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch’s president, moderator.

As you read the following media report it is important to remember: ♦ Hillary Clinton has previously stated, unequivocally, that no classified communication traveled through her self-created personal communication network. 

So what exactly is there to review?  Either the U.S. government believes the statements by the Secretary of State to be true, or they do not.

Second, ♦ the government knowingly allowed the secret communication network to exist and allowed all the construction issues therein to take place.  Therefore the burden of any administrative compliance issue should reside upon them to reconcile expeditiously.

(The Washington Times) The Obama administration told a federal court Monday that it needs “several months” more to go through former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s government emails, saying it’s proving time-consuming to sort out exactly what information they can release to the public,

Justice Department lawyers also bristled at accusations that the government perpetrated a fraud by hiding the existence of the emails, as Mr. Obama’s team begins to fully grapple with the legal complications Mrs. Clinton has left them. (more…)