Declassified Documents

Department of Justice (DOJ) Documents

 DOJ Communications with the FBI Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Investigation – [590 Pages, 30.1MB]

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Documents

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #1 [58 Pages, 38.2MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #2 [189 Pages, 48.2MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Releases #3-4 [100 Pages, 22.5MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #5 [299 Pages, 34.8MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #6 [178 Pages, 22.2MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #7-14 [505 Pages, 57.9MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #15-21 [505 Pages, 123MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #22-24 [769 Pages, 157.5MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #25-27 [374 Pages, 61.3MB]

 FBI Notes Regarding Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information – Release #28 [36 Pages, 3.5MB]

 James Comey Speech on Hillary E-Mail Scandal – All Drafts [7 Pages, 1.9MB]

State Department Documents

 State Department Documents Release #1 [44 Pages, 4.4MB] – These documents are in response to a FOIA I filed with the State Department, for records and emails relating to the halt of their investigation into the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. This is the first interim release, and this page will be updated as more records come in.

 State Department Documents Release #2 [55 Pages, 5.3MB] – This was the second and final release by the State Department — sent to me on September 14, 2017.

Additional Information

In March 2015, it became publicly known that Hillary Clinton, during her tenure as United States Secretary of State, had exclusively used her family’s private email server for official communications, rather than official State Department email accounts maintained on federal servers. Those official communications included thousands of emails that would later be marked classified by the State Department retroactively.

The controversy unfolded against the backdrop of Clinton’s 2016 presidential election campaign and hearings held by the United States House Select Committee on Benghazi. Some experts, officials, and members of Congress have contended that her use of private messaging system software and a private server violated State Department protocols and procedures, as well as federal laws and regulations governing record keeping. In response, Clinton has said that her use of personal email was in compliance with federal laws and State Department regulations, and that former secretaries of state had also maintained personal email accounts though not their own private email servers.

After allegations were raised that some of the emails in question contained classified information, an investigation was initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) regarding how classified information was handled on the Clinton server. 113 emails contained information which was classified at the time it was sent including 65 emails deemed “Secret” and 22 deemed “Top Secret.” Three contained markings indicating they could be classified, although they lacked classified headers and were only marked with a small “c” in parentheses, described as “portion markings” by FBI Director James Comey. Comey also said it was possible Clinton was not “technically sophisticated” enough to understand what the three classified markings meant. Nearly 2,100 emails on the server were retroactively marked as classified by the State Department. Government policy, reiterated in the non-disclosure agreement signed by Clinton as part of gaining her security clearance, is that sensitive information should be considered and handled as classified even if not marked as such.

In May 2016, the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General released an 83-page report about the State Department’s email practices, including Clinton’s. On July 5, 2016 upon concluding its investigation, the FBI stated that Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling her email system but recommended that no charges be filed against Clinton. On July 6, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that no charges would be filed. On July 7, the State Department reopened its probe into the email controversy. (Source: Wikipedia)

The post Hillary Clinton Email Scandal – Mishandling of Classified Information first appeared on The Black Vault.

Press Release from Department of Justice, published June 14, 2018:

Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today the release of a report examining various actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the DOJ in advance of the 2016 election in connection with the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server (referred to by the FBI and DOJ as the “Midyear” investigation).

The DOJ Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) findings are summarized in detail in the report’s Executive Summary, which is included below. The scope of the OIG’s review included:

– Allegations that DOJ or FBI policies or procedures were not followed in connection with, or in actions leading up to or related to, former FBI Director James Comey’s public announcement on July 5, 2016, and his letters to Congress on October 28 and November 6, 2016, and that certain underlying investigative decisions were based on improper considerations (Chapters 3-11);

– Allegations that DOJ and FBI employees improperly disclosed non-public information (Chapter 12, and as noted in our report, the OIG will separately report on related investigations as they are concluded, consistent with the Inspector General Act, other applicable statutes, and OIG policy);

– Allegations that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should have been recused from participating in certain investigative matters (Chapter 13);

– Allegations that former Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs, Peter Kadzik, improperly disclosed non-public information to the Clinton campaign and/or
should have been recused from participating in certain Clinton-related matters (Chapter 14); and

– Allegations that the timing of the FBI’s release of certain Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents on October 30 and November 1, 2016, and the use of a Twitter account to publicize
the same, were influenced by improper considerations (Chapter 15). During the course of the review, the OIG discovered text messages and instant messages between some FBI employees on the investigative team, conducted using FBI mobile devices and computers, that expressed statements of hostility toward then candidate Donald Trump and statements of support for Clinton. We also identified messages that expressed opinions that were critical of the conduct and quality of the investigation. We included in our review an assessment of these messages and actions by the FBI employees (Chapter 12, and as noted in our report, the OIG is preparing a separate report describing the OIG’s efforts to recover text messages during this review).

The OIG’s conclusions and nine recommendations to the DOJ and FBI appear in Chapter 16. The DOJ’s and FBI’s responses the OIG’s draft report are included in the report as attachments. As noted in the report, a non-public classified appendix was delivered to Congress, DOJ leadership, and the FBI. In addition, the report includes a non-public Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) appendix containing a version of Chapter 13 that includes LES information.

The OIG’s report is the result of more than 100 witness interviews, including former Director Comey, former Attorney General (AG) Loretta Lynch, former Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sally Yates, members of the former AG’s and DAG’s staffs, FBI agents and supervisors and DOJ attorneys and supervisors who conducted the Midyear investigation, personnel from the FBI’s New York Field Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York involved in the Anthony Weiner investigation, former and current members of the FBI’s senior executive leadership, and former President Bill Clinton. In addition, the OIG did an independent review of significantly more than 1.2 million documents, including interview reports, agent and attorney notes, memoranda, emails, text messages, and instant messages.

Please note that this review is separate from the review the OIG announced on March 28, 2018, concerning the DOJ’s and FBI’s compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court relating to a certain U.S. person. That review is ongoing and the OIG will issue a separate report relating to those issues at a future date when our investigative work is complete.

The Report

 A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election, June 2018 [568 Pages, 8.4MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/doj/2016_election_final_report_06-14-18_0.pdf

The post A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election, June 2018 first appeared on The Black Vault.