The Briefing Room
General Category => Trump Legal Investigations => Topic started by: PeteS in CA on July 30, 2019, 08:05:30 pm
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ACLJ Obtains Obama DOJ’s Immunity Agreements with Hillary Clinton Lawyers Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson to “Dispose†of Evidence and Refuse to Comply with Federal Law (https://aclj.org/government-corruption/aclj-obtains-obama-dojs-immunity-agreements-with-hillary-clinton-lawyers-cheryl-mills-and-heather-samuelson-to-dispose-of-evidence-and-refuse-to-comply-with-federal-law)
The ACLJ has just obtained previously unreleased documents related to the Clinton investigation and immunity agreements given to top Clinton aids. These agreements reveal that James Comey’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Loretta Lynch’s Department of Justice (DOJ) granted immunity to Hillary Clinton’s aids and lawyers, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, from prosecution for anything found on their laptops violating multiple felony criminal statutes governing the mishandling of classified information and/or the removal or destruction of records, including Espionage Act provisions. Further, the DOJ and FBI also agreed to evade the statutory requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by purporting to deem the contents of the laptops as not under DOJ or FBI “custody or control.â€
These laptops were critical to any meaningful investigation of Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified emails and records. According to the DOJ Inspector General, who identified these as the “culling laptops,†“[a]ll 62,320 emails pulled from the Clinton servers were stored at one time on these laptops.†Having taken control of these laptops, agreeing to severely limit its searches, agreeing to unlawfully shield the laptops from FOIA, then agreeing to dispose of the laptops, it appears the Comey FBI and Lynch DOJ did everything in their power to protect Clinton’s senior aids and lawyers from both criminal liability and public scrutiny.
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In these letters, we learn that the DOJ attempted to circumvent its statutory obligation to comply with the FOIA:
In voluntarily providing the Device, Cheryl Mills does not relinquish ownership or control over the Device, except for the FBI’s limited investigative use as specified by this agreement. The FBI does not assert custody and control over the Device or its contents for any other purpose, including any requests made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552.
The terms “custody and control†is a FOIA term of art. So, in other words, the DOJ/FBI purported or attempted to agree itself out of the requirements of FOIA, so that nothing on Mills’ or Samuelson’s culling laptops would be subject to FOIA. ...
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In other words, the DOJ voluntarily agreed to refuse to comply with the requirements of FOIA as to documents that were clearly within the purview of FOIA requests and had otherwise been prevented from being FOIA’d by being stored on Clinton’s private server.
This attempt to evade complying with the FOIA is especially troubling given the next fact revealed in these newly obtained documents.
The DOJ/FBI Agreed to “Dispose†of Mills’ and Samuelson’s “Culling Laptops.â€
The DOJ agreed that the FBI would “dispose†of Mills’ and Samuelson’s laptops after the search. According to the agreement:
As soon as the investigation is completed, and to the extent consistent with all FBI policies and applicable laws, including the Federal Records Act, the FBI will dispose of the Device and any printed or electronic materials resulting from your search.
In other words, after agreeing to limit its search of Mills’ laptop to (1) only a certain method of searching; (2) only for certain email-related files; and, (3) only files created within a certain time-frame, the DOJ/FBI agreed to dispose of the laptop – meaning anything else embarrassing, negative or potentially implicating on the laptop – including official State Department records – would be destroyed and never be exposed.
So, "legally", possession of Mills’ and Samuelson’s laptops never went to the FBI. The FBI just took them physically, did whatever they did, and destroyed the laptops. IOW, a legal fiction by which the laptops were not subject to FOIA and could be destroyed without violating FOIA, with any other, possibly incriminating (whether of Mills, Samuelson, or others), evidence also destroyed. Meanwhile, cold cases are being solved and wrongly convicted innocents are being freed, because police departments keep evidence on cases for decades.
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The American Center for Law and Justice.
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The American Center for Law and Justice.
That acronym was already familiar to me, but their name is in full at the bottom of the webpage I linked in the OP.
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That acronym was already familiar to me, but their name is in full at the bottom of the webpage I linked in the OP.
I'm not familiar with them, so I had to look them up.
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If bad man Trumpy say like Holder, Lynch, Mills, be like hiding and destryoing evidence, he be racist.
BTW could not Barr appoint a Special Investoator to look into democrat electionirregularities, since it was not "under the purview" of Meuller?
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I'm not familiar with them, so I had to look them up.
Got it. The ACLJ was founded in 1990 by Pat Robertson, who besides broadcasting apparently is also a law school grad. Since 1992 Jay Sekulow has been the ACLJ's Chief Counsel. Jay Sekulow is also one of Trump's attorneys.