Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her staff "knew exactly what they were doing" with her private email server, and "she is in deep legal jeopardy" after an email released Monday shows slain Ambassador Chris Stevens wanted to leave Benghazi for months before his death, ex-U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said Tuesday.
"They knew they were going over the line," Bolton told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Martha MacCallum. "That email and others that have been released demonstrate they know what was going on. If that's not specific intent for a prosecutor, I don't know what is. As a matter of law, the former secretary of state is in deep legal jeopardy and she should be."
The email in question was part of the last batch of messages to be released from Clinton's server,
reports Fox News, and shows that Stevens was planning on leaving Libya as its civil war grew at least 17 months before he was murdered in the Sept. 11, 2012 consulate attack.
The email, containing the subject line "Stevens update" and dated April 10, 2011, was sent by State Department official Timmy Davis out to top Clinton aides Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, who now serves as Clinton's presidential campaign top foreign adviser.
"The situation in Ajdabiya has worsened to the point where Stevens is considering departure from Benghazi," the email reads. "The envoy's delegation is currently doing a phased checkout (paying the hotel bills, moving some comms to the boat, etc).... He will wait 2-3 more hours, then revisit the decision on departure."
However, the email said that Stevens was trying to determine if the situation was irreversible, as "departure would send a significant political signal" that the United States had lost its faith in Libya's Transitional National Council, in place to oversee those trying to oust then-leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Abedin forwarded Davis' message to Clinton, Fox reports, but her response is not known.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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