Clinton Email Games Put Nation at Risk

The Clinton email scandal isn’t only about the subversion of the rule of law. It is about the nation’s security and, frankly, the safety of senior government officials.

Mrs. Clinton’s email games, ironically, may have put her own personal safety at risk.

If you have any doubt take a look at the more than 50 pages of new emails from the clintonemail.com server account of Huma Abedin, a former top aide to Hillary Clinton during her tenure in the State Department.

The emails discuss seemingly sensitive security and foreign affairs issues and raise questions about the handling of classified material.

The documents were obtained as result of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit seeking Huma Abedin’s government business emails conducted on non-state.gov email accounts (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:15-cv-00684)).

The emails were produced from a search of State Department records, as the agency continues to delay full production of records turned over by Ms. Abedin recently.

In 2012, then-Secretary of State Clinton traveled to Finland (June 27-28), Latvia (June 28), Russia (June 28-29), and Switzerland (June 29-30).

On June 26, 2012, former Principal Deputy Executive Secretary Pamela Quanrud writes to Abedin: "Huma – if I could lobby to get to Geneva on Friday night. We have a big data dump to get from beth jones and others there to prep for Saturday, and it would be a lot better for us to work through the night there (with access to classified) than be stuck in St. Pete with no classified at all."

Abedin responds from her huma@clintonemail.com account the next morning (June 27): "i had no idea about no comms … of course . . . we need secure . . . makes total sense."

Let’s think for a minute about why this matters and what kind of insight that gives us into how Clinton and her team operated in the U.S. State Department.

The emails show Abedin used the non-secure clintonemail.com server to discuss sensitive travel and operations security information that could have placed the personal security of Clinton and other government officials at risk, such as real-time location information while traveling abroad, such as hotel and travel arrangements.

On May 31, 2012, as Clinton and her State Department entourage are traveling in Scandinavia, Abedin writes to Clinton’s then-Special Assistant Lona J. Valmoro.

Abedin to Valmoro: “Let me know when u r leaving.”

Valmoro: “We are en route to airport now. Could we do during the 45 minute drive from Oslo airport to hotel. Everyone can dial into Ops and will have minis.”
Abedin: “When? Who’s in car with her?”

Valmoro: “Cheryl is with her now. If we are wheels up by 9:35 pm, land at 11:25, start call by 11:35 or 5:35 pm EDT?"

Abedin: “[I] could barely hear [Hillary Clinton] with the background.”

Can you imagine if these unsecure emails fell into the hands of bad guys? The threat to the safety of top public officials, especially Mrs. Clinton, could have been enormous.

On June 25, 2012, Abedin writes that she is willing to discuss travel details while on a “packed train.” With the subject line “Could we get on the phone together at 11:30 – in advance of the [Russia] trip call?”

Abedin writes to several people, including Quanrud: "I see call got moved to noon. We can talk right before then if you want. All shuttles were canceled this morning and I am sitting on a packed train so hard for me to talk but we can def do calls."

On Aug. 8, in response to another JW FOIA lawsuit, Clinton was forced to file a sworn declaration in which she claimed to have turned over to the agency “all my e-mails on clintonemail.com” and conceded “Huma Abedin did have such an account which was used at times for government business.”

Again, neither the State Department, Clinton, nor Abedin has provided information about the status of Abedin’s emails (or the emails of any other government employee) on the clintonemail.com server.

What conclusions can we draw from this?

These emails Judicial Watch forced out through a federal lawsuit show that Huma Abedin used her separate clintonemail.com account to conduct the most sensitive government business, endangering not only her safety but the safety of Hillary Clinton and countless others.

And why on Earth would Ms. Abedin and Mrs. Clinton recklessly use this unsecure system to discuss foreign affairs and sensitive matters such as the Syria conflict?
Hillary Clinton’s email games were a danger to the nation’s security.


Tom Fitton is the president of Judicial Watch. He is a nationally recognized expert on government corruption. A former talk radio and television host and analyst, Tom is well known across the country as a national spokesperson for the conservative cause. He has been quoted in Time, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and most every other major newspaper in the country. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.