“They’ve been playing a shell game with us,” said Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, about the tactics the State Department has used to conceal Hillary Clinton’s records. He was interviewed on Megyn Kelly’s show last night to discuss the possible legal ramifications of the discovery that Hillary Clinton used a private email account and server during her four-year term as Secretary of State.
Judicial Watch has vigorously pursued over 160 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information from the State Department and 20 lawsuits to demand that the department turn over documents. Ten lawsuits are still active.
Fitton explained that they’d dismissed one lawsuit because the State Department said they’d looked at Hillary Clinton’s office and found nothing.
“You know, they had an obligation to tell us they’re not only lying to us, they’re messing with the courts,” said Fitton. “This is a seven-year cover-up. The administration knew this from the beginning. As soon as she began using this e-mail account. And it’s not a private e-mail account.”
“It’s a government account that was disguised and hidden from the American people,” said Fitton. “So the idea her lawyers are going and checking these e-mails… the State Department or the Justice Department should go in and seize this account and make sure there’s no classified material that’s been mishandled or lost and no other records subject to the federal records laws have been mishandled…. there’s a criminal violation potentially here.”
According to Fitton, the State Department never revealed that they had not searched Hillary Clinton’s accounts. It only became obvious because there was no official letterhead at the top of the printouts that they received from their FOIA requests.
“The law requires those e-mail accounts be searched, and her concealing those records as I’m sure your other guests will note, this is something that a prosecutor ought to be looking into,” said Fitton.
“There’s severe penalties; people can go to jail for mishandling classified information,” said Fitton, pointing out that Hillary’s emails almost certainly contained classified or secret information.
“As I said [this is] a seven-year cover-up,” reiterated Fitton. “There are men in jail right now for doing less than what I think Mrs. Clinton [has] frankly admitted to doing which is setting up on purpose a secret account that no one could look at even though it was for government business.”