James Comey considered a ‘bad choice’ for FBI post by Hillary Clinton aide
A senior aide to Hillary Clinton privately dismissed FBI Director James Comey as “a bad choice” in October 2015, according to newly released emails from WikiLeaks. The blunt assessment foreshadowed the dramatic tension that has escalated between Comey and the Democratic presidential candidate in the final days before the election. Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri forwarded to colleagues a news article in which the FBI director suggested that crime could be rising because police officers were becoming less aggressive as a result of the “Ferguson effect,” anti-police sentiment following unrest earlier that year in Ferguson, Missouri. Comey was widely criticized over the remarks. Palmieri wrote, “Get a big fat ‘I told you so’ on Comey being a bad choice.” She sent the email to Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, and to the private email address of someone who appeared to be White House spokesman Eric Schultz. Neither responded, and Palmieri did not appear to write further about the subject. Palmieri was the White House director of communications when Comey was appointed FBI director by President Barack Obama in September 2013. The release of the hacked email came days after Comey notified Congress that during an investigation of Clinton aide Huma Abedin‘s now-separated husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner, FBI agents found indications that a laptop used by Weiner contained some emails related to the FBI’s earlier probe of Clinton’s private computer server and emails. The disclosure roiled the presidential campaign, and last week Palmieri openly criticized Comey about the notification. “By taking this highly unusual, unprecedented action this close to the election, he put himself in the middle of the campaign,” Palmieri said of Comey. Comey had announced in July that he was recommending against criminal charges in the investigation of Clinton’s use of her private server, but the FBI director also delivered blistering criticism that Clinton and her colleagues at the State Department were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” The Palmieri email was among more than 2,000 messages newly published Thursday by WikiLeaks. The emails were hacked from Podesta’s private account. The U.S. government has said the Russian government was responsible, although WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said earlier in the day that no government or any other state parties had given the stolen emails to WikiLeaks. He offered no evidence to support his denials, and the wording of his statement did not rule out the possibility that the emails were obtained by a state actor and then provided to another party who then passed them to WikiLeaks. In another hacked email published Thursday, Palmieri told Podesta and longtime Clinton adviser Neera Tanden in June 2011 that it was time to “bust in that house and get Huma the hell out of there.” Palmieri was not explicit in the reference but it appears to have been prompted by the sexting scandal involving Weiner that forced him to resign from his New York congressional seat. Palmieri sent the email, which she titled “time to get in the hazmat suits,” the day before Weiner stepped down after admitting he had sent a sexually suggestive picture of himself to a 21-year-old woman over Twitter. A January 2016 email to Podesta included a message describing a pitch for a music television show involving former president Bill Clinton’s brother, Roger. “Think American Idol meets country music. A panel of judges will pick from the nation’s best undercover stars. Starring Roger Clinton,” said the message, forwarded to a Bill Clinton aide. The idea circulated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign aides, who refrained from commenting. Another email revealed that appearing on the season opener of “Saturday Night Live” took precedence over delivering the keynote dinner address for the annual gala of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT rights group – at least in the minds of Clinton’s campaign aides. Lining up an appearance on “SNL” was the Clinton campaign’s top effort for the fall 2015 television season. The campaign’s deputy communications director, Kristina Schake, called a “surprise guest spot” on the comedy series’ Oct. 3 show the “top ask” among television venues. “Talked to the producers,” Schake wrote in an email dated Aug. 6, 2015. “They will write a skit for her and want to confirm asap. Would need to skip the HRC Gala in DC that night, but this opportunity seems more important given the impact it would have.” As it turned out, Clinton managed to deliver a keynote address for the HRC gathering after all – during its Saturday breakfast in Washington. Vice President Joe Biden was the dinner’s keynote speaker. Clinton traveled to New York to appear on “SNL” as hoped, playing a bartender named Val who commiserates with Kate McKinnon‘s Clinton. Other TV shows the campaign sought for Clinton appearances, according to the email: “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” ”The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” ”Live with Kelly and Michael,” Charlie Rose‘s talk show and “CBS This Morning.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Found emails? Hillary Clinton aide didn’t delete old messages
The longtime Hillary Clinton aide at the center of a renewed FBI email investigation testified under oath four months ago she never deleted old emails, while promising in 2013 not to take sensitive files when she left the State Department. FBI Director James Comey notified Congress on Friday, less than two weeks before the election, that the emails had led agents to re-examine whether classified information was mishandled. That had been the focus of the bureau’s earlier criminal inquiry into the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server, which Comey said in July didn’t warrant charges. The newly discovered emails were on a device seized during a sexting investigation of disgraced former New York congressman, Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Huma Abedin, one of Clinton’s closest aides. Abedin’s testimony in a recent civil lawsuit about State Department records may help explain why agents found emails that Comey said “appear to be pertinent” and would be reviewed “to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation.” Abedin told lawyers in June in a deposition that, like millions of internet users who don’t manage their inboxes, she simply never deleted old emails, either at work with Clinton or at home with Weiner. “I didn’t have a practice of managing my mailbox other than leaving what was in there sitting in there,” Abedin said. “I didn’t go into my emails and delete State.gov emails. They just lived on my computer. That was my practice for all my email accounts. I didn’t have a particular form of organizing them. I had a few folders, but they were not deleted. They all stayed in whatever device I was using at the time or whatever desktop I was on at the time.” Abedin, vice chairwoman of Clinton’s presidential campaign, and Weiner separated this year after Weiner was caught in 2011, 2013 and again this year sending numerous woman sexually explicit text messages and photographs of himself undressed. Federal authorities in New York and North Carolina are investigating online communications between Weiner and a 15-year-old girl. Abedin’s testimony in the civil suit was complicated by a routine State Department document she signed under penalty of perjury in February 2013. She promised she would “turn over all classified or administratively controlled documents and materials” before she left her government job, and promised that she was not retaining copies, “including any diaries, memorandums of conversation or other documents of a personal nature.” The document required her to give back all “unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the government acquired by me while in the employ of the department.” Comey’s announcement Friday — just months after deciding that anyone’s use of Clinton’s private email server didn’t rise to criminal charges for mishandling or removal of classified information — upended the presidential campaigns in their final stretch before the Nov. 8 voter. Clinton urged the FBI to “explain this issue in question, whatever it is, without any delay.” Even within the Justice Department, officials advised Comey not to make the announcement. Upon learning of Comey’s plans to send the letter to Congress, Justice Department officials told FBI officials that was not a good idea and cautioned against it, according to a government official familiar with the discussions. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the private conversations and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said the Justice Department had warned the FBI that the letter was inconsistent with department policy intended to avoid the appearance of prosecutorial influence in elections. The position is laid out in a 2012 memo from then-Deputy Attorney General James Cole. It said prosecutors may never select the timing of criminal charges or investigative actions in a way that can be seen as affecting an election or giving a benefit or disadvantage to a candidate. The memo says that although the department has a strong interest in prosecuting election-related crimes, such as those involving campaign finance and patronage, employees must remain committed to fairness and political neutrality. “Simply put, politics must play no role in the decisions of federal investigators or prosecutors regarding any investigations or criminal charges,” the memo states. Comey told FBI employees later Friday he wanted to avoid creating “a misleading impression,” but believed he was obligated. “We don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed.” Comey wrote in a letter to staff. “I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record.” Even if any of the emails are judged to be classified, that would not necessarily indicate potential legal peril for anyone involved. The FBI already found scores of emails with classified information on Clinton’s server, but didn’t think the handling of the material rose to the level of a crime. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Hillary Clinton pushes back against ‘unprecedented’ new FBI review
Hillary Clinton lashed out Saturday at the FBI’s handling of a new email review, leading a chorus of Democratic leaders who declared the bureau’s actions just days before the election “unprecedented” and “deeply troubling.” Emboldened Republican rival Donald Trump seized on the reignited email controversy, hoping to raise new doubts about Clinton’s trustworthiness. Rallying supporters in Florida, Clinton pressed FBI Director James Comey to put out the “full and complete facts” about the review into a cache of recently discovered emails. Clinton backers panned Comey’s letter to Congress about the new emails as severely lacking crucial details. “It is pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election,” Clinton said. She accused Trump of using the issue to confuse and mislead voters in the final leg of the campaign for the Nov. 8 election. The controversy over Clinton’s email practices at the State Department has dogged her for more than a year. The former secretary of state has often been reluctant to weigh in on the matter — and defensive when she’s been pushed to do so. But Clinton’s approach to this latest flare-up is markedly different, underscoring worries that the matter could damage her standing with voters in the election’s final days. Clinton advisers have been rallying Democratic lawmakers and other supporters to her defense, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Earlier Saturday, Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said there was “no evidence of wrongdoing” in the new email review and “no indication this is even about Hillary.” But Comey, who enraged Republicans in the summer when he announced the FBI would not prosecute Clinton for her loose handling of official email, in fact said the new trove appeared to be “pertinent” to the Clinton email investigation. He did not explain how. A government official told The Associated Press on Saturday that the Justice Department had advised the FBI against telling Congress about the new developments in the Clinton investigation because of the potential fallout so close to the election. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and discussed it on condition of anonymity. Justice officials concluded the letter would be inconsistent with department policy that directs against investigative actions that could be seen as affecting an election or helping a particular candidate, the official said. Landing with a thud, the email issue again threatened to undermine an advantage built by Clinton, the Democratic nominee, over Trump and raised the possibility that the Republican might be able to seize late momentum. Trump told a crowd in Golden, Colorado, on Saturday that the FBI’s review of Clinton email practices raises “everybody’s deepest hope that justice, as last, can be properly delivered.” His crowd cheered Clinton’s email woes, which Trump has taken to calling the biggest political scandal since Watergate. The FBI is looking into whether there was classified information on a device belonging to Anthony Weiner, the disgraced ex-congressman who is separated from longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Comey, in his letter to Congress on Friday, said the FBI had recently come upon new emails while pursuing an unrelated case and was reviewing whether they were classified. A person familiar with the investigation, who lacked authority to discuss the matter publicly and insisted on anonymity, said the device that appears to be at the center of the new review was not a computer Weiner shared with Abedin. As a result, it was not a device searched for work-related emails at the time of the initial investigation. The person said “this is news to (Abedin)” that her emails would be on a computer belonging to her husband. The person added that if the emails included those related to Abedin’s work with Clinton at the State Department, they are expected to be duplicates of what she had already turned over as part of the initial investigation. Trump mused aloud during his rally about whether Clinton was “going to keep Huma,” adding that Abedin has “been a problem.” He hurled insults at Weiner, warning again that the former congressman posed a national security risk because of his access to information through his estranged wife. Abedin, a close Clinton confidant who is a near constant presence in the campaign, was not traveling with Clinton on Saturday. New York Rep. Gregory Meeks suggested the FBI chief might be trying to sway the election and called for him to disclose what he knows. Clinton herself said of Comey: “Put it all out on the table.” Long term, the development all but ensured that, even should Clinton win the White House, she would celebrate a victory under a cloud of investigation. Comey, who was appointed in 2013 to a 10-year term as FBI director, would still be on the job if Clinton wins the White House. Congressional Republicans have already promised years of investigations into Clinton’s private email system. And that’s only one of the email-related episodes facing her in the campaign’s closing days. The tens of thousands of confidential emails from Clinton campaign insiders that were hacked — her campaign blames Russia — and then released by WikiLeaks have provided a steady stream of questions about her policy positions, personnel choices and ties with her husband’s extensive charitable network and post-presidential pursuits. In his letter to congressional leaders Friday, Comey wrote only that new emails have emerged, prompting the agency to “take appropriate investigative steps” to review information that appeared pertinent to its previously closed investigation into Clinton private email system. Clinton’s campaign is hoping the issue will fire up its base of voters who feel the secretary has been unfairly targeted in a litany of investigations, but it could also revive some Clinton fatigue. Given a political gift from the FBI, Trump’s challenge now becomes avoiding any big missteps that might overshadow Clinton’s troubles over the campaign’s final days. If history is a guide, that won’t be easy. Inside Trump’s Colorado rally, his supporters worried whether he could stick to his message
Emails show concern over Bill Clinton’s Wall Street speech
Hillary Clinton‘s campaign asked former President Bill Clinton to cancel a speech to a Wall Street investment firm last year because of concerns that the Clintons might appear to be too cozy with Wall Street just as the former secretary of state was about to announce her White House bid, newly released emails show. Clinton aides say in hacked emails released Friday by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks that Hillary Clinton did not want her husband to cancel the speech, but after a “cool down period” was eventually convinced that canceling was the right step. Campaign manager Robby Mook said he realized canceling the lucrative speech would disappoint both Clintons but “it’s a very consequential unforced error and could plague us in stories for months.” The Clintons’ paid speeches have been an issue throughout the campaign, particularly Hillary Clinton’s private speeches to Wall Street firms. Hillary Clinton earned about $1.5 million in speaking fees before launching her presidential campaign, while Bill Clinton reaped more than $5 million from banking, tech and other corporate interests, according to financial documents filed by Hillary Clinton. The campaign has never released transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s speeches, but the hacked emails did reveal excerpts flagged by her advisers as potentially concerning. In the excerpts, Clinton talked about dreaming of “open trade and open borders” in the Western Hemisphere. She also says politicians sometimes need to have “both a public and a private position” on issues. Bill Clinton was scheduled to speak to Morgan Stanley executives in April 2015, a few days after his wife was set to launch her bid for president. “That’s begging for a bad rollout,” Mook wrote in a March 11, 2015, email. In a later email, Mook says he feels “very strongly that doing the speech is a mistake” with serious potential consequences for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. “People would (rightfully) ask how we let it happen.” Hillary Clinton was scheduled to campaign in Iowa, “where caucus-goers have a sharply more negative view of Wall Street than the rest of the electorate,” Mook wrote. “Wall Street ranks first for Iowans among a list of institutions that ‘take advantage of everyday Americans,’ scoring twice as high as the general election electorate. … This is a very big deal in my view.” Clinton’s longtime aide, Huma Abedin, assured Mook the next day that Clinton was fine with canceling the speech, especially if Bill Clinton agreed. The candidate “just needed a cool down period,” Abedin wrote. The emails were among thousands published this week by WikiLeaks, which has been releasing a series of emails hacked from the accounts of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. U.S. intelligence officials last week blamed the Russian government for a series of breaches intended to influence the presidential election. The Russians deny involvement. Podesta’s hacked messages offer insight into the various strategies and responses considered by those close to Clinton as they grappled with pitfalls in her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, including the 2009 decision to use a private email server while serving as secretary of state. In a separate email, Clinton aides discussed how to explain her 2001 support for an overhaul of the nation’s bankruptcy system. Sanders was citing past criticism by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as evidence of Clinton’s favoritism to Wall Street. Clinton defended the vote in a TV interview earlier this year, saying she pursued language to ensure women received child support if a spouse went into bankruptcy. In a Feb. 7 email, adviser Ann O’Leary noted that Clinton had overstated her case: “She said women groups were all pressuring her to vote for it. Evidence does not support that statement.” Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said Friday that the campaign has taken unspecified precautions to secure its emails. Asked whether officials were considering releasing all of Podesta’s emails at once, Palmieri said, “That is what the Russians would like us to do and we are not going to do that.” Emails released Friday also show that Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, used a second alias to communicate with her mother’s campaign: Anna James. Chelsea Clinton also used the alias Diane Reynolds, according to emails previously made public. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Huma Abedin, a top Hillary Clinton aide, is leaving husband Anthony Weiner amid new sexting scandal
Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin is done playing the good wife to Anthony Weiner, announcing Monday she is leaving the serially sexting ex-congressman after he was accused of sending raunchy photos and messages to yet another woman. Abedin, who as vice chair of Clinton’s campaign is destined for big things if the Democrat is elected president, stayed with Weiner after a sexting scandal led him to resign from Congress in 2011 and after a new outbreak of online misbehavior wrecked his bid for New York mayor in 2013. She didn’t leave even when a recent documentary blew up tense moments in their marriage to big-screen proportions. But on Monday, she effectively declared she had had enough. “After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” she said in a statement issued by the campaign. “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life.” The New York Post published photos late Sunday that it said Weiner had sent last year to a woman identified only as a “40-something divorcee” who lives in the West and supports Republican Donald Trump. The photos included two close-ups of Weiner’s bulging underpants. In one of the pictures, Weiner is lying on a bed with his toddler son while texting the woman, according to the Post. The tabloid also ran sexually suggestive messages that it said the two exchanged. Weiner told the Post that he and the woman “have been friends for some time.” “She has asked me not to comment except to say that our conversations were private, often included pictures of her nieces and nephews and my son and were always appropriate,” the 51-year-old Democrat told the newspaper. Weiner didn’t return a call, text or email from The Associated Press. He deleted his Twitter account Monday. The Post didn’t say how it obtained the photographs and messages. Abedin, 40, is a longtime Clinton aide and confidante who is often referred to as the candidate’s second daughter. Trump immediately seized on the aide’s marital split to accuse Clinton of “bad judgment.” He suggested that Weiner might have compromised national security, but offered no evidence to support the allegation. “I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information,” Trump said in a statement. “Who knows what he learned and who he told?” Abedin has been under scrutiny during the probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Federal prosecutors declined to file charges in the investigation, but FBI Director James Comey said Clinton and her aides had been “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information. Abedin began working for the former first lady as a White House intern and became a trusted aide as Clinton won a seat in the Senate representing New York in 2000, ran for president in 2008 and served as President Barack Obama‘s secretary of state. Former President Bill Clinton officiated when Abedin and Weiner married in 2010. The marriage would provide years of fodder for political commentators, armchair psychologists and spouses all over America who wondered: How could she stay with him? Abedin was pregnant with the couple’s son, Jordan, when a photo of a man’s bulging underpants appeared on Weiner’s Twitter account in 2011. After initially claiming his account was hacked, Weiner acknowledged inappropriate online communication with several women. Two years later, Abedin was all in for her husband’s mayoral bid, raising money, appearing on the campaign trail and participating in interviews in which the couple talked about rebuilding their trust and marriage. Then a new series of sexually explicit pictures and messages emerged, and Weiner was forced to acknowledge he kept sexting after he had resigned from Congress. Still, Abedin said, “I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and … we are moving forward.” Voters weren’t ready to forgive, however. Weiner lost the Democratic primary. Weiner has since remained in the public eye, commenting on politics on cable news shows. “Weiner,” the documentary offering a cringe-inducing inside view of his mayoral campaign and its unraveling, played in theaters earlier this year and is set to air on Showtime this fall. He recently refused to answer when asked whether he was still sexting, telling The New York Times Magazine in an interview published Aug. 16: “I’m not going to go down the path of talking about any of that.” Some psychology experts, while cautioning they haven’t treated him, suggested his behavior smacks of extreme impulsiveness, compulsion or addiction. “Impulsivity is something that a lot of people really struggle with,” said Jeannette Stern, a New York therapist. While there are various approaches people can try to change such behavior, she noted, “they have to really be willing to stop.” Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Legal group obtains previously-unreleased Hillary Clinton email exchanges
The State Department has turned over 44 previously-unreleased Hillary Clinton email exchanges that the Democratic presidential nominee failed to include among the 30,000 private messages she turned over to the government last year. They show her interacting with lobbyists, political and Clinton Foundation donors and business interests as secretary of state. The conservative legal group Judicial Watch obtained the emails as part of its lawsuit against the State Department. They cover Clinton’s first three months as secretary of state in early 2009, a period for which Clinton did not turn over any emails to the State Department last year. The government found the newly disclosed messages during a search of agency computer files from longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. In one instance, Clinton exchanged messages with a senior Morgan Stanley investment executive whom she met with later that year at her office in Washington. They were among 246 pages of Abedin messages turned over to Judicial Watch. Clinton campaign officials did not immediately answer questions about the issue. The emails are separate from a larger batch of several thousand work-related emails that FBI officials recovered from Clinton’s private server. Clinton’s legal team turned over more than 30,000 emails from her server to the State Department last March but only after deleting another 30,000 messages that Clinton’s team deemed private and personal. The FBI plans to turn over the reconstructed Clinton emails to the State Department for public release. The new Clinton emails include a February 2009 message to her from Stephen Roach, then-chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, saying he planned to testify to Congress that week and was “happy to help in any way I can.” Roach later met with Clinton over the summer for 30 minutes, according to Clinton calendars obtained by The Associated Press. In another email, Clinton’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, informed her that National Security Agency and State Department officials discussed an attempt to develop a modified blackberry for Clinton that might be used when she worked in a restricted State Department office that did not allow private phones. Clinton called the development “good news,” but she continued using a private Blackberry tied to her private server. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Mike Pence with Donald Trump on blocking some immigration
The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times local): 10:40 p.m. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence says he supports Donald Trump‘s call to “temporarily suspend immigration from countries where terrorists’ influence and impact represents a threat to the United States.” Pence spoke Friday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” giving his first TV interview since Trump invited him to join the Republican ticket for the White House. Last year, Pence came out against Trump’s proposed temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the United States, calling such a ban “offensive and unconstitutional.” Trump’s spokeswoman recently said he no longer supports his proposed religious test. Pence says he “stepped up without hesitation” when Trump asked him to be his running mate. He says Trump “understands the anxiety and the aspiration of the American people” like no leader since President Ronald Reagan. __ 9:10 p.m. Hillary Clinton is expressing support for the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after an attempted military coup rocked Turkey’s capital. The Democratic presidential candidate is urging “calm and respect for laws, institutions, and basic human rights and freedoms — and support for the democratically elected civilian government.” She says, “All parties should work to avoid further violence and bloodshed, and the safety of American citizens and diplomatic missions must be ensured.” Turkish officials say the government appears to have repelled the attempted coup following a night of explosions, air battles and gunfire across Ankara. __ 8:10 p.m. A leader of conservatives making a last-ditch attempt to block Donald Trump’s nomination says she’s dropping her effort to force the Republican National Convention to vote on her plan to let delegates back any presidential candidate they want. The convention rules committee has already rejected Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh‘s proposal to “unbind” delegates from the candidates they were committed to by state primaries and caucuses. Unruh had been saying that despite that defeat, she’d get enough support to force a full convention vote next week on her plan to let delegates vote their conscience. But she said Friday that the Trump campaign and party officials have peeled away that support. She says she and her supporters believe delegates already have the right to vote their conscience and will oppose Trump’s nomination. ___ 5:35 p.m. Donald Trump says the taxes he pays are a private matter. But for candidates auditioning to be his running mate, similar reluctance wasn’t an option. Vice presidential search finalist Newt Gingrich said Thursday that Trump’s campaign required him to submit more than a decade worth of tax returns as part of the vetting process. Vetting potential vice presidents’ tax returns is a standard practice for candidates in both parties — but Trump has so far refused to make his own returns public on the grounds that he is being audited by the Internal Revenue Service. But tax scholars and former IRS officials have noted there is no rule against releasing tax filings during audits and say Richard Nixon released his returns while under audit in 1973. __ 5:15 p.m. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro has met with Hillary Clinton at her Washington home as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee considers her choice for vice president. That’s according to a person familiar with the Friday gathering, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting. Two other senior Democrats also appeared to meet with Clinton on Friday. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper were seen in separate cars that departed Clinton’s home Friday afternoon. Clinton is also vetting Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine for the vice presidency and campaigned with him in his home state Thursday. Castro is considered a rising star in the party and is a former mayor of San Antonio. ___ 4:40 p.m. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has visited Hillary Clinton’s Washington home as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee ponders her choice for vice president. Hickenlooper was in a car that departed Clinton’s Washington home Friday afternoon. The Democratic governor declined to comment on his visit. The apparent meeting came after Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren visited Clinton’s house earlier Friday. Other candidates Clinton is known to be vetting are Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro. A person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters said earlier that Clinton was holding meetings Friday about her running mate selection. ___ 4 p.m. Delegates to the Republican National Convention are embracing Donald Trump‘s choice for vice president — even those who have yet to warm up to Trump. Some delegates hope the choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will help unite Republicans and fire up the party base to support Trump. Not everyone is on board. But at the very least, Trump has all but assured that next week’s convention vote for vice president will go smoothly. Pence has a strong reputation among fellow Republicans as a social conservative. The former congressman has plenty of Washington experience and a calm, thoughtful demeanor that stands in stark contrast to the bombastic Trump. New Hampshire delegate Tom Rath called Pence a solid pick who should reassure a lot of people in the party. __ 3:40 p.m. An application by Bernie Sanders‘ campaign for a permit to rally during the Democratic National Convention has been denied. A spokeswoman for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney says it was rejected because of the requested location in a park across from the convention site. She says the campaign sought to use a certain field that can only be used for recreational purposes. The application said the July 24 rally would be in support of Sanders’ campaign and estimated the crowd size at 15,000 to 40,000 people. Kenney’s spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, says it’s not too late for the campaign to apply for a different location, if it is still interested. Sanders said Friday he won’t be holding any large rallies during the July 25-28 convention, but will focus on attending smaller events and talking to delegates. __ 3:30 p.m.
Government seeks to limit questions in Hillary Clinton email case
Lawyers for the State Department have asked a federal judge to limit the scope of testimony about Hillary Clinton‘s use of a private email account as secretary of state. The government filed its response late Tuesday in a public records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal advocacy group. Federal District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan last month granted the group “limited discovery” into why the Democratic presidential front runner used an email server at her New York home while serving as the nation’s top diplomat. Judicial Watch wants to question eight current and former department staffers under oath, including top Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin. In its response, the government asked the judge to strictly limit the questions that can be asked to those involving the 2009 creation of Clinton’s private email system. Topics the government asked Sullivan to forbid include the “employment status of a single employee; the storage, handling, transmission, or protection of classified information, including cybersecurity issues; and questions about any pending investigations.” The FBI is investigating whether sensitive information that flowed through Clinton’s email server was mishandled. The inspectors general at the State Department and for U.S. intelligence agencies are separately investigating whether rules or laws were broken. There are also at least 38 civil lawsuits, including one filed by The Associated Press, seeking records related to Clinton’s time as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Critics of Clinton’s decision to rely on the private server have suggested it potentially made her communications more vulnerable to being stolen by hackers, including those working for foreign intelligence agencies. In response to public records requests, the State Department has released more than 52,000 pages of her work-related emails, a small percentage of which have been withheld because they contain information considered sensitive to national security. Thousands of additional emails have been withheld by Clinton, whose lawyers say they contain personal messages unrelated to her government service. Clinton has admitted on the campaign trail that her home-based email setup was a mistake, but insists she never sent or received any documents that were marked classified at the time. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Carly Fiorina’s campaign includes the rare job: “body woman”
In her six months working for Carly Fiorina, Rebecca Schieber has learned to always have a Sharpie pen handy for autographs. She’s found ways to order the right vegetable-loaded meals on the road and become an expert at whisking her boss out of a room. She’s still working on keeping the candidate’s favorite “crunchy gum” in her bulging bag. Fiorina’s Republican presidential campaign has served as a whirlwind political education for the 22-year-old, who graduated from Northwestern University in the spring. “I don’t think the books I read in college at all prepared me for this experience,” says Schieber, a native of the Chicago suburbs who studied political science and American studies before coming to work for the GOP’s lone female presidential candidate. Schieber has landed in a rare position on the presidential campaign trail— working as a “body woman.” The job isn’t to provide security, but rather to act as more of a personal assistant, adviser and sidekick. It is typically held by men, perhaps because most candidates in both parties are male. And this remains the kind of up-close-and-personal gig where gender still plays a role in hiring decisions. It’s not unusual for the aide to spend long days with the candidate, and late nights conferring in a hotel room. Perhaps the best known “body man” around is Reggie Love, the college basketball star who became President Barack Obama‘s aide in the 2008 campaign. He wrote of his experiences in a memoir: “Power Forward: My Presidential Education.” Huma Abedin, who held the role on Hillary Rodham Clinton‘s staff in the White House and during Clinton’s 2008 presidential race, is now a top adviser to Clinton’s 2016 campaign and travels with her frequently. Fiorina said that Schieber plays a key role in her campaign — and she’s aware if the message it sends. “Young women, I’m sure, look at Rebecca and say, ‘Wow isn’t that cool?’” Fiorina said. “And I think that’s great because it opens up another window of possibility for them.” Since Schieber joined the campaign in March, Fiorina has steadily risen in the pack of Republican candidates. Fiorina’s popularity surged after two strong debate performances, and polls show she is now in the top tier of candidates. She has also been among the most vocal critics of Clinton, arguing she is in the best position to take Clinton on in a general election. Schieber, a Republican who studied the 2012 presidential race at college, admits she didn’t know all that much about Fiorina when she first spoke to the campaign about the job. But she read the candidate’s books and started following the media coverage. Her responsibilities include whatever the candidate needs: minding the schedule, keeping Fiorina on time for events, helping remember names, taking photographs — and sometimes the impromptu sing-a-long in the car. Some things have gotten easier, like food. “Any day I can find a salad, a salad with extra vegetables, maybe a little goat cheese, those are good days,” Schieber said. In dealing with crowds and campaign events, Schieber’s secret weapon isn’t her academic credentials, but the social skills she picked up from her mother, who teaches etiquette classes. Schieber says that poise helps her when she has to cut off a meeting or talk over people who are older or more experienced. As the campaign heats up, Schieber is on the road a lot, but says her parents like the fact that “they can follow my life via Twitter and random news articles that I appear in the background.” After months of logging 12-hour days together on the road, Schieber is able to anticipate Fiorina’s needs. In Iowa recently, she toted two purses — her black bag and Fiorina’s brown one — as they attended tailgate festivities at the University of Iowa. Schieber had hairspray, mints, pantyhose, hand sanitizer, trail mix at the ready and alternated seamlessly between offering water, a pen or taking photographs as Fiorina shook hands and posed for photos. “I couldn’t do it without Rebecca. I really couldn’t,” Fiorina said. “She just takes on a set of things that I don’t have to worry about any more.” For now, wherever Fiorina is headed, Schieber says she’ll be right behind her. Next up, is to “be the personal assistant for the president of the United States.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
