Witness in Email Probe Seen Leaving Clinton’s House on Day She Met With FBI
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff during the time Clinton was Secretary of State was spotted leaving Clinton’s residence on the same day Clinton was interviewed by the FBI about her email scandal.
Cheryl Mills, who has been called as a witness in the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server, was seen on video leaving Clinton’s home at about 10 a.m. No explanation was given for why a witness in the investigation would be meeting with Clinton.
Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton held a private meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch — a meeting that has been criticized as giving the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Clinton was interviewed by the FBI for over three hours Saturday. A statement noted the interview was voluntary, which meant she was not subpoenaed, but gave no details of what Clinton said.
In speaking to NBC later, Clinton said: “I’ve been eager to do it, and I was pleased to have the opportunity to assist the department in bringing its review to a conclusion.”
It is a crime to “knowingly” mishandle classified information other than through secure government channels or to permit the practice by “gross negligence.”
On Saturday, Clinton repeated what she has said in the past.
“I never received nor sent any material that was marked classified,” she told MSNBC.
Clinton’s interview with the FBI sparked reactions, coming as it did only three weeks before her expected nomination at the Democratic National Convention.
It is impossible for the FBI not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton. What she did was wrong! What Bill did was stupid!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2016
Trump followed that with a bit of rumor not confirmed by media accounts Saturday night.
It was just announced-by sources-that no charges will be brought against Crooked Hillary Clinton. Like I said, the system is totally rigged!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2016
The Republican National Committee said Clinton “has just taken the unprecedented step of becoming the first major party presidential candidate to be interviewed by the FBI as part of a criminal investigation surrounding her reckless conduct.”
The Clinton interview was hailed as a sign the FBI is near the end of its investigation. Writing for the Washington Post, Chris Cillizza noted that from here on in, the “when” matters almost as much as the “what.”
” .. if there is an indictment or even a harsh scolding in which the Justice Department implies Clinton knowingly and purposely skirted the law, the timing of all of this starts to matter. A lot,” he wrote Saturday.
“The closer the announcement comes to the start of the Democratic convention, the harder it is for Clinton to control. Clinton’s goal throughout this investigation has been to insist that she is totally innocent in this, that the entire email ‘controversy’ is a Republican witch hunt enabled by the media,” Cillizza wrote.
“If, suddenly, the Justice Department of a Democratic administration shattered that story with just days left before the convention, the negative momentum it would cause might make it tough for Clinton to recover. There would be doubts bordering on panic about ‘What It All Means for Clinton’ going into the fall campaign, and she would have very little time to turn the story back in her favor,” he added. (For more from the author of “Witness in Email Probe Seen Leaving Clinton’s House on Day She Met With FBI” please click HERE)
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