March 31, 2016

Hillary Won’t Shut Down Clinton Foundation Despite Major Ethical Concerns

Hillary Clinton says that instead of shutting down the Clinton Foundation while she runs for president, she will be “transparent” to avoid any ethical concerns that may arise from donations from Americans as well as foreign nationals who give to the foundation.

During MSNBC’s town hall event moderated by Rachel Maddow on Wednesday, Clinton said, “I would hate to lose that creativity, that imagination, that… extraordinary flexibility that the Clinton Foundation provides.”

Maddow asked Clinton, “Is there a case to be made, an ethical case to be made that the Clinton Foundation and the global initiative should essentially be wound down as a family foundation while you run for president?” 

The liberal MSNBC host noted that “the way that some of that work gets done is by soliciting donations from people in this country, from people around the world, from organizations around the world. I think it is not unreasonable to suspect that people may give donations to The Clinton Foundation hoping that they will favorably influence your opinion toward them, as a presidential candidate, or eventually as president if you’re elected.” 

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March 30, 2016

Trump, Cruz, Kasich ALL Back Down From RNC ‘Pledge’ To Support Republican Candidate ‘Regardless Of Who It Is’

All three U.S. Republican candidates – Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Donald Trump, and Gov. John Kasich – have backed down from their “pledges” to support the party’s candidate at the general election, “regardless of who it is”.

During CNN’s Town Hall event last night, host Anderson Cooper pressed the candidates on the pledge, which Donald Trump announced he signed in September 2015, with the other candidates pledging their support at the first Republican candidates’ debate.

Last night, Mr. Trump told Mr. Cooper, when asked if he continued to pledge for whoever the Republican nominee is, “No, I don’t anymore”, while both Mr. Cruz and Mr. Kasich implied their non-committal.

The pledge reads: “I, [candidate], affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for President of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is… I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”

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March 29, 2016

MSNBC Guest: There’s A ‘Higher Bar’ To Prosecute Hillary Because She’s ‘Running For President’

National Journal columnist Ron Fournier says “there is a higher bar you have to get over before you prosecute” Hillary Clinton because she is “running for president.”

As a panelist on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Monday, Fournier said that Clinton’s email scandal “plays into the this whole question that we really can’t trust her. That she’s been saying things like well, ‘They weren’t marked classified,’ when we all know, and voters understand, that really doesn’t matter.”

“Legally, though, there’s a big bar that you have to get over to prosecute anybody for these crimes, much less somebody who’s running for president, and as critical as I’ve been of Hillary Clinton, and I am very critical of Hillary Clinton, I do understand that when somebody is running for president, there is a higher bar you have to get over, because we can’t have a system in which we’re constantly charging people who are running for president with a crime.”

Later, Fournier suggested that “politically, there’s severe questions about her judgment that voters really have to look into it. Legally, I can’t sit here on the set and say that she has definitely violated the law, and I do know that there is a harder — there is a higher bar you have to get over before you prosecute somebody who’s running for president. That’s just a fact.”

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March 28, 2016

Kerry Won’t Call Russia An Ally In Syria But Admits They’re Helping U.S. Interests

Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said that if Russia “can help us” end the Syrian civil war it would be in the strategic interest of the U.S., but refused to call Russia an ally in the region.

“I see no threat whatsoever to the fact that Russia has some additional foundation in Assyria where we don’t want a base, where we are not looking for some kind of a long-term presence,” Kerry said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday. “If Russia can help stabilize and provide for a peace process that actually ends this war, which is –”

Host John Dickerson interjected, asking, “They’re an ally in Syria?”

“No,” Kerry responded. “Which is putting existential pressure on Europe, as well as existential pressure on Jordan, on Lebanon and creating an environment that threatens Israel. You talk about threats to Israel, that turmoil is a threat to Israel.”

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March 25, 2016

Obama Dances The Tango While The World Burns

President Obama is enjoying a taste of Latin America culture, spending the evening at a state dinner in Argentina. After dinner, two dancers appeared to perform a tango dance for the President and the First Lady.

At one point, the female dancer asked Obama to dance and after initially resisting, he got up to dance while the First Lady danced with the male dancers.

According to the pool reporter, many guests began videotaping the presidential pair dancing with their partners.

During a press conference earlier in the day, Obama insisted that he would continue on his Latin America trip in spite of the terrorist attacks in Brussels. Thirty-one people were killed in the attacks and an estimated 270 were wounded.

Disrupting his schedule, Obama said, would only send a message to the terrorists that they were succeeding in making the world afraid.

“It is very important for us to not respond with fear … we defeat them in part by saying, ‘You are not strong. You are weak,’” Obama explained when asked by reporters why he attended a baseball game with Raul Castro in Cuba after the attacks.

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March 24, 2016

Obama On ISIS: ‘I’ve Got A Lot On My Plate’ … ‘They’re Not An Existential Threat’

Speaking to reporters in Argentina Wednesday, President Obama downplayed the gravity of Tuesday’s terror attacks in Brussels by saying ISIS does not pose “an existential threat” to national security.

“I addressed this issue a little bit at the baseball game when I was interviewed by ESPN,” the president explained, “but let me reiterate.”

“Groups like ISIL can’t destroy us. They can’t defeat us,” he continued. “They can’t produce anything. They’re not an existential threat to us.”

“Their primary power — in addition to killing innocent lives — is to strike fear in our societies,” he added. “It is very important for us to not respond with fear.”

Earlier in the press conference, Obama showed displeasure when an Associated Press reporter asked whether the Brussels attacks “changed anything.”

“I’ve got a lot of things on my plate,” he responded before assuring reporters his top priority is “to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that’s been taking place around the world.”

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March 23, 2016

Former Pat Buchanan Adviser Prepares Third Party Vessel For Donald Trump

A former Pat Buchanan adviser has launched a petition that threatens to launch a new political movement if the Republican Party fails to nominate Donald Trump.

Paul Nagy founded the Draft Buchanan movement in 1992 and went on to serve as his Northeast campaign director. On Sunday, he launched a petition titled “We Will Walk,” which currently has over 1,000 signatures.

The petition states: “Let it be understood that if Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party power brokers steal the Republican nomination from Donald Trump at the convention — when Trump is the clear leader — we will walk out of the Republican party and not support its nominee.”

Nagy told The Daily Caller Monday that he thinks the chances of Trump of having the plurality of delegates and not receiving the nomination is over 50 percent. He said he is working now “to make sure if that happens there is a vehicle for Donald Trump to step into.”

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March 22, 2016

GOP Delegate: Primary, Caucus Results Won’t Determine Nominee, Delegates Will

In an interview that aired on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, Diana Orrock, a GOP delegate from Nevada and supporter of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, downplayed the role that primaries and caucuses play in selecting the eventual Republican presidential nominee.

According to Orrock, the power rests in the hands of the delegates.

“People are under the misconception that it’s the results of the caucus and the results of the primary that determines who becomes the nominee,” Orrock said. “In actuality, it’s the delegates at the national convention that are supposed to pick the nominee.”

She speculated that there is an effort underway to prevent Trump from becoming the nominee “at all costs.”

“Going into this convention they’re going to try to do a lot of manipulation to try to keep Trump from becoming the nominee,” she added. “A lot of political operatives in the Republican Party are trying to take Trump out at all costs.”

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March 21, 2016

Donald Trump Must Beware of Trojan Horse Delegates

A state party staffer from a large Northeastern state passed the entry codes for a conference call of five Republican chairmen from significant states this past Saturday. The topic on the table? Stopping Donald Trump. I had to listen in.

These hard-boiled pols know the nomination will be decided not on the first ballot, but in a series of procedural votes by the entire convention to adopt the rules of the convention as recommended by the Rules Committee and the seating of the delegates as recommended by the Credentials Committee. Those key committees are made up by two members from each state. The bosses have been quietly planting establishment regulars in these spots.

The Trump camp has been inattentive to this process. The party kingmakers may have the votes to knee-cap Trump in the rules and credentials committees, as they did Congressman Ron Paul in 2012.

The kingmakers have planned to steal the nod from Donald Trump.

Now they party insiders want to make sure they have a working majority on the floor for the passage of their “license to steal.” Republican state chairs are planting Trojan Horse delegates into slots won by Trump on the first ballot to vote with them on procedural votes to pass the Rules and Credentials Reports that will seal the “Big Steal.” This is going on in Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Connecticut, North Dakota, and other states.

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March 18, 2016

Suicide of the GOP — or Rebirth?

“If his poll numbers hold, Trump will be there six months from now when the Sweet 16 is cut to the Final Four, and he will likely be in the finals.”

My prediction, in July of 2015, looks pretty good right now.

Herewith, a second prediction. Republican wailing over his prospective nomination aside, Donald Trump could beat Hillary Clinton like a drum in November.

Indeed, only the fear that Trump can win explains the hysteria in this city.

Here is The Washington Post of March 18: “As a moral question it is straightforward. The mission of any responsible Republican should be to block a Trump nomination and election.”

The Orwellian headline over that editorial: “To defend our democracy, the GOP must aim for a brokered convention.”

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March 17, 2016

Donald Trump Invite Roils Pro-Israel AIPAC Conference

Republican frontrunner Donald J. Trump pulled out of next week’s GOP debate in Salt Lake City, prompting its cancellation, so that he could address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference in Washington. D.C. But many of AIPAC’s pro-Israel activists are upset — so much so, in fact, that organizers have had to remind them to remain polite when he speaks.

The last time AIPAC had to issue such a stern warning was in 2010, when then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was to speak after berating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for 45 minutes over a housing project in a Jewish neighborhood that had been announced during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to the region. Though some AIPAC activists boycotted, the speech was received politely.

AIPAC has a policy of bipartisanship, though many of its leaders and donors are Democrats, and the organization took a leftward turn after Barack Obama’s election in the hope of maintaining influence with a president with past anti-Israel associations and in an administration staffed with known anti-Israel policymakers. Its gamble failed when Obama ignored AIPAC’s pleas against the Iran deal.

Still, the organization remains influential, especially in a year when both parties’  likely candidates have some amends to make with pro-Israel voters. Ron Kampeas of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency notes: “AIPAC insiders are looking for two things from Trump: a repudiation once and for all of his pledge of neutrality when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, and a more substantive outline of his plans for the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Hillary Clinton is a controversial, but known, quantity.

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March 16, 2016

National Review Doubles Down: ‘Important to Say’ White Working Class Communities ‘Deserve to Die’

This article first appeared at National Review, under the authorship of David French.

This weekend, my colleague Kevin Williamson kicked up quite the hornet’s nest with his magazine piece that strikes directly at the idea that the white working-class (the heart of Trump’s support) is a victim class. Citizens of the world’s most prosperous nation, they face challenges — of course — but no true calamities. Here’s the passage that’s gaining the most attention:

“The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs. Forget your goddamned gypsum, and, if he has a problem with that, forget Ed Burke, too. The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin. What they need isn’t analgesics, literal or political. They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul.”

These are strong words, but they are fundamentally true and important to say. My childhood was different from Kevin’s, but I grew up in Kentucky, live in a rural county in Tennessee, and have seen the challenges of the white working-class first-hand. Simply put, Americans are killing themselves and destroying their families at an alarming rate. No one is making them do it. The economy isn’t putting a bottle in their hand. Immigrants aren’t making them cheat on their wives or snort OxyContin. Obama isn’t walking them into the lawyer’s office to force them to file a bogus disability claim…

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March 15, 2016

Brownshirts & Republican Wimps

Friday evening’s Donald Trump rally in Chicago was broken up by a foul-mouthed mob that infiltrated the hall and forced the cancellation of the event to prevent violence and bloodshed.

Brownshirt tactics worked. The mob, triumphant, rejoiced.

And the reaction of Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and John Kasich?

All three Republican rivals blamed — Donald Trump.

With his “dangerous style of leadership,” Trump stokes this anger, mewed Rubio, “This is what happens when a leading presidential candidate goes around feeding into a narrative of bitterness and anger and frustration.”

Rubio implies that if Trump doesn’t tone down his remarks to pacify the rabble, he will be responsible for the violence visited upon him.

Kasich echoed Rubio: “Donald Trump has created a toxic environment (that) has allowed his supporters and those who sometimes seek confrontation to come together in violence.”

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March 14, 2016

RNC Rules Comm. Member: Every Delegate At GOP Convention Not Bound On First Ballot

A Republican National Committee Standing Rules Committee member told the membership Friday that convention delegates are not bound to cast their votes at the convention according to primary vote results in the first round of voting.

Curly Haugland of North Dakota, a long time member of the RNC Standing Rules Committee,  sent a letter to the RNC membership at large about this issue. He explained how he came to the conclusion that all Republican delegates who participate in the 2016 Republican National Convention are unbound on each ballot round, including the first.

As most of you know, I have been defending the right of the delegates to the Republican National Convention to vote according to their personal choice in all matters to come before the Republican National Convention, including the vote to nominate the Republican Candidate for President, for several years.

Here is something I recently discovered that most of us did not know, including me!
Binding delegates to the results of presidential preference primaries first appeared in the Rules of the Republican Party in 1976.

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March 11, 2016

The Sea Island Conspiracy

Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Napster’s Sean Parker, Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk, and other members of the super-rich were jetting in to the exclusive Georgia resort, ostensibly to participate in the annual World Forum of the American Enterprise Institute.

Among the advertised topics of discussion: “Millennials: How Much Do They Matter and What Do They Want?”

That was the cover story.

As revealed by the Huffington Post, Sea Island last weekend was host to a secret conclave at the Cloisters where oligarchs colluded with Beltway elites to reverse the democratic decisions of millions of voters and abort the candidacy of Donald Trump.

Among the journalists at Sea Island were Rich Lowry of National Review, which just devoted an entire issue to the topic: “Against Trump,” and Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the Trumphobic New York Times.

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March 10, 2016

Sanders Threatens To Use Executive Action Like Obama To Legalize Illegal Aliens

Sen. Bernie Sanders has threatened to continue the use of executive action like Barack Obama has done in order to enact immigration reform.

During Wednesday night’s Democratic debate on CNN, Sanders called for comprehensive immigration reform arguing, “If the Congress does not do its job, as president of the United States, I will use the executive powers of that office to do what has to be done to do what President Obama did and expand on that.”

Sanders was asked asked about if he was “concerned with working conditions for guest workers or really because you think immigrants drive down wages and take jobs from Americans” and he replied, “Guest worker programs [are] akin to slavery. Where people came in, they were cheated, they were abused, they were humiliated and if they stood up for their rights, they would be thrown out of the country. Of course that type of effort leads to a race to the bottom for all of our people. And I work very hard on that issue. And of course, I supported the 2013 immigration reform bill.”

Later, Sanders said, “I applaud President Obama for his efforts in DAPA [Deferred Action for Parents of Americans] and DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] and we’ve got to expand those efforts.”

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March 9, 2016

DOJ Probes 5 FBI Agents Involved In Shooting Of Oregon Militiaman

The Department of Justice is investigating five FBI agents involved in the fatal shooting of Oregon militia spokesman Lavoy Finicum for allegedly covering up the details of Finicum’s January death.

One of the FBI agents allegedly lied about firing twice on Finicum, who was shot to death in the course of an attempted arrest related to the militia’s occupation of federal land. Four other agents allegedly helped that agent cover up the lie, reported the Oregonian.

Authorities revealed the investigation Tuesday, as a team of local investigators released new details about the shooting. A member of the Hostage Rescue Team allegedly failed to report the two shots in question, officials said, although neither bullet actually hit Finicum.

Investigators did not specify exactly why the other four unnamed agents are under investigation, except to say it’s related to alleged misconduct after the shooting. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz is heading up the investigation.

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March 8, 2016

GOP delegates could swing nomination

Republicans are in uncharted territory as they inch toward their first contested presidential nominating convention in 40 years.

Delegates to the quadrennial GOP gathering cast the official votes that nominate the party's presidential candidate. But not since Ronald Reagan challenged President Gerald Ford in Kansas City have their votes been more than a formality. This year could be different, as four Republican contenders threaten to divide the vote in the primaries and caucuses and arrive in Cleveland having blocked each other from 1,237 delegates, the threshold needed to secure the nomination.

"These people will be free to vote for who they want to," said Shawn Steel, who as the Republican National Committeeman from California is a delegate to the party's July convention. "These are political people. When they realize the power they have, there is going to be a lot of dealing."

The looming question is whether delegates are prepared to exercise that power and nominate a candidate other than the individual who earns a plurality of votes (and delegates) in the primaries.

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March 7, 2016

Here Are The 23 Classified Memos Sidney Blumenthal Sent To Hillary Clinton

Of the dozens of intelligence memos that Sidney Blumenthal sent to Hillary Clinton while she served as secretary of state, 23 contained information classified as “Confidential” or “Secret,” a Daily Caller analysis shows.

Sending nearly two dozen sensitive emails makes Blumenthal, a former journalist and aide in the Bill Clinton White House, one of Clinton’s most prolific sharers of classified information. The Democratic presidential candidate herself sent 104 emails containing classified information, The Washington Post found.

Some of Clinton’s State Department aides, such as chief of staff Cheryl Mills and deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, sent dozens of emails which contain now-classified information. Jake Sullivan, Clinton’s top foreign policy adviser, sent 215 now-classified messages.

But the Blumenthal memos are especially intriguing because the longtime Clinton ally did not work for the government. Instead, during the period that he sent Clinton memos, he was working for the Clinton Foundation as well as for several non-profit organizations with close ties to the Clintons. He also worked during some of that period as an editor for The Daily Beast.

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March 4, 2016

An Establishment in Panic

Anticipating the Post’s orders, Sen. Marco Rubio has been painting Trump as a “scam artist” and “con artist,” with an “orange” complexion, a “spray tan” and “tiny hands,” who is “unfit to lead the party of Lincoln and Reagan.”

The establishment is loving Rubio, and the networks are giving him more airtime. And Rubio is reciprocating, promising that, even if defeated in his home state of Florida on March 15, he will drive his pickup across the country warning against the menace of Trump.

Rubio, however, seems not to have detected the moral threat of Trump, until polls showed Rubio being wiped out on Super Tuesday and in real danger of losing Florida.

Mitt Romney has also suddenly discovered what a fraud and phony is the businessman-builder whose endorsement he so avidly sought and so oleaginously accepted in Las Vegas in 2012.

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March 3, 2016

Rubio Campaign Manager Plots Brokered Convention In Manhattan Donor Meeting To Take Nomination From Trump

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is plotting to take the Republican nomination away from Donald Trump using surreptitious tactics at a so-called “brokered convention,” according to an audio recording of his campaign manger in a private meeting with high dollar donors in Manhattan obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.

Last Wednesday evening in New York, according to CNN, Rubio campaign manager Terry Sullivan met privately with a group of supporters and top donors to chart Rubio’s path forward heading into Super Tuesday after abysmal performances from the first-term Florid Senator so far. During the meeting, Sullivan walked Rubio’s money men through the scenario he envisions he will use to stop Trump.

An audio recording of Sullivan giving the powerpoint presentation obtained exclusively by Breitbart News shows Sullivan plotting for a brokered convention.

“That is – I know if you watch the cable shows, they’re pretty breathless right about now that this is it, nothing is stopping Donald Trump,” Sullivan says at the opening of his remarks on aiming for brokered convention. “He can’t be stopped. He has got more momentum, this is it. It is over.”

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March 2, 2016

WEBB/BUCHANAN 2016 - AMERICAN PEOPLE UNITY - 2016 - CONSERVATIVE/POPULIST/ANTI-WALL STREET

WON'T SOMEBODY PUT THIS ON A WEBSITE SO IT CAN HAVE A ACTIVE URL -- OTHERWISE IT CAN'T BE POSTED TO SOCIAL NETWORKS.

Posted by Dick Eastman on Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Limbaugh: Trump Is ‘Only Possibility Of Wresting Control Of The Country Back From The Upper Class’

“The New York Times cannot cause Trump supporters to abandon him,” Limbaugh said Tuesday on “The Rush Limbaugh Show.”

“There’s two reasons why. The first is that only Trump can damage himself. It’s the old philosophy. None of these people made Trump. The New York Times didn’t make Trump,” Limbaugh said. “All these other establishment types.  Trump’s not where he is because he’s been heralded and promoted and had a lot of buzz. Trump built this relationship with his supporters himself. He’s the only one that can tear it asunder.”

“But there’s a second more important reason. Trump’s supporters are not gonna abandon him. They’re not gonna let go of him because of what he represents. In one sense, he’s a vessel. He is the only, after repeated efforts, he’s the only possibility of wresting control of the country back from the upper class that has seized it and at the same time has stopped working for all Americans,” Limbaugh suggested. “That’s what Trump represents here. And a lot of people who think this is a personality cult also misunderstand what’s going on here.”

“And at the root of this misunderstanding — and do not doubt me on this — is the arrogant condescension that the ruling class for average, ordinary Americans. That’s the root of this misunderstanding. Not hard to understand when it’s explained to you.  You know, we hear terms like ‘flyover country’ thrown around. But, you know, after a while the people that live in flyover country, they begin to understand what it really means. That’s a put-down. It’s not just a joke.  It’s an actual put-down. It’s the part of the country you don’t want to live. It’s the part of the country you don’t want to be in except unless it’s an accident,” Limbaugh said.

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March 1, 2016

What if Clinton's indicted?

Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney under President Ronald Reagan, told the Examiner in January that Lynch would have "no choice" but to indict Clinton if the FBI recommended an indictment. That recommendation would come in the form of a confidential memo, DiGenova said, but "the bureau will no doubt let it be known" that such a memo exists in order to increase the public pressure on Lynch to proceed with the case.

Most reports indicate FBI agents are looking into whether Clinton or her staff violated provisions of the Espionage Act that cover the treatment of sensitive information, an offense that can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.

While a number of factors are at play in the unusual case of Clinton's emails, McCarthy said the former secretary of state could be looking at more than one felony charge.

"If it is as serious as it appears to be on its face ... this should be a multiple felony-count indictment and it should involve not only Mrs. Clinton, but whoever else in her circle at the State Department or wherever else knew that this activity was going on," he said.

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