State Department officials cut out embarrassing passages of a report before publishing it during Hillary Clinton's last days as secretary of state.
Earlier drafts of the final document reveal details about the "undue influence" that is mentioned only briefly in the published version released to the public the month Clinton left office, February of 2013.
The Washington Examiner obtained a dozen drafts of the report that revealed officials under Harold Geisel, the temporary inspector general during Clinton's four-year tenure, let sections be edited out in late 2012.
The deleted information gave details of several investigations stymied by high-level staff in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security.
A draft dated Nov. 16, 2012 contained several passages that explained the extent of interference in investigations from staff in Clinton's office.
"Sources reported that a senior '7th Floor' Department official ordered [diplomatic security] to stop the investigation of an ambassador accused of pedophilia, and another such senior official had [diplomatic security] stop an investigation of an ambassador-designate," the report said.
The seventh floor is often used as a reference to the secretary's office, as it is physically located on that level of the State Department building.
Another deleted passage refers to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security being caught "circling the wagons to protect favored ... rising stars from criminal charges or from embarrassing revelations that could harm a promising career."
No comments:
Post a Comment