A key form that could determine whether or not Hillary Clinton broke any laws when she left state without returning her emails, seems to have been misplaced at the State Department. After being queried about the formal separation statement form, last week, State Dept. Spox Jen Psaki had no answers for reporters. And again today, she had nothing new for them regarding the whereabouts of the form.
AP reporter Matt Lee grilled her over why this standard form would be so difficult to produce.
“I don’t have an update on this Matt,” Psaki intoned. “We’re still working on it.”
“The Human Resources Dept. presumably has a file on every employee – it can’t be that difficult…:” Lee began before Psaki cut him off.
“I don’t think our Secretaries are standard employees,” Psaki explained patiently.
“They may not be,” Lee shot back, “but how hard can it be to find..”
Psaki interrupted him again to say, “I understand why you’re asking, we’re looking for an answer, I don’t have an answer, today.”
Via The Right Scoop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiHI4AR-Nv4%5B/embed
And that concludes today’s Regime stonewall. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for another edition of the Regime’s Daily Stonewall which may be a continuation of today’s stonewall, with perhaps a brand new one in addition.
Former *Justice Dept. official, Shannen Coffin, speculating that she may have committed a crime by not complying with federal records laws, recently asked at National Review, “did Clinton falsely certify the return of all records upon her departure from State?”
Coffin explains that the Department of State’s own records-management manual has a provision titled “Removal Procedures.”
…the manual sets forth the process that each Department of State employee must go through upon separation (i.e., resignation or retirement) from the department. In addition to relinquishing classified materials, all employees are required to clear the removal of any unclassified materials through records-management officials.
The form that the State Department seems to have misplaced, is Form OF-109.
It is a formal separation statement, in which the departing official certifies the return of any classified materials, and, more relevant for present purposes, that the departing official has “surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents, and papers relating to the official business of the Government acquired by me while in the employ of the Department.” The form makes very clear that a false statement in the certification is punishable as a crime, including under 18 U.S.C. § 1001, which makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully falsify or conceal facts in statements made to federal agencies concerning a matter within its jurisdiction. According to the department’s procedures, then, every departing official is required to certify the return of all government documents under penalty of law. Did Hillary Clinton sign such a certification upon her separation from government? Did she knowingly swear that she had returned all records, when in fact she had retained at least 55,000 pages of official e-mails (and perhaps more)? And if she did not sign such a certification, why not? Every other departing employee and official of the State Department is required to do so. Did she ignore her obligations to return the records and thus avoid a false certification? It seems that the one document in all of this that we need to see, if it exists, is Hillary Clinton’s Form OF-109.
*Originally stated Shannen Coffin was a State Dept. official which is incorrect.
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