A newly unclassified email released by the conservative non-profit Judicial Watch shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wantonly attempting to abandon a “secure call” and instead requesting to continue communications on her home phone.
The 2009 email shows Clinton aide Cheryl Mills attempting to make the secure connection, but failing because “the technology is not working.”
Clinton, clearly frustrated, instructs Mills to contact her on an unsecure line.
“I give up. Call me on my home #,” Clinton instructs.
Mills seemingly warns Clinton that they must wait until they see each other rather than switch to her home phone number.
“I just spoke to ops and called you reg line – we have to wait until we see each other b/c [the] technology is not working,” she wrote.
Still, Mills complies with Clinton’s request to contact her off the secure grid, but after one failed attempt, Clinton says “Pls try again.”
Via The Hill:
New emails released by a conservative watchdog group on Thursday appear to show former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton directing a top aide to call her via an unsecured phone line when technical troubles prevented a secure phone conversation.
“I give up. Call me on my home #,” Clinton told then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills in a February 2009 email, after more than an hour of trouble trying to communicate via a secure line.
“I just spoke to ops and called you reg line – we have to wait until we see each other b/c [the] technology is not working,” Mills said in another email sent at almost exactly the same time.
“Pls try again,” responded Clinton, a few moments later.
It’s unclear whether the two did connect, or if they moderated any discussion they may have had to avoid sensitive topics while on an unsecure landline.
But the episode is likely to cause concern among critics of Clinton, who have previously accused her of resorting to unsecure forms of communication out of convenience, potentially jeopardizing sensitive information. Another email of Clinton’s, released in January, appeared to show her telling a top aide to remove identifying details and send a sensitive document through a “nonsecure” channel instead of via “secure fax.”
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said this email reveal is another in a long line that “show Hillary Clinton could not care less about the security of her communications.”
Indeed, it’s becoming more and more difficult to believe the FBI investigation could come to any other conclusion than a criminal referral when it’s so blatant that Clinton mishandled classified information on a consistent basis.
Comment: Did Hillary Clinton break the law by handling classified information on her email server? Does this email show that she also used unsecured phone communications as well? Tell us what you think below.
