As the Tune Changes

In a reversal, the State Department acknowledged Friday that a Congressional investigation into the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi played a role in the agency’s decision to ask Hillary Clinton and three other secretaries of state to turn over copies of all work-related emails they sent or received on private accounts during their tenure.

State spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters that a special House committee’s ongoing probe into the Benghazi incident was one of many factors that led the department to send a request last October that resulted in Clinton sending her former agency 55,000 pages of emails she exchanged on an unofficial account.

[...]

“It would be grossly simplistic to say that any one thing prompted us to send this letter.”

Earlier this week, Harf and other state department officials said the decision to approach the former secretaries about searching their personal email accounts stemmed solely from a broad effort to update the State Department’s electronic recordkeeping efforts.

  Politico

If you can’t directly reverse yourself in a matter of hours or a few days, you do not qualify to be a politician or work for the US government.

A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said Tuesday that the request for Clinton’s records was “independent” of and unrelated to the Benghazi probe.

Shall we ask that person today?

POLITICO reported Friday that White House officials became aware in August that documents sought in the House Benghazi investigation contained Clinton’s private email address. The White House flagged the issue to the State Department and Clinton aides, but the former secretary’s staff decided to take no action at that point.

You just cross your fingers and hope that by the time the public finds out, they won’t care. SOP.

A top adviser to President Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, suggested that Clinton’s reliance on private email for official work went against clearly established White House directives.

[...]

Jarrett declined to say directly whether Clinton violated policy, saying such a determination was for State to make. “We established the policy here, but then we leave it up to every single agency to determine how to adhere to that policy,” the Obama adviser said.

Makes deniability much easier.

“Each individual employee has a responsibility under the federal regulations to preserve their own records. With a State Department account or a personal account, when you walk out the door, it is your responsibility to provide those,” Harf said.

“When you walk out?” a reporter asked, alluding to the fact that Clinton did not provide her records when she departed, but some 23 months later.

“There was no time [requirement.] That was colloquial,” Harf replied. “Thank you for fact-checking me live and instantaneously during my press briefing. You should come more often. I like it.”

A bit testy? That reporter will not be called on in future. Better send somebody else to cover the White House.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.