Uh Oh: US Extradites Romanian Hacker Tied to Hillary Email Scandal

Townhall.com ^ | April 11, 2016 | Guy Benson

[Kaslin]

A flurry of significant stories broke on Friday, including the Obama administration's belated capitulation on executive privilege assertions pertaining to the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal, as well as the release of a large document dump to the House Select Committee on Benghazi. Another potentially-meaningful revelation came via Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne, who reported that the timing and context of US officials' extradition of a Romanian hacker is "not a coincidence" vis-a-vis the FBI's ongoing criminal investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's national security-compromising email scheme. Let's follow the breadcrumbs:

The extradition of Romanian hacker “Guccifer” to the U.S. at a critical point in the FBI’s criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email use is “not a coincidence,” according to an intelligence source close to the case. One of the notches on Guccifer’s cyber-crime belt was allegedly accessing the email account of Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal, one of Clinton’s most prolific advice-givers when she was secretary of state. It was through that hack that Clinton's use of a personal account -- clintonemail.com -- first came to light. Former law enforcement and cyber security experts said the hacker, whose real name is Marcel Lehel Lazar, could – now that he’s in the U.S. – help the FBI make the case that Clinton’s email server was compromised by a third party, one that did not have the formal backing and resources of a foreign intelligence service such as that of Russia, China or Iran. “Because of the proximity to Sidney Blumenthal and the activity involving Hillary’s emails, [the timing] seems to be something beyond curious,” said Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division from 2012-2014.

Quick side note: The piece accurately frames Blumenthal as "one of Clinton's most prolific advice-givers" during her tenure at State.  This is evident from the volume and content of emails they exchanged, many of which she forwarded to other officials after stripping away identifying sourcing (Blumenthal was banned from government work by the Obama administration).  She has inaccurately stated that she never solicited intelligence or advice from Blumenthal, and falsely testified under oath that he served as neither an official nor unofficial adviser to her.  Anyway, there are several reasons why people are buzzing about the context of the extradition:

On or about March 31, Lazar was extradited 3,700 miles to Alexandria from a prison in Arad, Romania, where he has been serving a seven-year sentence for hacking crimes committed in his native country. His targets in Romania were prominent government officials and political figures whom he often taunted under the name of Micul Fum or “Little Smoke.” Following his 2014 conviction, Lazar was effectively neutralized in prison and no longer a threat, which makes his transfer to the U.S. all the more noteworthy. According to the 15-page federal indictment, Lazar "specialized in gaining unauthorized access to the online accounts of high-profile individuals" including Clinton ally Blumenthal, who appears to be identified as “Victim 5 … a journalist and former presidential advisor who was the true owner of an AOL account with subaccounts known to the grand jury.”...The Romanian government told Fox News that the request to extradite Lazar came from the FBI, but when Fox News asked when the process began, a government spokesperson said they were not authorized to comment further. Romanian media have reported the request came on or about Dec. 29, 2015. That would have been shortly after the intelligence community’s identification of emails beyond “top secret” on Clinton’s personal server, which became public in mid-January.

The cyber threat posed by "Guccifer" had been cut off at the knees, given that he was sitting in an Eastern European prison cell.  Why would the US government bother going through the ordeal and expense of dragging him to America now?  Key officials aren't commenting, but we know that the request came from the FBI right around the time that the nonpartisan Inspector General for the intelligence community charged that Mrs. Clinton's unsecure email server contained exceptionally secret material.  Ed Morrissey notes that if Guccifer "cracked Hillary’s server rather than Blumenthal’s (or both), then it makes prosecution under 18 USC 793 easier under subsection (f)" of the federal Espionage Act.  That's the bit that deals with "gross negligence" in the handling of classified information.  I've argued on several occasions that Clinton may be vulnerable under that provision of the statute, particularly in light of her decisions to ignore explicit warnings about the risks associated with her conduct.  If it can be proven that Guccifer -- an amateur -- penetrated Clinton's emails, it would follow that hostile foreign powers with far more sophisticated resources and methods could also have gained access to the large cache of secret information, as several high-ranking officials have stated is a near certainty.  That goes far beyond mere "carelessness," as President Obama characterized it yesterday. Which brings us to this quote from the Fox News story:

In a 2015 prison interview from Romania with reporter Matei Rosca for Pando.com, Lazar told Rosca that, "I used to read [Clinton's] memos for six or seven hours ... and then do the gardening." ... Clinton’s deliberate choice to use a private, unsecure server based in her home and a private email address for her government business as secretary of state remains under federal investigation by the FBI while she campaigns for president. It has been widely reported in the last month that the FBI is setting up interviews with Clinton and her associates, what is believed to be a final phase in the process. Hosko noted that commitment of resources by the FBI to extradite Guccifer to the U.S. with the cooperation of Romania is significant. A review of recent federal cases by Fox News found that Guccifer’s extradition appears to be an outlier. Hackers typically are extradited in the event of major financial theft, such as a 2013 case where three Romanian men stole in excess of $2 million in a cyber-fraud ring – and not in cases involving a breach of personal privacy.

Unless he was blowing smoke (one might imagine that the FBI would have some handle on whether or not that is the case), it sounds like Guccifer had access to a large quantity of Clinton's correspondence, much of which was classified.  The second bolded sentence is also worth a mention: If triggering the extradition process were standard procedure in hacking cases like this, it might be a stretch to read too far into the timing of this move.  But if it's an "outlier," that only renders the "why now?" questions more urgent, and seems to bolster the statement from Herridge's "close to the case" intelligence source, who says the sequence of events is no accident. For her part, Mrs. Clinton -- who is still wrongly referring to the criminal probe as a "security review" -- remains publicly defiant, taunting Republicans with smug predictions that there's no chance she'll face any repercussions:

Hillary Clinton Calls FBI Investigation a "Security Review"
She knows full well that this is less about the hopes of Republican partisans, and more about actions taken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and multiple independent IG offices. Given the Obama administration's infamously politicized Justice Department, there is ample reason to believe that she may escape an indictment -- but between the extension of immunity to Bryan Pagliano, the string of interviews being scheduled, and the extradition of 'Guccifer,' Ed is right that, "the FBI and the DoJ are going to an awful lot of trouble to end this with a shrug."

[isthisnickcool]

He may pardon her but she will be indicted. Is she isn’t there will be hell to pay from the patriots in the intelligence community.

[buckalfa]

"This is some super serious stuff that was being leaked to Sid."

Setting up the meme for Blumenthal to fall on his sword?

[Qiviut]

Setting up the meme for Blumenthal to fall on his sword?

************************************************

I have been looking & haven’t heard a peep about anything going on with Sid/FBI. He’s in serious trouble so you’d think he’s be looking for a way out. The other thing I found interesting, when the Benghazi committee had him testify, he brought all of his Benghazi emails including those to Hilly & the committee did not have them from State. They asked State for them & State didn’t have them ... that is how the private server situation came to light. Sid brought ALL his emails - didn’t coordinate with Hilly what to leave out or if he did, he protected his own rear end. I think Sid is going to be a key guy ... he already is for exposing the server, but you KNOW they are looking for whoever was giving him ‘word for word’ NSA intel. That is one big “leak” that the NSA needs to close & of course, Sid knows who it is.

[Scutter]

I suspect that emails from Clinton to Blumenthal containing that NSA classifed info were among those “non work related emails” deleted by Clinton. And I think this is what the FBI is trying to prove, and why they extradited Guccifer.

[isthisnickcool]

Bingo!

[Qiviut]

Could be ... those probably were deleted. She’s also lied about when she started using her server & did not turn over some key emails that happened prior to the date she said she started using the server. She lied about this under penalty of perjury to Judge Sullivan, I do believe.

I’d just love to see that “Joker” smile wiped off her face. She’ll never do a perp walk, but being indicted would be good. Judicial Watch is also trying to have a draft indictment regarding Whitewater released - she definitely broke the law & it was squelched for political reasons. She keeps saying that the Republican/VRWC have been after her for 25 years & found nothing. PLENTY has been found, but no one has had the stones to do anything about it.

[DoughtyOne]

...and playing the part of Kenneth Star will be....

the FBI

[Qiviut]

Links if you’re interested (Judicial Watch is definitely on the Clinton’s “Major” Enemies List, I’m sure):

Judicial Watch Lawsuit Uncovers New Hillary Clinton Email Withheld from State Department

http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-lawsuit-uncovers-new-hillary-clinton-email-withheld-from-state-department/

*************************************************

Judicial Watch: Obama Administration Withholds Draft Whitewater Indictment of Hillary Clinton
http://standardnewswire.com/news/2300311176.html

(direct JW link wouldn’t load, but this one has the info)

[austingirl]

Blumenthal has made enough corrupt billions thorugh his association with Hillary that he might be willing to spend a couple of months playing golf at a federal country club- I mean correctional facility.

[austingirl]

It’s only a matter of time before she blows her top.

[meatloaf]

It helps to put things in context. Wilkinson set up her “boutique” law firm around then and immediately had four of Hillary’s aides as clients. If that isn’t telling nothing is. Clinton probably knew the fecal material was about to hit the fan so she, quick like a bunny, made arrangements for the legal representation.

The point here is Guccifer is deadly to her adn Blumenthal. That was not predictable. Ultimately Guccifer and the info he ratholed in the cloud will be the straw that breaks Hillary’s back. Not only did he capture her emails, he’s more than likely the one that tipped the FBI to the existence of her private server two years ago.

[Scutter]

Thank you.

[Buckeye McFrog]

As soon as Obama can figure out a way he’s going to dump her. It just can’t look like he did it or fix it so she won’t rat on him and ValJar.

Everything I needed to know about the Democrat Party I learned from watching reruns of The Sopranos

[karnage]

Wouldn’t that be something?

[riverdawg]

“I think Sid is going to be a key guy ...”

Yep; I’ve been saying that for months.

[SgtHooper]

She may be indicted, but she will walk (no jail time) under this corrupt administration.

[TheTimeOfMan]

Obama made it clear yesterday she will not be indicted.

I’m shocked of course.

[Nuc 1.1]

I don't believe she can be indited if she is pardoned first.