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The Senate Judiciary Committee has discovered FBI transcripts that reveal former FBI-Director Comey was ready and prepared to completely exonerate Hillary Clinton way before the investigation had concluded, before key interviews with most of the witnesses had occurred, before they had interviewed Hillary Clinton, and before the Lynch-Clinton tarmac meeting took place which was the excuse for Comey's public exoneration of Hillary Clinton. Grassley and Graham say they have transcripts of two FBI officials saying Comey was prepared to exonerate Clinton BEFORE FBI interviewed her — Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 31, 2017 In a letter to the new FBI Director Christopher...

News Media Organizations Also on Record Supporting Public Release (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today announced it filed a motion that seeks to unseal the audiovisual recordings of the depositions of top Clinton aides and State Department officials. The depositions come in connection with a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to former Secretary Clinton ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)). Judicial Watch argues that “even though the election is over, the news media and the public continue to...

The former top IT official to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pleaded the 5th Amendment against self-incrimination — 90 times — in a federal court-ordered deposition on Oct. 24. John Bentel, the former Director of Information Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat, the office that handles information technology for the Office of the Secretary of State, was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to answer questions under oath to the lawyers at the government watchdog group Judicial Watch. In his Aug. 19 order, Judge Sullivan wrote, “The Court is persuaded that Mr. Bentel should be deposed because...

Clinton State Department IT Official John Bentel Takes the Fifth U.S. Spends Millions on “Green Bus Corridor” in Mexico, “Bicycle Highway” in Colombia Judicial Watch Will Monitor Virginia Polls on Election DaySpecial Report: Clinton’s Pay to Play Scheme Clinton State Department IT Official John Bentel Takes the Fifth The bureaucrats Hillary Clinton worked with at State still are withholding what they know about her illicit email practices. You can see that in the deposition transcript of John Bentel, the State Department’s former Director of Information Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat, who was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge...

Full title: Clinton State Department IT Official John Bentel Takes Fifth Amendment During Judicial Watch Deposition (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that another witness in the Clinton email matter asserted his Fifth Amendment rights during a Judicial Watch deposition today. The deposition of John Bentel, the State Department’s former Director of Information Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat (“S/ES-IRM”), was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. S/ES-IRM is the office that handles information technology for the Office of the Secretary. Mr. Bentel answered over 90 questions with “On advice from my legal counsel, I decline...

State Department Ordered to Disclose “Deleted” Clinton Records More Testimony Set in Clinton Email Scandal DHS Gives Aliens from “Special Interest Countries” U.S. Citizenship Clean House Is a Hit State Department Ordered to Disclose “Deleted” Clinton Records My Judicial Watch attorney colleagues appeared today in federal court for a hearing into how quickly Judicial Watch and the American people can see the Hillary Clinton emails recovered by the FBI that Clinton deleted or otherwise did not turn over to the State Department. The hearing in our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit before U.S. District Court Judge James E....

In a stunning Friday (isn't it always?) revelation, we found out that yet another key figure from Hillary Clinton's "rat pack" -- her former chief-of-staff Cheryl Mills - was given immunity in the email server investigation. As Ed Morrissey points out, that makes "at least five" -- who knows how many there really are -- who have received this treatment. So far that's techies Bryan Pagliano and Paul Combetta (more of him in a moment), John Bentel of the Office of Information Resources Management, and Heather Samuelson, an aide to Mrs. Clinton. How much the public knows of their immunized...

Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff, received an immunity deal from the Justice Department during the year-long FBI investigation of Clinton's server. Two other State Department staffers, John Bentel and Heather Samuelson, were also given immunity agreements, bringing the total number of witnesses who were protected by deals to five. Bryan Pagliano, Clinton's former IT aide, and Paul Combetta, an employee at the firm hired to manage her server after she left the State Department, also received such protection. The immunity agreements given to Mills and Samuelson covered the evidence recovered from their computers, a Democratic staffer told...

The Justice Department has granted Cheryl Mills, a former chief of staff for Hillary Clinton, a limited immunity deal in the FBI's investigation into the use of the former secretary of state's private email server, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee said on Friday. Chafffetz told the Associated Press that Mills allowed the FBI to access her laptop in the agency's now-closed investigation into Clinton's use of the private email server on the condition that findings couldn't be used against her. Two other staffers, John Bentel, then-director of the State Department's Office of Information Resources Management, and Clinton aide...

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it submitted a request for permission to depose former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; the Director of Office of Correspondence and Records of the Executive Secretariat (“S/ES-CRM”) Clarence Finney; and the former Director of Information Resource Management of the Executive Secretariat (“S/ES-IRM”) John Bentel. Today’s request arises in a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit before U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Clinton. The lawsuit was reopened because of revelations about the...

The recent release of House Benghazi Committee interview transcripts includes one from a now-retired State Department official who appears to have given inconsistent statements about his knowledge of Hillary Clinton’s email practices. During an interview with the committee last year, John Bentel, the former director of the Executive Secretariat’s information resource management division, which manages records and communications for State Department’s leadership, claimed he had no knowledge of Clinton’s use of personal email account or private server. But emails recently released by Judicial Watch — as well as findings laid out in a recent State Department inspector general’s report —...

As Hillary Clinton seeks to rebound from a highly critical report from the State Department’s inspector general, Senate investigators and a conservative group are zeroing in on newly revealed evidence about the activities of a now retired State Department computer specialist in orchestrating what they charge was a “cover-up” of the former secretary of state’s email practices. The role of John Bentel, whose identity as a key figure in the email probes was first reported by Yahoo News on Wednesday, is expected to be one focus of questioning today when Clinton’s former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, is deposed in...

A second former State Department official is refusing to talk to Congress about what he might know about Hillary Clinton’s private email system. Politico reports that John Bentel, who retired from the State Department in Dec. 2012, has told the House Select Committee on Benghazi and the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees that he will not meet to discuss the server and what, if anything, he knows about it. In response to a Dec. 5 letter from Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley and Homeland Security chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, Bentel said he had “no memory of knowledge” about...

A State Department staffer who oversaw security and technology issues for Hillary Clinton is refusing to answer Senate investigators’ questions about the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server — marking the second time an ex-State employee has declined to talk to lawmakers. John Bentel, a now-retired State employee who managed IT security issues for the top echelon at the department, declined to be interviewed by GOP staff on the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO. The chairmen of both committees, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), are...