Huma Abedin admits that Hillary Clinton BURNED her schedules while she was secretary of state

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Huma Abedin admits that Hillary Clinton BURNED her schedules while she was secretary of state

• In her deposition taken last week, Huma Abedin said some of Hillary Clinton's schedules went in the burn bag while they were at State
• This is the first time a top Clinton aide admitted to destroying public records
• Abedin was being interviewed as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit rooted in her special employment status at the State Department
• The aide, part of Clinton's inner circle, was allowed to work at the State Department and, simultaneously, for an outside consulting firm

By NIKKI SCHWAB, U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 14:09, 4 July 2016 | UPDATED: 15:49, 4 July 2016



Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton's longtime aide, testified last week that her boss burned her schedules while serving as secretary of state.
'If there was a schedule that was created that was her Secretary of State daily schedule, and a copy of that was then put in the burn bag, that ... that certainly happened on ... on more than one occasion,' Abedin told lawyers representing conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, according to the New York Post.
While Clinton admitted to deleting personal emails from her homebrew server, this is the first time anyone in Clinton's State Department inner circle admitted to destroying public records while on the job.



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Hillary Clinton's (left) longtime aide Huma Abedin (right) was interviewed under oath last week as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit

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State Department aide Huma Abedin, who now serves as the vice chairwoman to Hillary Clinton's campaign, told lawyers that copies of her boss' daily schedule sometimes ended up in the 'burn bag'

The 'burn bag' is used to discard sensitive or classified documents.
A former State Department employee told the New York Post it was unprecedented for a diplomat to handle schedules this way.
'I spend eight years at the State Department and watched as four U.S. ambassadors and two secretaries of state shared their daily schedules with a variety of State Department employees and U.S. officials,' Richard Grenell, a former diploma and U.S. spokesman at the United Nations told the Post.
'I've never seen anyone put their schedule in the burn bag – because every one of them had a state.gov email address and therefore their daily schedules became public records, as required by law,' Grenell added.
Others who the newspaper talked to suggested the carefulness in how she discarded her schedule highlighted her carelessness when it came to using a private email server.
'The [president's] schedule was not classified but it was deemed "highly sensitive,"' noted Brad Blakeman, a scheduler for President George W. Bush.
'Instructions were given at the White House and on the road that schedules would be disposed of through the use of "burn bags" and/or shredding,' Blakeman told the Post.


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Hillary Clinton's use of burn bags for her schedule was surprising to some current and former government officials, as they're supposed to be pubic documents


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'This shows, in my opinion, a skewed sense of security,' he added. 'The Clinton people would dispose of the security's schedule in the same manner as if it were classified yet those same safeguards were not in place with regard to email communications.'
Clinton critic Ambassador John Bolton said this move showed a 'recklessness' on behalf of the now likely Democratic presidential nominee, though, 'They can’t eliminate it even if they wanted to,' Bolton told the Post.
Abedin had been asked the question, 'And during your tenure at the State Department, were you aware of your obligation not to delete federal records or destroy federal records?'
The Judicial Watch lawyer did not press her with a follow-up.
The conservative group was given permission to depose Clinton's State Department aides as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit rooted in Abedin's unique employment setup.
Abedin was allowed to work both at the State Department and for the outside consulting firm Teneo.
She performed duties for the Clinton Foundation as well.
Today she serves as Clinton's vice chairwoman for her presidential campaign.
The Post noted that the Associated Press, in another lawsuit, had been seeking Clinton's schedule from throughout her time as secretary of state, suing for access to those documents in 2015.

Read more:

• Huma Abedin admits that Clinton burned daily schedules | New York Post

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And the evidence continues to mount, a fact that will make DOJ's failure to indict ever more galling.

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She had to burn copies of here schedule, because she intended to delete her schedules that had her meeting with certain dignitaries that were also donating to the Clinton Foundation, and she didn't want the timeline followed. She didn't want loose ends in the "pay for access" cover up.

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