Today's right-wing faux scandal: Hillary Clinton did not sign a document she was not required to sign. Not only was she not required to sign it, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, and every other Secretary of State wasn't required to sign it either. Nor did they.
This did not prevent the Republican National Committee from playing some politics with it, and using their very own propaganda channel to amplify it.
You can look at form OF-109 -- the form they requested -- here. It is a form for rank-and-file employees to sign upon termination, agreeing to turn over all classified and unclassified materials to the department which employed them. Here's something you should notice if you look at the form carefully:
Yes, you're reading that right. The "OF" on the form designation stands for optional form. Optional. That means it is not in any way, shape or form a required form from anyone, much less a cabinet level officer of the government. TPM has a good discussion post about requirements of appointed officials versus employees here.
Further, the RNC knew the State Department couldn't produce it because they know no Republican official signed such a form, and they knew they were not required to sign said optional form.
Megyn Kelly took the lazy way out with this one and brought on a panel to biddy about Hillary's latest breach. You can read the entire transcript here. I'm not going to reproduce it, but this one pronouncement is one that she should be forced to retract as soon as possible, lest she be viewed in a similar light to Bill O'Reilly.
And I want to go through that with you because this, I mean, this is the thing that everybody needs to pay attention to tonight. The language that is in this document which she would have been required to sign prior to leaving the State Department, if she wasn't that raises an additional set of problems. Here's the question. Before you leave the State Department you have to jump through a bunch of hoops as it turns out when it comes to your email and your documents including you must prepare an inventory of personal papers and non-record materials that you are proposing for removal. You must then request a review of those materials that you've proposed for removal. And then the rule requires the State Department to do what?
Except, of course, she was NOT required to sign this document, but she was required to actually make sure official communications were archived in real time, which they were. Official communications would have been sent to employees inside the State Department who then would have archived the paper copies as Hillary expected them to.
File this in the round file under Trash Fox 'News' Says. Then demand a retraction and an apology. The first clue this story was bogus was when the document was requested by the RNC. But Megyn Kelly should have known better, and likely did.
