State released to Judicial Watch and others additional emails from those recovered from the FBI.
One can see why some of the emails weren't in the original trove of emails: they really aren't related to State activities at all. Topics among the newly released emails::
- A menu from a state event, featuring a chocolate and persimmon cake with peppermint ice cream (ick)
- A couple of speeches Hillary Clinton made as Secretary
- A note to Clinton from a friend commiserating with her that she "picked a heck of a time to be Secretary of State"
- Roy Spence likes orange Tootsie Roll pops
- An anxious email from the CEO of NPR about Roxana Saberi, who was arrested in Iran
- An email from Bill Stapleton, agent for Lance Armstrong, about an upcoming Tour de France race
- A copy of another menu with Haricort Vert with Beets
- Connecting Gilbert Chagoury to the Ambassador to Lebanon
- People who know each other, helping out an unemployed friend
The last two are the items that have CNN and New York Times in a tizzy this morning.
Gilbert Chagoury is a well-known wealthy Lebanese-Nigerian who was, at one time, an Ambassador to the Vatican for St. Lucia. He donated to the Clinton Foundation, yes. But he also donated to St. Jude's Children Hospital, and the Louvre, in France. He is well known in Lebanon, and influential. He serves on the board of the Lebanese American University, the recipient of more of his charitable contributions. That he'd ask for an introduction to the American Ambassador does not seem unusual. I suspect any number of influential people are introduced to State Department personnel all over the world.
Yes, he was convicted of money laundering (a conviction that was expunged two years later), and had to return 66 million dollars to Nigeria. He denies any wrong doing, but said the money did belong to Nigeria. OK. But at the time he was introduced to the Ambassador in Lebanon, he was (and he still is) a very influential man in Lebanon.
As for the last item, a group of friends are helping an unemployed friend find a job. One friend is working for the Clinton Foundation. Two other friends are Clinton's assistants at State.
Yes, this is the grand overall scheme showing collusion between the Clinton Foundation and State: lower-level folks who know each other well helping a friend, and a influential man with strong economic ties in the country asking to meet the American Ambassador in that country.
I have no doubts, none whatsoever, that if we examined the records from any past Secretary of State, we'd find the exact same type of communications. But no other Secretary of State's communications have been gone over with a microscope as Clinton's has.
Manna from Heaven for the New York Times and CNN. They're desperate to turn the Presidential race into a horse race, and Trump just won't shut up. Thankfully they have Judicial Watch. They can quote JW's Tom Fitton without having to directly make any unwarranted assertions themselves—thereby holding themselves as pure when it's later noted that what's supposedly been uncovered amounts to literally nothing.
Editor's Note: Part of the function of Ambassadors around the world is to connect with influential people in countries where they're representing the United States. This is standard procedure.
