XPost: dc.politics, atl.general, uw.clubs.vietnamese   
   XPost: alt.politics.bush   
   From: multiple.felonies@hillaryclinton.com   
      
   It’s one of the most perplexing questions surrounding the   
   massive scandal over Clinton’s use of an unsecured, private e-   
   mail server when she served as secretary of state. How could it   
   be that no one in the State Department pointed out that Clinton   
   was violating government policy and putting sensitive   
   information at risk? Why didn’t her closest advisers warn that   
   the move could torpedo her resurgent presidential ambitions?   
      
   State Department staffers aren’t talking — not yet, at least.   
   But the thousands of Clinton e-mails reluctantly released by the   
   State Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act   
   lawsuit are illuminating. They reveal a secretary of state   
   heavily insulated from her agency’s rank-and-file by a devoted   
   inner circle, one which relentlessly lavished praise on Clinton   
   and sometimes functioned more like receptionists than top   
   strategic advisers. Many of the same confidantes appear set to   
   take high-level jobs in a future Clinton White House, meaning   
   her “yes-man problem” is likely to persist should she become   
   president. The vast majority of the 3,500 e-mails released so   
   far were sent or received by just four members of Clinton’s   
   inner circle at State: Cheryl Mills, Bill Clinton’s lawyer   
   during his impeachment trial, who became Secretary Clinton’s   
   chief of staff; Huma Abedin, Clinton’s longtime aide, who became   
   her deputy chief of staff; Jake Sullivan, a foreign-policy   
   adviser to Clinton’s 2008 presidential run, who became her top   
   foreign-policy adviser at State; and Philippe Reines, Clinton’s   
   long-serving Senate spokesperson, who became a senior adviser.   
      
   >From day one, there was a sharp divide between the department’s   
   career officials and this personal coterie of loyalists who   
   followed Clinton into office. Reines lays out that divide   
   explicitly on May 1, 2009, in an e-mail to Mills disputing a New   
   York Times quote from a source “in [Clinton’s] circle” who   
   described tension between Clinton and retired General James   
   Jones, Obama’s national security adviser. “Someone in her circle   
   is someone like you, or a Jake, or me,” Reines wrote. “And none   
   of us would ever say anything like that. Someone who was slated   
   for a position at State irrespective of the choice of HRC as   
   Secretary should not be allowed to be identified that way.” E-   
   mail after e-mail shows how top State Department officials were   
   kept from dealing with Clinton directly, instead being rerouted   
   to the members of her inner circle. Though nominally in charge   
   of the Department’s public-affairs division, assistant secretary   
   P. J. Crowley was included in just 94 of the 3,500 e-mails, and   
   even on those he was often merely CCed. In all but a handful of   
   cases, Crowley’s messages to Clinton were first sent through   
   Mills, who then decided whether to forward them along to her   
   boss with a simple “FYI.” In the exchange involving General   
   Jones — clearly a high public-affairs priority for Clinton and   
   the State Department — Crowley was excluded altogether.   
      
   E-mails between Clinton and her personal advisers, meanwhile,   
   were brimming with fawning praise for the secretary. Dozens of   
   times, Mills forwarded messages from State Department observers   
   and lower-level staffers congratulating Clinton on a successful   
   speech or media appearance. “A little positive reinforcement to   
   pass on to the S,” read the subject line of one March 28, 2009 e-   
   mail, in which a University of Southern California lecturer   
   called her trip to Mexico a “stunning success” and “jaw-   
   dropping.” Mills also forwarded an April 30, 2009 message from   
   Paul Begala, a former Clinton adviser. “I gave Sec. Clinton an   
   A+ in our dopey CNN report card last night,” he wrote. “So did   
   Donna Brazile. The only two A+’s all night.” Clinton would   
   sometimes ask her staff to print the more effusive commendations.   
      
   Many other e-mails contain news reports or editorials   
   complimentary of Clinton’s tenure. “Andrew Sullivan with the   
   Hillary love,” read one e-mail from September 16, 2012, which   
   included a positive op-ed from the Boston Herald. “Higher ground   
   is where all great solutions and triumphs are found and scaled,”   
   wrote Roy Pence, a Clinton-family friend included on the e-mail   
   chain. “HRC, once again, is taking people there.” A perusal of   
   the documents revealed no e-mails highlighting negative media   
   coverage of the secretary. Some of the e-mails show an apparent   
   desire to bolster Clinton’s confidence in the shadow of   
   President Obama. In one especially effusive e-mail, Reines   
   praised Clinton’s July 26, 2009 appearance on Meet the Press.   
   “You threw a perfect game — or at least a no hitter,” he wrote,   
   saying her performance proved “you’re in a class all your own   
   (including the President who became enmeshed in the Gates   
   incident.)” While not officially a State Department employee,   
   Clinton shadow adviser Sidney Blumenthal attacked President   
   Obama while simultaneously congratulating Clinton. “I don’t know   
   about details of Obama’s plan, but you looked terrific at the   
   speech,” he wrote on September 11, 2009. In an August 22, 2011   
   missive lauding Clinton for presiding over the fall of Libyan   
   dictator Moammar Qaddafi, Blumenthal struck out at the   
   “flamingly stupid ‘leading from behind’ phrase,” which an Obama   
   White House official had used to describe the intervention.   
      
   At times, Clinton’s inner circle seemed aware of the lengths   
   they’d go to buck up their boss. “Your arrival in Kabul landed   
   the front page picture in the NYT and sparked an on-line poll in   
   Huff Post about your coat. At last check, its favorability   
   rating is 77 percent,” wrote Crowley in a rare direct message to   
   Clinton on November 19, 2009. Reines, CCed on the message,   
   quickly wrote back. “Now I know why Huma has been at a computer   
   all day clicking the mouse incessantly,” he quipped.   
      
   When Clinton’s top advisers weren’t busy applauding the   
   secretary, she often engaged them in menial work. Abedin   
   received the brunt of it, with the deputy chief of staff being   
   instructed to “pls print” dozens of budget testimonies,   
   intelligence memoranda, Afghanistan updates, and a whole host of   
   other documents. But Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, also   
   seemed caught up in minutiae, forwarding hundreds of e-mails to   
   Clinton in a matter of months and apparently operating as the   
   secretary’s personal e-mail screening service. Even Sullivan,   
   now a shoo-in for the prestigious position of national-security   
   adviser should Clinton win the presidency, wasn’t immune.   
   Clinton would often e-mail him an interesting news article with   
   the same accompanying instructions, “pls print.” And in April   
   2009, Sullivan was asked to compile a list of the key White   
   House attendees at AIPAC conferences throughout the years.   
   Isolated from the broader department and surrounded by seemingly   
   adoring advisers who were often buried in busy work, it’s   
   perhaps unsurprising that Clinton never thought through the   
      
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