2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Hillary's Email Scandal for Non-Techy People [View all]IdaBriggs
(10,559 posts)But keep in mind that sources are everything.
The attacks took place on September 11, 2012.
Everybody and their brother started forming committee to investigate - the FBI on September 13, 2012; October saw a "State Department Accountability Board", the House subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense, and Foreign Operations scheduling interviews, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is conducting its own investigation, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs also investigating, and blah, blah, blah: all Benghazi, all the time. Details here -https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_investigation_into_the_2012_Benghazi_attack
All of the people involved were investigating, interviewing and asking for documents for several months but none of Hillary's emails were showing up because they were on the private server.
From Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack#Investigation
The conservative foundation Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request to the Department of State on December 19, 2012. An acknowledgement of the request was received by Judicial Watch on January 4, 2013. When the State Department failed to respond to the request by February 4, 2013, Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit, which resulted in seven photographs being delivered on June 6, 2013.
(snip)
On May 30, 2013 it was reported that the Republican National Committee filed a FOIA for "any and all emails or other documents containing the terms 'Libya' and/or 'Benghazi' dated between September 11, 2012 and November 7, 2012 directed from or to U.S. Department of State employees originating from, or addressed to, persons whose email addresses end in either 'barackobama.com' or 'dnc.org.'"
So the Judicial Watch people were being ignored/locked out, and no one yet knew about her private email account.
Then this happened in the summer of 2014 (because no one took the Guccifer stuff seriously in 2013?):
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton_email_controversy
Emails sent to Clinton's private clintonemail.com address were first discovered in March 2013, when a hacker named "Guccifer" widely distributed emails sent to her from Sidney Blumenthal, obtained by illegally accessing Blumenthal's email account. The emails dealt with the 2012 Benghazi attack and other issues in Libya and revealed the existence of her clintonemail.com address. Blumenthal did not have a security clearance when he received material from Clinton that has since been characterized as classified by the State Department.
In the summer of 2014, lawyers from the State Department noticed a number of emails from Clinton's personal account, while reviewing documents requested by the House Select Committee on Benghazi. A request by the State Department for additional emails led to negotiations with her lawyers and advisors. In October, the State Department sent letters to Clinton and all previous Secretaries of State back to Madeleine Albright requesting emails and documents related to their work while in office. In December, more than 50,000 printed pages of emails from Clinton's personal email account were delivered to the State Department, and the State Department subsequently transferred the Benghazi-related emails to the committee.
A March 2, 2015 New York Times article broke the story that the Benghazi panel had discovered that Clinton exclusively used her own private email server rather than a government-issued one throughout her time as Secretary of State, and that her aides took no action to preserve emails sent or received from her personal accounts as required by law. At that point, Clinton announced that she had asked the State Department to release her emails. Some in the media labeled the controversy "emailgate".
And the bold sections are why it tied into the Benghazi investigation to me. Judicial Watch wanted more, but until the State Department lawyers figured it out, all searches were coming up blank.
Thoughts on the logic chain?