David Bossie, president of Citizens United, demanded answers to questions raised by leaked inspector general documents that suggest high-level officials in Hillary Clinton’s State Department interfered with internal investigations.
“In the interests of open government, transparency and integrity, Secretary Clinton should immediately disclose the names of the senior State Department officials mentioned” as interfering with investigations in a 2012 draft of a report, Bossie said Wednesday.
Bossie cited a passage from the draft that alluded to an unnamed official who had allegedly stymied a criminal investigation into an ambassador.
Early drafts of a February 2013 inspector general report show officials removed unflattering passages in late 2012 before releasing it publicly.
The office of inspector general was vacant for all four years of Clinton’s tenure, with Harold Geisel serving in an acting capacity from 2008 to 2013. Geisel was replaced shortly after allegations surfaced in the media that his staff had altered a report of Bureau of Diplomatic Security inspection.
A draft dated November 16, 2012 indicated senior State Department personnel had stymied investigations of favored officials. That language was stripped from the public version of the report.
“Unfortunately, the worry is still broader. Sources reported that a senior ‘7th Floor’ Department official ordered [diplomatic security] to stop the investigation of an ambassador accused of pedophilia, and another such senior official had [diplomatic security] stop an investigation of an ambassador-designate,” the draft said. “Reportedly, such top-level intervention is rare, but it has taken place once or twice a year.”
The seventh floor is often used to refer to the secretary of state’s office, as well as the offices of the deputy secretary and the undersecretaries, because they are physically located on that level of the building, according to the State Department’s website.
A subsequent review of the incident led by Steven Linick, the permanent inspector general who replaced Geisel in 2013, downplayed the notion that Cheryl Mills, one of Clinton’s aides, intervened in the investigation of the ambassador-designate.
But Linick did uncover evidence of “undue influence” from above in both cases Bossie cited.
In the case of the ambassador-designate, Linick pointed to “favoritism” as a reason why the investigation was stalled for months without explanation.
The inspector general drafts, which were originally obtained by the Washington Examiner, have raised new questions about oversight at the State Department during Clinton’s tenure, as well as whether her staff did indeed conceal evidence of wrongdoing to prevent embarrassment.
