Did Hillary Clinton violate protocol by using burn bags?
Huma Abedin, a top aide to presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, revealed in a deposition last week that her boss destroyed her schedule as secretary of state on more than one occasion.
Clinton faces multiple lawsuits seeking public records of the time she was at the helm of the US State Department. Although Abedin was deposed relating to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit looking into Clinton鈥檚 emails, Abedin's admission sheds light on a different matter related to Clinton鈥檚 schedules.
鈥淚f there was a schedule that was created that was her Secretary of State daily schedule, , that鈥�... that certainly happened on鈥�...鈥俹n more than one occasion,鈥� Abedin told lawyers representing Judicial Watch, the conservative organization behind the emails lawsuit, according to the New York Post.
Clinton previously admitted to destroying "private personal emails" when she was secretary of state, but neither she nor anyone close to her had made any reference to destroying public records until Abedin鈥檚 reference to using burn bags, containers that hold sensitive or classified documents that will be destroyed.
A former State Department official told the Post he had聽never seen a diplomat destroy a daily schedule聽during his eight years in the department, because their schedules were made available to a variety of State Department employees and US officials.
鈥淚鈥檝e never seen anyone put their schedule in the burn bag 鈥� because every one of them had a state.gov email address and therefore their daily schedules became public records, as required by law,鈥� Richard Grenell, former diplomat and US spokesman at the United Nations, told the Post.
Experts predict the circumstances surrounding the聽destroyed聽records will be聽intensely scrutinized. The Associated Press has been trying to obtain access to Clinton鈥檚 schedule and聽public and private calendars through Freedom of Information Acts from January 2009 to February 2013, and the wire service sued the State Department for the schedules in 2015.
Yet some have pointed out that any destruction of Clinton's schedules would not have been without precedent. It was standard protocol for the President George W. Bush鈥檚 staff to destroy his schedules, according to Brad Blakeman, a former scheduler for the president.
鈥淭he [president鈥檚] schedule was not classified but it was deemed 鈥榟ighly sensitive.鈥� Instructions were given at the White House and on the road that schedules would be聽,鈥� Blakeman told the Post.
However, a decision by Clinton or her staff to use burn bags for her schedule would demonstrate 鈥渁 skewed sense of security,鈥� said Blakeman, since Clinton's staff disposed of the secretary鈥檚 schedule as if it were classified but did not take similar precautions with her emails.
Earlier in the Judicial Watch investigation into the former secretary of state鈥檚 private email server, Abedin expressed frustration that聽Clinton鈥檚 unconventional email practices , according to the Post.
In one case, an important message went to spam, meaning Clinton "wasn鈥檛 able to do her job, do what she needed to do," Abedin testified, explaining a November 2010 email exchange in which she recommended putting Clinton on a state email or releasing her email address to the department so her messages wouldn鈥檛 wind up in the spam folder. Clinton responded, agreeing her email setup was 鈥渘ot a good system,鈥� and said she was considering 鈥渁 separate advice鈥� but wanted to avoid 鈥渁ny risk of the personal being accessible.鈥�
Clinton was interviewed by FBI investigators on Saturday. On Monday, FBI director James B. Comey said that the former secretary of state and her staff had been "extremely careless" with emails, but that "" would seek charges against them. Late last week, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that she would accept any recommendations from the FBI.聽
