The major broadcast networks omitted from their Thursday morning and evening newscasts e-mails revealed late Wednesday that Hillary Clinton was denied requests in 2009 when she became secretary of state that she be outfitted with a government-secured Blackberry in order to handle classified information on her smartphone.
The e-mails in question were obtained and made public by the legal group Judicial Watch in what served as the latest break in the ever-growing Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal (thanks to their numerous lawsuits seeking to release hoards of documents related to the actions of Clinton and her top aides).
While ABC, CBS, and NBC censored this story, the Fox News Channel’s evening news show Special Report found the time to devote a 23-second news brief to the matter from host Bret Baier:
Newly released documents reveal Hillary Clinton tried to get the State Department to change its rules to allow her to use her Blackberry to handle classified information in secure fittings. The request came less than a month after Clinton became secretary of state. A cyber security analyst tells Fox News the inquiry reflects a contempt for the system in place to protect sensitive information.
According to an Associated Press (AP) story, Clinton’s requests were denied by the National Security Agency (NSA) and instead, she started one month later to “us[e] private email accounts accessed through her BlackBerry to exchange messages with her top aides.”
The piece further explained that Clinton wanted to follow President Obama since he was given a more secure “Blackberry-like” phone after being sworn in as President since he had grown attached to the Blackberry he used while a candidate and Senator from Illinois.
It was even more significant due to the fact that “Clinton chose not to use a laptop or desktop computer that could have provided her access to email in her office, according to the summary” of a meeting between the NSA, State Department, and Clinton chief of Staffer Cheryl Mills.
While Clinton’s team argued that she should be given the same privileges as the President and her predecessors were given special phones, the AP noted that “the NSA had phased out such waivers due to security concerns.”
The transcript of the brief from FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier on March 17 can be found below.
FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier
March 17, 2016
6:14 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: Newly released documents reveal Hillary Clinton tried to get the State Department to change its rules to allow her to use her Blackberry to handle classified information in secure fittings. The request came less than a month after Clinton became secretary of state. A cyber security analyst tells Fox News the inquiry reflects a contempt for the system in place to protect sensitive information.
