ABC and CBS on Wednesday night and Thursday morning minimized their coverage for Hillary Clinton's still-ongoing e-mail scandal. It was left to Fox's Megyn Kelly to report that "the potential criminal case against Hillary Clinton may have gotten a whole lot stronger." She informed viewers, "We are told that every employee leaving the State Department, every one, must sign the OF-109 form."
Kelly added, "The document requires the employee to certify that he or she has, quote, 'surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the government acquired while in the employ of the department.'" It took Clinton two years to begin turning over e-mails from her tenure at State.
Yet, on Wednesday night, ABC's World News ignored the e-mail scandal. The CBS Evening News gave it 20 seconds. On Thursday, GMA allowed another 26 seconds. CBS This Morning offered 23 seconds to the news that the Associated Press is suing to get Clinton's e-mail. NBC News has continued to seriously cover the story, delivering full reports on the Nightly News and Today.
On Fox News, Kelly detailed what form OF-109 means and why it appears Clinton didn't comply:
MEGYN KELLY: This is State Department records manual that says departing officials, quote, "Must ensure that all record material they possess is incorporated in the department's official files and that all file searches for which they are tasked have been completed such as those required to respond to FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, Congressional or litigation-related document requests. And it goes onto say, and by the way, if you don't do it, all State Department employees including the secretary, fines, imprisonment or both may be imposed for the willful and unlawful removal or destruction of records as stated in the U.S. criminal code.
On March 11, the Associated Press fact checked Clinton's entire press conference, including this assertion:
CLINTON: "I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material."
THE FACTS: The assertion fits with the facts as known but skirts the issue of exchanging information in a private account that, while falling below the level of classified, is still sensitive.
The State Department and other national security agencies have specified rules for the handling of such sensitive material, which could affect national security, diplomatic and privacy concerns, and may include material such as personnel, medical and law enforcement data. In reviewing the 30,000 emails she turned over to the State Department, officials are looking for any security lapses concerning sensitive but unclassified material that may have been disclosed.
Between the reporting of Fox News and the Associated Press, it's clear there is more to this story. The networks should continue to cover it.
A partial transcript of the March 11 segment is below:
MEGYN KELLY: Breaking tonight, big news in the Clinton e-mail scandal as The Kelly File obtains information suggesting the potential criminal case against Hillary Clinton may have gotten a whole lot stronger. Welcome to The Kelly File, everyone. I'm Megyn Kelly. In the 24 hours since Hillary Clinton gave a news conference on a scandal threatening her political future, her situation has not improved. The State Department inspector general came out tonight and slammed her department's record keeping. The Associated Press is now filed a lawsuit claiming it has been stonewalled by state for five years on document production. The Benghazi Select Committee is getting ready to force Mrs. Clinton to testify under oath about her e-mails. New reports suggest several Clinton staffers were also communicating through this secret off-the-record system, where are their e-mails? And tonight we have a new development raising serious questions about this claim.
HILLARY CLINTON: I'd be happy to have somebody talk to you about the rules. I fully complied with every rule that I was governed by.
KELLY: Really? Let's talk rules and what we learned about tonight. We are told that every employee leaving the State Department, every one, must sign the OF-109 form. The document requires the employee to certify that he or she has, quote, "surrendered to responsible officials all unclassified documents and papers relating to the official business of the government acquired while in the employ of the department." And the form makes it very clear that a false statement that you have done that when you have not is punishable as a felony. So, where that does leave us? Because we know for a fact that Mrs. Clinton did not surrender any of her e-mails until more than two years after she left the agency. Just before we came to air I spoke to Shannen Coffin, whose former council to Vice President Dick Cheney and a former DOJ civil division assistant deputy attorney general. Watch.
Shannen, good to see you tonight. So, let's start with the broad brush, which is she followed all the rules, all the rules and she didn't commit any crimes whatsoever. You've been maintaining all along that's not necessary -- it's not true on the rules and it may not be true on the law if she concealed or destroyed federal records.SHANNEN COFFIN (former counsel to Dick Cheney): It's demonstrably not true on the rules. She didn't comply with the federal records act. And she clearly did not comply with her own records management handbook for the Department of State which sets out a very specific process about how you remove records from the department control.
...KELLY: Let's put it on the board so viewers can see it themselves. This is State Department records manual that says departing officials, quote, "Must ensure that all record material they possess is incorporated in the department's official files and that all file searches for which they are tasked have been completed such as those required to respond to FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, Congressional or litigation-related document requests. And it goes onto say, and by the way, if you don't do it, all State Department employees including the secretary, fines, imprisonment or both may be imposed for the willful and unlawful removal or destruction of records as stated in the U.S. criminal code.
COFFIN: That's exactly right. And a couple pages later the same manual says -- and this includes e-mails as well. So there's no doubt looking at that but wherever the secretary had those records -- if she had them in her Chappaqua home, if she had them in her office, if she had them somewhere else, she's got to bring all of the records to the table and turn over any official records at the time of her departure. Not, most definitely not, two years later.
KELLY: It makes perfect sense. This is a State Department trying to comply with its obligations under the law trying to say to the secretary, look, we're going to get hit with FOIA requests, Congressional requests, subpoenas and so on. We have to make sure our files are up to date and you've got your stuff before you leave. And so, she either did that certification to the State Department untruthfully, right? She either said they had everything when they didn't.
COFFIN: Right.
KELLY: Or for some reason she didn't do it. And we asked the State Department for an answer to that. So far tonight we don't have it. We expect and hope we'll get it tomorrow.
COFFIN: Megyn, every employee at the State Department has to sign this little piece of paper when they leave the State Department. And it says I certify basically under penalty of perjury that I have returned all official records that were in my possession while I was an officer of the Department of State. So where is that document, Megyn? And if there isn't -- if she didn't sign that, why not? There are a lot of questions to be answered.
