What We Know And Don't Know About The Clinton E-Mails
By MICHAEL FALCONE
NOTABLES
- SHE TWEETS: Hillary Clinton addressed concerns last night about her use of a personal email account during her term as secretary of state, expressing a desire to release her emails, ABC's DAN GOOD, LIZ KREUTZ and SHUSHANNAH WALSHE report. "I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible," Clinton wrote on Twitter. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf, in a statement that followed Clinton's tweet, said the department is focused on reviewing Clinton's emails. "The State Department will review for public release the emails provided by Secretary Clinton to the Department, using a normal process that guides such releases," the statement reads. "We will undertake this review as quickly as possible; given the sheer volume of the document set, this review will take some time to complete." http://abcn.ws/1wJ39ba
- THE HOUSE SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI SENT SUBPOENAS to the State Department explicitly requesting all of her communications related to Libya, according to ABC's JOHN PARKINSON. "The Select Committee on Benghazi today issued subpoenas for all communications of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton related to Libya and to the State Department for other individuals who have information pertinent to the investigation," Jamal Ware, communications director for the committee, wrote in a statement. "The Committee also has issued preservation letters to internet firms informing them of their legal obligation to protect all relevant documents." The documents are the latest request from Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the committee, as his investigation into the deadly attack continues. http://abcn.ws/1wIDUpy
- WHAT WE KNOW: The email account that Clinton used while working at the State Department was hdr22@clintonemail.com and was traced to a server based out of Chappaqua, New York, where she and former President Bill Clinton have a home. ABC News also learned that another email domain, wjcoffice.com, which used the former president's initials as their descriptor, was also based out of Chappaqua. That domain was registered by an individual called Eric Hoteham, the same name used to register the clintonemail.com domain. http://abcn.ws/1wJ39ba
THE ROUNDTABLE
ABC's SHUSHANNAH WALSHE: It's been a difficult week for Hillary Clinton, but could it change her plans for a presidential run? No. And looking at polls she's still by far the favorite in a field with little competition. In a new Quinnipiac University poll out this morning, Clinton is the choice of 56 percent of Democratic or Democratic leaning voters nationwide, with 14 percent for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 10 percent for Vice President Joe Biden and 4 percent for Sen. Bernie Sanders, with another 14 percent undecided. Now this survey was completed March 2nd, just the day before the New York Times first broke the news that Clinton exclusively used a personal e mail account while at the State Department, but it still shows a commanding lead. If Clinton does not run, Biden gets 35 percent, with 25 percent for Warren and 7 percent for Sanders, with 25 percent undecided. The high number of undecideds show there is room for another competitor, but Clinton at this stage has almost cleared the field. Could her recent troubles change that? Her actual competitors, like Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, must be watching quite closely. More: http://bit.ly/1wXQf3x
ABC's RICK KLEIN: Hillary Clinton took to Twitter for just the 128th time ever to declare, "I want the public to see my email." Presumably, at some bureaucratically predictable pace, many of her emails, if not most, will be released by the State Department, or the congressional panel that has subpoenaed them. Yet they will be culled from a self-selected pool of emails Clinton aides found appropriate and relevant to turn over in the first place. Their estimation - and there's no way to check this - is that nine out of 10 are in State custody. That means more than 5,000 emails won't even be reviewed for possible release. So far as we know - because the public isn't being told yet - every email she has ever sent from her special account still resides in a server in Clinton's home. And Clinton and those around her aren't saying why they chose to set up this unusual email system in the first place. Transparency is more than a Tweet.
THE BUZZ
with ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
RAMPANT RACISM AND OTHER SCATHING FINDINGS FROM FERGUSON PROBE. The Department of Justice Wednesday released its investigation of the Ferguson police, which found a pattern and practice of discriminatory policing. The report includes seven racist emails sent by Ferguson officers. One such email read, "President Barack Obama would not be President for very long because "what black man holds a steady job for four years," ABC's JACK CLOHERTY and MIKE LEVINE report. In its review, the Justice Department also found 161 use of force complaints against the Ferguson police from 2010 to 2014. Only one case was founded and no officer was disciplined. "As detailed in our searing report…this investigation found a community that was deeply polarized; a community where deep distrust and hostility often characterized interactions between police and area residents," said US Attorney General Eric Holder. "A community where both policing and municipal court practices were found to disproportionately harm African American residents. A community where this harm frequently appears to stem, at least in part, from racial bias - both implicit and explicit." The conclusions come nearly seven months after a confrontation with officer Darren Wilson left 18-year-old Michael Brown dead. Separately Wednesday, the DOJ announced that Wilson will not be charged in Brown's death. http://abcn.ws/1B2bCWP
OBAMACARE AND HOW TO READ THE SUPREME COURT TEA LEAVES. The Supreme Court Wednesday morning weighed which states' residents the Obama administration is legally entitled to provide insurance subsidies to under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. The case came about when some Virginians who receive subsidies to buy health insurance on healthcare.gov sued the government, saying they shouldn't be getting the subsidies, ABC's ADAM TEICHOLZ writes. They say they're hurt by the money because without it, they wouldn't have to buy insurance at all: The ACA requires people to buy insurance, but exempts anyone who would have to spend more than 8 percent of their annual income on health insurance. When the law talks about how subsidies are calculated, it refers to customers of Exchanges "established by the State," and doesn't mention Exchanges established by the federal government. But when Obama's IRS passed regulations to implement the law, they gave subsidies to customers of both state and federal exchanges. The plaintiffs are trying to prevent the issuance of subsidies to customers of federal exchanges. Kate Shaw, ABC News' legal consultant and assistant professor of Law at the Benjamin R. Cardozo School of Law in New York, shares her experience in the courtroom as the justices took turns grilling the lawyers for the plaintiffs and the government. http://abcn.ws/1BT1UYX
BEN CARSON HAS FOUND HIMSELF IN HOT WATER THESE 5 TIMES. Just two days after launching his exploratory committee, potential Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson found himself in hot water for arguing on CNN that prison proves homosexuality is "absolutely" a choice. "Because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight - and when they come out, they're gay. So, did something happen while they were in there?" the retired neurosurgeon said this morning. Carson's comments sparked outrage from the Human Rights Campaign. "Ben Carson is putting his own personal ambition ahead of medical science by suggesting that a person can change their sexual orientation," HRC's Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz said in a statement Wednesday. "As a doctor, Carson surely knows that countless mental health and medical organizations have condemned the idea that you can change a person's sexual orientation. The only thing that's really been proven here is that when Ben Carson says what he really thinks, he reveals himself as utterly unfit for office." This is not the first time Carson has found his name in a headline next to the word "controversial," ABC's VERONICA STRACQUALURSI notes. Scrutiny of his past comments has led Carson to clarify his statements more than once. http://abcn.ws/17RTRxI
THE ONE SENATE HEARING STILL ON THE SCHEDULE FOR TODAY'S SNOWDAY. Senate committees canceled their Thursday hearings left and right as the big snowstorm approached. But there is at least one Senate Committee that will continue on with its hearing - the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee - which is appropriately holding a hearing on a freezing topic - United States Arctic Opportunities. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chairwoman of the committee, yesterday invited all of her stranded colleagues to attend the hearing Thursday. "We may be the only committee that is open for business. We may be the only senators that are here in, in the building," Murkowski, R-Alaska, said on the Senate floor Wednesday "I'm encouraging all my colleagues who may be locked out because you couldn't jump on a flight quick enough or you can't get on the roads soon enough," to attend the hearing. "I don't know if the timing of the hearing was just prescient on my part and we knew that this was going to happen," she said. "If so, I should also do part-time work as a weather forecaster." The only other official meeting happening on the Senate side today is a closed Senate Intelligence Committee briefing, ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ notes.
MARYLAND DEM. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN DECLARES CANDIDACY FOR U.S. SENATE. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, one of the Democrats' brightest stars in the House of Representatives, has decided to make a run to fill the Senate seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Mikulski. "I am excited to share that I have decided to run for the United States Senate from our great State of Maryland," Van Hollen writes in a statement posted on his Facebook page Wednesday. "I am very much looking forward to the upcoming campaign and a healthy exchange of ideas." Van Hollen, 56, was widely seen as a possible replacement to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, once she steps down as leader of the caucus, according to ABC's JOHN PARKINSON.
SENATE FAILS TO OVERRIDE PRESIDENT OBAMA'S VETO ON KEYSTONE XL. The Senate failed to override President Obama's veto of the bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday with a vote of 62-37, ABC's ARLETTE SAENZ reports.
WHO'S TWEETING?
@joshledermanAP: Top Obama aides have been in contact with Clinton team to clarify facts about the email saga - http://apne.ws/17UAWm0
@nationaljournal: Democrats aren't rushing to defend Hillary Clinton http://buff.ly/1GlGuVo
@davidmaraniss: Hillary Clinton Still Doesn't Get It http://www.nationaljournal.com/twenty-sixteen/hillary-clinton-still-doesn-t-get-it-20150305?ref=t.co&mrefid=walkingheader … via @nationaljournal
@timkmak: AUMF dies a slow death: Not a single Dem on Sen Foreign Relations Cmte supports it as drafted by the White House http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/no-clear-way-forward-isil-war-authorization-115773.html?hp=t2_r …
@rollcall: The Maryland Democrat Who Wants to Stay Where He Is http://roll.cl/1B3RrYk via @davidhawkings