Mukasey: ‘FBI Doesn’t Conduct Civil Investigations’; They ‘Investigate People’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
HEILEMANN: “It is the case though. There is no prohibition against having a personal e-mail address for a cabinet secretary.”
MUKASEY: “I didn’t have one.”
HEILEMANN: “Right.”
MUKASEY: “For reasons of care on prudence – prudential reasons.”
HEILEMANN: “This kind brings us to the common sense question. I mean, when you first arrived in office as an attorney general, you were briefed about the various security standards.”
MUKASEY: “Right.”
HEILEMANN: “Just talk about – about, you make a point in the op-ed about the degree of reflexive caution that most cabinets secretaries undertake. Talk about that and why you think what she did from the very outset was problematic.”
MUKASEY: “You are briefed on the need to keep documents confidential, the need to keep classified information in its proper location and under proper conditions. For example, you don't take papers with you unless you are carrying them in a locked envelope, unless you are carrying in a vehicle that qualifies as a skiff. I managed to make an arrangement with the FBI which had an apartment on the hall for mine that I could look at documents in my apartment because they had a camera trained on the front door of my apartment. At the end of the night, I would have to go down the hall, give them the documents, and they would hold on to them.”
GREEN: “One last question. As a former attorney general, based on what’s now in the public domain, what we know, assuming we don't find out anything new about Clinton, would you be comfortable bringing charges either against Clinton or some member of her staff just based on what we know today?”
MUKASEY: “We can't based on what we know today because we don't know what documents were among the government documents that were on her private server. We also don't know precisely what she knew about those documents. So no, I would not -- based on what we have now, you couldn't justify bringing the case. On the other hand, no case has been broad. That’s why they conduct investigations.”
HEILEMANN: “There has been no indication there is a criminal investigation going on today. Was that meaningful in any way?”
MUKASEY: “It’s not meaningful, it's false. What do you think they are investigating? The FBI does not conduct civil investigations and they don't investigate -- another trope is that they are investigating her e-mail system. They don't investigate machines, they investigate people. And one of the people they are investigating is the former secretary of state. They are also investigating other members of her staff obviously, because they too were involved in transmitting documents. It is a criminal investigation.”
