Guilty as Sin G U I LTY AS SIN UNCOVERING NEW EVIDENCE OF CORRUPTION AND HOW HILLARY CLINTON AND THE DEMOCRATS DERAILED THE FBI INVESTIGATION EDWARD KLEIN Copyright © 2016 by Edward Klein All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, website, or broadcast. Regnery® is a registered trademark of Salem Communications Holding Corporation First e-book edition 2016: ISBN 978-1-62157-642-6 Originally published in hardcover, 2016: ISBN 978-1-62157-641-9 Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress Published in the United States by Regnery Publishing A Division of Salem Media Group 300 New Jersey Ave NW Washington, DC 20001 www.Regnery.com Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Books are available in quantity for promotional or premium use. For information on discounts and terms, please visit our website: www. Regnery.com. Distributed to the trade by Perseus Distribution 250 West 57th Street New York, NY 10107 ALSO BY EDWARD KLEIN NONFICTION All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy Just Jackie: Her Private Years The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America’s First Family for 150 Years Farewell, Jackie: A Portrait of Her Final Days The Truth about Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She’ll Go to Become President Katie: The Real Story Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas Unlikeable: The Problem with Hillary NOVELS If Israel Lost the War (With Robert Littell and Richard Z. Chesnoff) The Parachutists The Obama Identity (With John LeBoutillier) ANTHOLOGIES About Men (With Don Erickson) For D.J.B. Forever CONTENTS PROLOGUE RIGGED XI PART 1 HILLARY CHAPTER 1 “THE SKY IS FALLING” 3 CHAPTER 2 “AN ANGEL SHOOTS A CHERUB” 11 CHAPTER 3 HER FATAL FLAW 17 PART 2 BILL CHAPTER 4 KALE SALAD AND A MASSAGE 29 CHAPTER 5 BLINDSIDED 33 CHAPTER 6 BROKEN PROMISES 39 PART 3 BARACK CHAPTER 7 “LOVE JOE BIDEN” 47 CHAPTER 8 THE SMELL TEST 57 CHAPTER 9 A ONE-EIGHTY 63 PART 4 “BIG JIM” CHAPTER 10 COLLISION COURSE 69 CHAPTER 11 CITIZEN COMEY 73 CHAPTER 12 STACKING UP THE EVIDENCE 81 PART 5 THE INVESTIGATION CHAPTER 13 THE CLINTON BRAND 87 CHAPTER 14 PAY TO PLAY 95 CHAPTER 15 “THE GENERAL HAS ARRIVED” 103 CHAPTER 16 HIGH NOON IN THE OVAL 109 CHAPTER 17 “EVEN GOD CAN’T READ THEM” 117 PART 6 COUNTERSTRIKE CHAPTER 18 CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE 125 CHAPTER 19 “MY WORST MISTAKE AS PRESIDENT” 129 CHAPTER 20 THE BLUMENTHAL ASCENDANCY 133 PART 7 DONALD VS. HILLARY CHAPTER 21 TRUMP FORCE ONE 141 CHAPTER 22 “CROOKED HILLARY” 151 CHAPTER 23 “WOULD TRUMP BE WORSE?” 159 PART 8 THE CLINTONS CHAPTER 24 HILLARY’S “VALERIE JARRETT” 171 CHAPTER 25 FIT TO LEAD? 179 CHAPTER 26 A TISSUE OF LIES 187 PART 9 RUNNING OUT OF TIME CHAPTER 27 TOO BIG TO FAIL 201 CHAPTER 28 FORT HOOVER 211 CHAPTER 29 “A PERFECT STORM OF MISERY” 215 CHAPTER 30 “FROM THE POLITICAL FRYING PAN TO THE FIRE” 221 CHAPTER 31 “IN THIS TO THE END” 227 EPILOGUE THE CHOICE 237 A Note on Sources 255 PROLOGUE Rigged The Executive Terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport Monday, June 27, 2016 ill Clinton’s private jet was cleared for takeoff and was taxiing toward the active runway when a Secret Service Bagent informed him that Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s plane was coming in for a landing. “Don’t take off!” Bill barked. As his plane skidded to a halt and then headed back to its parking space, Bill grabbed a phone and called an old friend— one of his most trusted legal advisers. xi xii Prologue “Bill said, ‘I want to bushwhack Loretta,’” the adviser recalled in an interview for this book.* “‘I’m going to board her plane. What do you think?’ And I said, ‘There’s no downside for you, but she’s going to take a pounding if she’s crazy enough to let you on her plane.’ “He knew it would be a huge embarrassment to Loretta when people found out that she had talked to the husband of a woman—the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party— who was under criminal investigation by the FBI,” the adviser continued. “But he didn’t give a damn. He wanted to intimidate Loretta and discredit [FBI Director James] Comey’s investigation of Hillary’s emails, which was giving Hillary’s campaign agita.” Bill hung up the phone and turned to a Secret Service agent. “As soon as her plane lands,” he said, “get the attorney general on the phone and say the president would like to have a word with her.” Several minutes later, Loretta Lynch came on an encrypted phone line. Lynch owed the former president big time. Seventeen years before, he had appointed her U.S. attorney for the Eastern Dis- trict of New York, one of the highest profile prosecutorial posts in the country. Now, the man who had made her career was on the phone inviting himself to visit her on her plane, and Lynch couldn’t bring herself to say no. Bill walked across the seventy-five yards that separated his plane from hers. It was 108 degrees in Phoenix, and Bill later recalled that he could feel the heat through the soles of his shoes. * The source, who has been close to Bill Clinton for four decades, was interviewed twenty-five times for this book. Prologue xiii Meanwhile, his Secret Service detail and Lynch’s uniformed FBI agents were frantically scurrying around her plane, trying to secure the area. They ordered everyone to put away cell phones. No pictures of this meeting would be allowed. Bill shook hands with Lynch’s agents and nodded to the Air Force pilot standing at attention at the bottom of the stairs. “He told me he bounded up the stairs of her plane on pure adrenalin,” Bill’s adviser said. “It brought out the old fighter in him. During Hillary’s campaign, he’d been feeling weak; he didn’t have the fire in his belly. But his fury over the FBI witch-hunt of his wife, whom he loves with a passion despite all the shit he gets up to—that infuriated him. You can say anything you want about him, and he’ll let it go. But attack his wife, and he’ll try to destroy you.” Once inside Lynch’s plane, Bill turned on the Clinton charm. He gave Lynch’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze and shook hands with her husband, Stephen Hargrove. “Bill said he could tell that Loretta knew from the get-go that she’d made a huge mistake,” his adviser said. “She was literally trembling, shaking with nervousness. Her husband tried to com- fort her; he kept patting her hand and rubbing her back. “Bill made small talk about golf and grandchildren and [for- mer Attorney General] Janet Reno, and he kept at it for nearly a half hour. It didn’t make any difference what they talked about; all he wanted to do was send a message to everyone at Justice and the FBI that Hillary had the full weight of the Clinton machine, the Democratic Party, and the White House behind her. “It was clearly tortuous for Loretta. Bill told me later that he noticed there were beads of sweat on her upper lip. xiv Prologue “Like all attorneys general, Loretta is accustomed to being treated as royalty wherever she goes, but here she was sitting in her plane, entirely helpless, being intimidated by this wickedly clever old coyote, who had bushwhacked her on the Arizona desert.” Aspen Ideas Festival, Aspen, Colorado Friday, July 1, 2016 On the final day of the Aspen Institute’s annual summer get- together for self-congratulating liberal elites, Jonathan Capehart, a member of the Washington Post editorial board and an MSNBC contributor, interviewed Attorney General Loretta Lynch. It was four days since the airport encounter between Lynch and Bill Clinton, and in the public furor that ensued, every- one—Democrats and Republicans alike—agreed that the meet- ing had seriously compromised the FBI’s investigation into Hillary’s use of an unsecure private email system when she was secretary of state. Capehart and Lynch sat on a raised stage, a few feet apart— the thin, wiry journalist dressed incongruously in a dark wintry suit; the attorney general in a black dress, pink jacket, and a double strand of pearls. “You have a reputation of having the highest integrity, utmost, solid judgment,” Capehart began. “ . A lot of people were like . friends, supporters, backers, are saying, ‘What on earth was she thinking?’ talking to Bill Clinton?” “Well, I think that’s the question of the day, isn’t it?” Lynch replied, visibly squirming in her chair. “ . Certainly my meeting Prologue xv with him raises questions and concerns, and so, believe me, I completely get the question. .” She then launched into a long explanation of the process. “ . So back to my first question,” Capehart pressed Lynch. “The what-were-you-thinking question.” Lynch giggled nervously, but didn’t reply.