After the revelation that the DOJ's assistant attorney general, Peter Kadzik, was exposed as sending information about upcoming DOJ events to his friend, Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta, from a private, non-government gmail account, many were confused, asking if this is i) legal and ii) grounds for termination, if not criminal proceedings.
As a reminder, on May 19, 2015, from his personal gmail account, Peter Kadzik emailed the gmail account of John Podesta (who then promptly forwarded it onward to everyone on the Clinton campaign) the following:
Heads Up
There is a HJC oversight hearing today where the head of our Civil Division will testify. Likely to get questions on State Department emails. Another filing in the FOIA case went in last night or will go in this am that indicates it will be awhile (2016) before the State Department posts the emails.
Perhaps it was the clearly laid out partisan intent to assist the Clinton campaign, coupled with the obvious dissemination of DOJ information using un-FOIAble methods, namely a private email account, that prompted Americans to demand an answer from the DOJ regarding the fate of Kadzik.
However, at least according to an initial statement from the DOJ, absolutely nothing will emerge from today's leak.As the Daily Caller reports, a spokesman for the Justice Department who reached out to the website, downplayed the significance of the email.
He argued that Kadzik was not using his Gmail account for work-related business because, the spokesman said, he was sharing public information in a personal capacity. The congressional hearing under discussion was in the public domain for several weeks and the FOIA request was publicized in a news article the night before Kadzik’s email, the spokesman asserted.
Furthermore, the flak added that the email is also not evidence that Kadzik was back-channeling to the Clinton campaign because it did not contain any new or confidential information.
Finally, he declined to speculate on whether Kadzik used Gmail for work-related matters, or Kadzik's personal inference that "it will be awhile before the State department posts the emails", something which certainly not in the public domain.
In other words, nothing to see here, move along, and meanwhile Kadzik - who appears to have no intention of recusing himself - may be one of the key DOJ officials supervising the department's probe into Huma Abedin emails, despite his extensive and ongoing relationship with John Podesta and the Clinton Campaign.