Bleachbit is the software designed to erase emails and make them utterly unrecoverable.
The software's website (via Zero Hedge) describes how it works:
Beyond simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to make it faster.
Rep. Trey Gowdy said last night on Fox that it was this software that Hillary Clinton's lawyers used to make absolutely certain than none of the secretary's "personal" emails could be recovered. Ever.
This doesn't sound like the system one would employ to destroy yoga schedules or chatter about bridesmaids' dresses, does it? The word jumped out at me last night–in a world that could still be shocked by scandal (i.e., still believed that character and virtuous behavior count for something), this would become an instant byword.
We'd all be talking about Bleachbit today and it would become as famous as, say, the 18 1/2 minute gap (Watergate) and other shorthand words for hiding corruption. But we may be past caring, or at least past doing anything about lying, because it has become so endemic to our public life.
Do you really believe that mounting interest (which supposedly had been mounting since the Shah's fall) was a key factor in the timing of the hush-hush delivery of $400 million in unmarked, cold cash to Iran, as the State Department spokesman claimed? Apparently, public lying doesn't even have to be plausible anymore.
Which brings us to two must-read columns his morning on the unfolding saga if Hillary Clinton's emails. In a column headlined "The U.S. Department of Clinton," Kimberley Strassel shows how the latest emails discovered suggest that the U.S. Department of State and the Clinton Foundation operated as a seamless entity:
Most of the focus on this week’s [Clinton aide Huma] bedin emails has centered on the disturbing examples of Clinton Foundation executive Doug Band negotiating State favors for foundation donors. But equally instructive in the 725 pages released by Judicial Watch is the frequency and banality of most of the email interaction. Mr. Band asks if Hillary’s doing this conference, or having that meeting, and when she’s going to Brazil. Ms. Abedin responds that she’s working on it, or will get this or that answer. These aren’t the emails of mere casual acquaintances; they don’t even bother with salutations or signoffs. These are the emails of two people engaged in the same purpose—serving the State-Clinton Foundation nexus.
The other undernoted but important revelation is that the media has been looking in the wrong place. The focus is on Mrs. Clinton’s missing emails, and no doubt those 15,000 FBI-recovered texts contain nuggets. Then again, Mrs. Clinton was a busy woman, and most of the details of her daily State/foundation life would have been handled by trusted aides. This is why they, too, had private email. Top marks to Judicial Watch for pursuing Ms. Abedin’s file from the start. A new urgency needs to go into seeing similar emails of former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills.
Mostly, we learned this week that Mrs. Clinton’s foundation issue goes far beyond the “appearance” of a conflict of interest. This is straight-up pay to play. When Mr. Band sends an email demanding a Hillary meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain and notes that he’s a “good friend of ours,” what Mr. Band means is that the crown prince had contributed millions to a Clinton Global Initiative scholarship program, and therefore has bought face time. It doesn’t get more clear-cut, folks.
Charles Krauthammer takes note of the obvious connections between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation and then observes:
Current Clinton response? There was no quid pro quo.
What a long way we’ve come. This is the very last line of defense. Yes, it’s obvious that access and influence were sold. But no one has demonstrated definitively that the donors received something tangible of value — a pipeline, a permit, a waiver, a favorable regulatory ruling — in exchange. It’s hard to believe the Clinton folks would be stupid enough to commit something so blatant to writing.
Nonetheless, there might be an e-mail allusion to some such conversation. With thousands more e-mails to come, who knows what lies beneath. On the face of it, it’s rather odd that a visible quid pro quo is the bright line for malfeasance. Anything short of that — the country is awash with political money that buys access — is deemed acceptable.
As Donald Trump says of his own donation-giving days, “when I need something from them . . . I call them, they are there for me.” This is considered routine and unremarkable. More Clinton E-mail Scandal Fifteen Questions Hillary Should Answer Under Oath If Hillary Is Corrupt, Congress Should Impeach Her The Colin Powell Defense.
It’s not until a Rolex shows up on your wrist that you get indicted. Or you are found to have dangled a Senate appointment for cash. Then, like Rod Blagojevich, you go to jail. (He got 14 years.)
Corruption. It's the new normal.