State Department

Islamic Republic has sent weapons to the Houthis in Yemen and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Under Pompeo, the State Department is getting its swagger back

Seven Democratic caucus members voted for Donald Trump’s pick to lead the State Department.

Senate Democrats try to block Pompeo.

The secretary of state nominee faced repeated questioning about Mueller.

The Senate’s top Iran hawks heaped praise on the president’s nomination of CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Tuesday, and critics of the deal on and off Capitol Hill expressed confidence that Pompeo’s presence would place renewed pressure on negotiations to fix…

This story is developing and will be updated as necessary.

It is possible that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is suddenly “committed to denuclearization,” as South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong claimed in comments to the press at the White House Thursday evening.

The State Department signed off on a potential $47 million sale of 210 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 37 launch units to Ukraine Thursday, moving the planned purchase one step closer to completion.

Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico announced Thursday that she will resign from her position sometime in May, according to the New York Times.

The Trump administration is revving up an effort to counter foreign state propaganda and disinformation, including from Russia, after a months-long funding lag and criticism from lawmakers.

The State Department is denying that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday described Hezbollah as a legitimate actor in the Lebanese government, after the secretary’s comments drew harsh criticism from regional experts.

Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin reassured lawmakers Tuesday that the department is preparing sanctions against corrupt Kremlin-linked people who are listed in a classified version of a report mandated by Congress.

Republicans and Democrats are at odds over the Trump administration's decision Monday to hold off on new sanctions that target Russia’s intelligence and defense sectors.

U.S. diplomat John Feeley announced Thursday he would resign from his post as ambassador to Panama, the same day President Donald Trump provoked controversy by reportedly demeaning immigrants from central America and “shithole countries” in Africa.

On the morning of December 12, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took the stage at the Dean Acheson Auditorium to conduct a year-end town-hall meeting with his anxious and largely skeptical State Department staff. The event was keenly anticipated and the venue packed. No one in attendance—not even…

A job shuffle that would put Senator Tom Cotton in charge of the CIA is one of the worst ideas to come out of the Trump administration.

President Trump has a growing Palestinian problem. Without steadfast U.S. insistence on Palestinian accountability and the supremacy of American law, it is about to get a whole lot worse for Israel and America.

The White House is moving forward with a plan to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo. The New York Times reports Tillerson could be forced out “within the next several weeks.”

The Trump administration is facing mounting bipartisan calls to redesignate North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism ahead of a congressionally mandated deadline.

Two top lawmakers remain frustrated over the Trump administration’s failure to start implementing a set of congressionally mandated Russia sanctions on time, and are considering other avenues to pressure officials to act.

The House Intelligence and Oversight Committees are investigating Russia’s involvement in a controversial Obama-era uranium deal, the panel’s chairman announced Tuesday.

By the time you read this, it is entirely possible that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will have resigned his office in despair and frustration. He finds himself, after all, at “the breaking point” (New Yorker) in relations with his mercurial boss, President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, over at PBS…

The United States has expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from the country's embassy, less than a week after pulling its own embassy workers from Cuba in response to a series of apparent sonic attacks on American personnel.

The State Department announced Friday that it would pull more than half its embassy staff out of Cuba after a series of apparent sonic attacks that left diplomats with a host of strange medical issues, from hearing loss to balance problems.

A key Senate panel showed its disdain for the Trump administration’s proposed steep cuts to the foreign aid budget—first by agreeing to spend more than what the president had asked for and then by issuing a report condemning the president’s “"apparent doctrine of retreat"

The United States will close three Russian diplomatic facilities in retaliation for the Kremlin’s expulsion of American diplomats, the State Department announced Thursday.

The State Department would not respond to a warning from Iran's president that it would be an act of political self-destruction for President Donald Trump to dismantle the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

President Trump has made no secret of his plans to dramatically reduce both the budget of the State Department and the size of its workforce. The department is now preparing for those eventualities with some innovative and unconventional ideas, including "crowd sourcing... via the Internet" and…

Anyone who doubts the power of the bureaucracy ought to look into the quandary confronting ExxonMobil.

The State Department outlined the administration’s legal justification for engaging the Syrian military in a letter to Sen. Bob Corker Wednesday. Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had written to the department in June to ask if the military had been properly authorized to…

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has turned down nearly $80 million of funding to combat propaganda and information operations from ISIS, Russia, and China, Politico reports.

The White House says it is in agreement with the State Department on how to handle the Saudi-led decision to freeze diplomatic ties with Qatar, despite mixed messaging from President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the issue.

For a symbolic issue, the Keystone pipeline has sure caused a lot of damage—to Canadian-American relations, to Democrats, to President Obama. And it feeds, underscores, or reflects a variety of political divisions, some of them quite bitter.

As the Trump administration scrambles to tamp down reports (via the New York Times) that the National Security Council and the State Department were caught flat-footed by President Trump inviting Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte to the White House, details included in the State Department's…

This week, the State Department released an annual report on compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The most notable findings in the report, which covers Russia, Iran, and Syria, not surprisingly relate to Syria. The report states unequivocally that the "United States assesses that…

The Obama administration's controversial January 2016 prisoner swap stymied its own counterproliferation efforts against Iran that took years to carefully construct and orchestrate, Politico reports. The move fits into a broader slowdown within the administration, before and during negotiations for…

The State Department censured Russian authorities for detaining peaceful protesters Sunday as anti-corruption demonstrations swept the country, according to a statement provided to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.

Elliott Abrams, CNN reports, will not be nominated as deputy secretary of state. A veteran diplomat and foreign policy expert with experience in both the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, Abrams was Secretary Rex Tillerson's choice for the number-two position at the State Department. He…

The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 56 to 43 Wednesday, with every Republican and three Democrats voting in support. The former Exxon Mobil CEO managed to quell doubts from top Republicans, but is sure to face scrutiny from still-skeptical…

The State Department's senior management team has all resigned, reports the Washington Post's Josh Rogin:

The secretary of state is usually thought of as the principal cabinet position, and indeed he or she is first among cabinet officers and fourth in line overall to succeed the president. But when Rex Tillerson shows up at Foggy Bottom, he will discover a department that faces many challenges, not…

The secretary of state is usually thought of as the principal cabinet position, and indeed he or she is first among cabinet officers and fourth in line overall to succeed the president. But when Rex Tillerson shows up at Foggy Bottom, he will discover a department that faces many challenges, not…

President Barack Obama's administration has indisputably done more to advance the LGBT agenda than any prior administration. Ending Don't Ask-Don't Tell for the military, vigorous support of gay marriage, and bathroom choice for the transgendered are only a few of the boxes checked off the LGBT…

In the Obama administration's waning days, global challenges to American interests abound. In Syria, which will be a bloody stain on the reputations of Barack Obama and John Kerry, the killing continues. The effort to free Mosul from ISIS is slowing. The rise of Iranian influence in the Gulf and…

In his Wednesday speech on the Middle East, outgoing secretary of state John Kerry said a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian people was the only way to achieve piece. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, also scolded the leadership of the democratic Jewish state of…

Secretary of State John Kerry will lay out his vision for the Middle East peace process Wednesday, according to a State Department spokesman, less than a week after the Obama administration allowed the passage of a United Nations resolution critical of Israel.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with literary editor Philip Terzian on the three worst presidential picks to lead the State department.

The Obama administration is facing renewed criticism that it is avoiding confronting Iran over a widening list of the Islamic Republic's sanctions violations and military activities, after State Department officials would not commit to taking punitive action against a top Iranian military official…

The U.S. State Department updated its travel warning for Ukraine this week, backing off a recommendation that U.S. citizens currently in Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk leave the area. The warning posted Wednesday advises U.S. citizens "to avoid all travel to" those regions of…

Is the CIA, or some part of it, angry with Donald Trump? Even before the president-elect perhaps unwisely insulted the agency by citing its failures to assess correctly the status of Saddam Hussein's WMD program, someone high up at the CIA seemed to have it in for the incoming commander-in-chief.

The Obama administration is facing mounting criticism that it is deliberately downplaying Iran's role in ongoing atrocities in Syria in order to avoid endangering the nuclear deal, a characterization the administration has rejected but that experts and journalists continue to wage.

As Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria celebrates the retaking of Aleppo amidst a horrific humanitarian disaster, President Obama and his administration are increasingly taking heat for ineffective action in the face of the crisis. But just a month ago, the president seemed to suggest that if it…

In the New York Times's new extensive report on the massive Russian-backed operation to hack American political and government severs—including a successful hack of the Democratic National Committee's server—the paper reveals that President Barack Obama had been "briefed regularly" on Russia's…

Donald Trump said on Twitter Monday he would announce on Tuesday his selection for secretary of state. The New York Times reports that Trump has picked ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. Here's the Times:

Donald Trump's incoming administration will not further investigate former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's private email server scheme nor her family's charitable foundation, MSNBC's Morning Joe reported Tuesday.

Rudy Giuliani is a close friend of Donald Trump and was one of his most ardent advocates in the presidential campaign. And now he is a finalist for secretary of state. But it would be a mistake to install him at State for two reasons.

The Obama administration will not penalize Iran for exceeding limits set forth in last summer's nuclear deal that pertain to the country's ability to stockpile nuclear-related material.

A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed that Iran is in violation of last summer's nuclear deal. According to the report, the regime in Tehran has again exceeded the deal's threshold for heavy water, marking the second such violation since the implementation of the agreement…

As more and more of Hillary Clinton's emails come to light, previously obscure connections with and influences on Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state have also arisen. The latest batch of emails revealed one such case involving Clinton's daughter Chelsea and, by extension, the Clinton…

Guidelines published last month by the Obama administration protect banks doing business with Iran from U.S. sanctions even if their transactions end up benefiting sanctioned entities, according to Secretary of State John Kerry. That stance, experts and congressional sources tell THE WEEKLY…

Democrats have all but gone to war with FBI director James Comey. Their anger at him comes after Comey sent a letter to Congress last week that announced he would be reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server as secretary of state. But President Barack Obama, who…

Despite Hillary Clinton's repeated assurances that her use of a personal email account and server was not an issue in the security and preservation of her correspondence as secretary of state, evidence continues to pile up to the contrary. Not only did Secretary Clinton use her own personal…

The continuing revelations about the Patrick Kennedy's efforts to hide or downplay the classified emails on Hillary Clinton's server will be overshadowed for the next two days by the third presidential debate Wednesday in Las Vegas. But this clear and compelling Wall Street Journal editorial offers…

Less than 24 hours after the FBI released documents confirming discussions of a bargain between the FBI and State Department over reclassification of at least one classified Hillary Clinton email, the spokesman for the State Department categorically denied that any such discussions ever happened.

A Secret Service agent assigned to protect former President Bill Clinton performed "network assessments" and information technology troubleshooting for the Clinton Foundation and also provided research on security issues for Bill and Hillary Clinton's email server in Chappaqua, New York. These…

On Monday, senior writer Stephen Hayes replied to partisan criticisms of his recent reporting on failed efforts by a State Department official to convince the FBI to reclassify an email on Hillary Clinton's server.

The WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on his weekend story exposing attempted foul play at the State Department.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation released several documents Monday morning confirming discussions between officials at the State Department and at the FBI about a "quid pro quo" to reclassify documents stored on Hillary Clinton's private email server. Among the 34 released documents, which are…

John Kerry painted a dire picture of impending climate doom Friday in Kigali, Rwanda. At a meeting of parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an early climate agreement, the secretary of state said in part:

A senior State Department official repeatedly pressed the FBI to change the classification of emails stored on Hillary Clinton's private server, according to FBI interview summaries set to be released in the coming days. Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary of state for management, discussed…

The Obama administration is manufacturing a crisis with Israel in anticipation of a post-election diplomatic push targeting the Jewish state, and this past week launched a series of broadsides criticizing the Israelis through the media and in press briefings, according to congressional sources and…

I’m famous! Or, well, actually I'm completely obscure.

Secretary of State John Kerry denied that the United States maintained a foreign policy of disengagement under the Obama administration, calling that perception "a marketing problem" on Thursday.

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the United States is edging toward dropping months of diplomatic efforts with Russia to end the Syrian civil war, after a U.S.-Russian ceasefire collapsed earlier this month and gave way to a Russia and Iran-backed offensive in the Syrian city of…

Top senators fired back at the Obama administration on Tuesday after the State Department shifted blame to Congress for the collapse of a U.S.-Russian brokered ceasefire in Syria. The back-and-forth in Washington comes as the State Department refuses to rule out further talks with Moscow despite a…

Secretary of State John Kerry addressed fellow world leaders Wednesday at an "Entry into Force" event for the United Nations Paris Agreement on climate change with a salutation that sounded like a throwback to 1970s Saturday morning cartoons: "Thank you, warriors for the planet," he praised the…

Last Friday's document release by the FBI revealed a stark contradiction between then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's signed Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement and her July statements to FBI agents, as THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported. Clinton told the FBI that she could not recall…

The Obama administration failed to inform a number of Democratic lawmakers that a $1.7 billion payment the U.S. sent to Iran earlier this year would be made wholly in cash, according to senators who spoke to THE WEEKLY STANDARD Wednesday.

The United States paid Iran $1.7 billion in cash earlier this year, most of which was taxpayer money, around the same time that the Islamic Republic released several American prisoners, as first reported by the Associated Press.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine responded Sunday to the revelation that Hillary Clinton did not know that documents labeled 'C' were classified information by saying that it is hard to tell at times whether information is classified.

The FBI's Labor Day weekend document dump regarding its investigation of Hillary Clinton gives those who thought the result was predetermined much to complain about. The FBI's notes confirm that her former chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, was among the several lawyers representing Clinton in her FBI…

Either Hillary Clinton lied to the FBI or she lied on a State Department form as she began her tenure as Secretary of State. This conclusion appears inescapable after Friday's FBI document release related to the Clinton email investigation.

British Airways resumed flights to Iran on Thursday, but the airline did not say it will give customers special warning about the risk of travel, despite government notices that describe the potential for capture and imprisonment there.

The Obama administration is still weighing whether to apply "mandatory sanctions" called for in multiple laws on the sale of the S-300 air-defense missile system from Russia to Iran.

As Bill Clinton entered the final year of his presidency, his aides put together a legacy-building trip to South Asia—the first visit to the region by a U.S. president since Jimmy Carter's in 1978. Early drafts of the itinerary featured a notable exclusion: The president would visit India, an…

A majority of the non-governmental meetings Hillary Clinton made while Secretary of State were with Clinton Foundation donors, according to an Associated Press report—the first to assess the proportion of Clinton's pay-for-play.

The State Department refused to say whether it sent Iran $1.3 billion in January, claiming that they were obligated to withhold information about the financial transaction due to confidentiality.

Information buried in an internal State Department review has compounded allegations that the Department intentionally deleted an exchange about secret talks between the United States and Iran from a press briefing video, Fox News reports.

The crown prince of Bahrain attempted to arrange a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 by using his connections to the Clinton Foundation. That's according to newly released emails between Clinton's State Department aide Huma Abedin and former Bill Clinton aide Doug Band, who…

The Obama administration is refusing to provide documents to lawmakers seeking details about a controversial $400 million cash payment the U.S. made to Iran in January, according to exchanges viewed exclusively by THE WEEKLY STANDARD and congressional sources.

The State Department admitted Thursday that a controversial $400 million payment the United States made to Iran in January was used as "leverage" in the release of American hostages.

Did Hillary Clinton commit perjury at a congressional hearing about the Benghazi attack? That's what two House Republican committee chairmen are asking the Justice Department to investigate. On Monday, House Oversight chairman Jason Chaffetz of Utah and House Judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte of…

Less than two months after Iran received $400 million in foreign currency in January, the world's top state sponsor of terror acquired another $1.3 billion in cash from the United States, based on statements of U.S. government officials.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the transfer of $400 million in cash for Iran in January coincided with not only the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal but with the release of American detainees as well. The cash came not from sanctions relief, but from the settlement of a…

The State Department is still refusing to discuss the details of a covert payment worth $400 million to Iran that coincided with the release of four American hostages from Iran in January.

Last Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry met in Washington with leaders of forty-five nations to discuss the Islamic State, which he calls "ISIL," and terrorism. Refering to that meeting, Kerry said Friday during a remarks at the Vienna International Center in Austria that working on climate…

Cleveland

The State Department is disputing a report that Iran has sought to obtain nuclear technology since signing a deal aimed at curbing its nuclear program last summer.

FBI Director James Comey delivered a litany of damaging findings Monday from the bureau's investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of personal email while serving as secretary of state. Not only did Clinton violate numerous security protocols, but many of the statements made by Clinton and her…

Russia will send Iran another shipment of the S-300 air defense missile system as soon as Tehran is ready to pay, Russian media reported Monday.

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation offered an assessment of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state Tuesday. Many of his conclusions contradicted Clinton's often-repeated assertions and criticized the former secretary of state…

After news of ISIS's last atrocity broke over the weekend—this time, the terror group slaughtered some 150 Iraqis, including scores of children, who happened to be out celebrating the end of Ramadan—State Department spokesman John Kirby weighed in on the matter.

The final majority report of the Benghazi Select Committee is set to be released later Tuesday morning. Representatives Jim Jordan and Mike Pompeo have signed onto the official majority document and authored a supplemental, 51-page "additional views" report of their own.

In a speech to the European Parliament Thursday, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas accused rabbis of "demanding" that the Israeli government poison Palestinian water.

A Democratic senator who voted for the Iran deal said Thursday that it is not America's responsibility to promote foreign investment in Iran, despite efforts by Secretary of State John Kerry to encourage investment there.

The State Department said Wednesday that it would investigate a censored 2013 briefing video about secret talks with Iran, reversing its claim last week that the investigation had hit a "dead end."

A government spokesman said Wednesday that the State Department purposefully removed part of a 2013 video about secret negotiations with Iran.

The State Department has yet to release some of Hillary Clinton's emails, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday.

Clinton confidante Sidney Blumenthal dismissed the ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton's role in the attack on the Benghazi consulate in Libya Thursday, calling it a thing of the past.

Global Engagement (formerly known as Think Again, Turn Away) is the State Department's anti-terrorism communications division specializing in social media messaging to dissuade would-be terrorists from joining ISIS or similar groups. Tuesday, the Global Engagement Twitter account tweeted a link to…

The State Department said Monday that it has been unable to track down any emails to or from Hillary Clinton's IT specialist, Bryan Pagliano, during Clinton's tenure as secretary of state.

The State Department objected Thursday to a Romanian hacker's claim that he breached Hillary Clinton's private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

The COP 21 climate conference held in Paris in December was no low-budget affair. Two different expenditures for hotels alone for the gathering came to over $2.5 million. A single contract alone came to almost $2 million. That contract involved five different hotels and totaled and estimated…

Testifying this morning before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Attorney General Loretta Lynch was asked by Rep. John Carter (R-TX) about the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server and its role in handling classified and secret information.

There has been a pretty consistent pattern to the Hillary Clinton email scandal. Every time the former secretary of state insists that the truth is all out, and it’s no big deal, yet more damaging information emerges. Recently she and her surrogates have been dissembling so much they've barely had…

A year before Hillary Clinton apparently asked one of her top aides to remove the classification markings from a sensitive document and send it to her over an unsecured network, she pushed the same aide to remove a different document from the State Department's classified system and email it to her…

At least since President Obama referred to the Islamic State (ISIS/Daesh) as a "JV" team, his administration has been criticized for approaching the rapidly expanding terror organization with a lack of seriousness. Especially in light of last week's San Bernardino slaughter, the State Department's…

Last week, CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott—who according to her Twitter bio is also a self-appraised “truth seeker”—was suspended from the network for two weeks for editorializing on social media. The offending tweet was this: “House passes bill that could limit Syrian refugees.…

Barack Obama and John Kerry have yet to comment on the death of an American murdered last week by Palestinian terrorists. Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old from Sharon, Massachusetts, was spending a year in Israel when terrorists fatally attacked him last Thursday, not far from Jerusalem.

In remarks a few days ago in Turkey, President Obama said this:

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie slammed Secretary of State John Kerry for remarks the top diplomat made Tuesday about the attacks in Paris and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January. Kerry contrasted the Paris attacks, which he called “indiscriminate,” with the attacks on the French satire…

Last week, the Obama White House moved to ensure Hezbollah’s ability to point 100,000 missiles at Israel. That’s not how they would describe it, of course. But it was the Obama administration—as U.S. officials are quietly letting on—and not Russia that invited Iran to participate in talks in Vienna…

President Obama announced today to much fanfare (and to much angst on the right) that he is killing the proposed KeystoneXL pipeline, which would transport Canadian tar sands oil through the United States. But as much as he would like to claim the mantle of environmentalism (this is the man who…

On February 29, 2012, Hillary Clinton emailed an office manager in the office of the secretary at the State Department. The request was brief but urgent: "I forgot there is a white briefing book on my desk that needs to be stored overnight."

Late in yesterday’s Benghazi testimony — well after most of the media declared Hillary Clinton the runaway “winner” — there was an illuminating exchange about her email correspondence with Sidney Blumenthal.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed an internet video for the Benghazi attacks in her conversations with family members of those killed despite having told a foreign leader two days earlier that the video played no role and having emailed daughter Chelsea that a terrorist group had carried…

There was never any doubt that Democrats in Washington would launch an aggressive campaign to discredit the House Select Committee on Benghazi. The only question was when they’d do it.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a habit of trying to have it both ways on the Iran nuclear deal

A top Hillary Clinton aide from the State Department talked up the former secretary of state's support for the trade deal just yesterday in an interview with National Public Radio. The aide, who has been defending Clinton's policies publicly, is Anne-Marie Slaughter, the former director of policy…

Arkansas senator Tom Cotton will place a hold on three ambassador nominations until the Obama administration agrees to investigate and discipline officials within the Secret Service over a leak of private personnel information about a sitting congressman.

Since becoming the leading candidate for House speaker, majority leader Kevin McCarthy has been treated with suspicion by some conservative commentators. Sean Hannity is one of them, and in an appearance on Hannity’s Fox News program Tuesday, McCarty faced tough questions from the host about what…

Antisemitism has never been an easy subject for America’s foreign-policy establishment. Read through State Department telegrams and Central Intelligence Agency operational and intelligence cables on the Middle East and you will seldom find it discussed, even though Jew-hatred—not just…

Secretary Kerry passed up the opportunity this week to recognize one of the most important holidays on the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah. In recent weeks, however, Kerry took time to recognize the Independence/National Days of Guatemala, Papua New Guinea, and Andorra, among others. He also issued…

In the 1990s, Hillary Clinton famously accused a "vast right-wing conspiracy" of trying to bring down her husband, President Bill Clinton. Emails from Mrs. Clinton's tenure as secretary of state demonstrate that the specter of a conspiracy of some sort continued to haunt her years later.

Hillary Clinton sat down with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Friday in a rare one-on-one interview. After several questions from Mitchell about Clinton's use of a private email and a homebrew server while she was secretary of state, the Democratic frontrunner apologized the controversy was "confusing" the…

A spokesman for Hillary Clinton told CNN he did not know what it means for a computer server to be "wiped."

Here’s a recent Washington Post headline:

While looking through the newest batch of Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department, one finds a disturbing anti-Israel trend. Her advisers regularly criticized Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the "US. Jewish community," and AIPAC.

While looking through the newest batch of Hillary Clinton emails released by the State Department, one finds a disturbing anti-Israel trend. Her advisers regularly criticized Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the "US Jewish community," and AIPAC. 

The latest stash of emails from Hillary Clinton's private server released by the State Department has (once again!) revealed Washington to be a particularly unbearable place, employing particularly insufferable people. From Clinton's email correspondence with her senior staff we can observe how…

Presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finds herself under growing scrutiny over the classified contents of dozens of emails (perhaps hundreds once the State Department finishes releasing them all) she sent and received as head of the State Department. As it turns out,…

A prevailing media narrative is that while Republicans have pitched a fit over Barack Obama’s negotiated deal with Iran over that country’s nuclear program, the seeds of such a deal were sown by the previous administration.

In one of the newly release Hillary Clinton emails, a mostly redacted message from Philip Gordon to Huma Abedin and Jacob Sullivan ends with, "To quote Huma, I don't get paid enough." Abedin, Clinton’s closest aide, was able to change her fortunes with a little help from friends.

The State Department released another tranche of emails from Hillary Clinton's private server Monday evening. While messages between Clinton and other State and administration officials concerning the most interesting and consequential subjects (like the Benghazi attacks) were heavily redacted,…

A growing majority of Americans say Congress should reject the nuclear deal with Iran brokered by the Obama administration, according to a new CNN poll. Here's more from CNN:

The Obama administration spent the last two years telling lawmakers and reporters that any deal with Iran would require the Iranians to provide International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors robust access to the Parchin military base, where the Iranians conducted hydrodynamic experiments relevant to…

Human trafficking is a crime that not only breaks the law but basic human rights. The United States recently released its annual Trafficking in Persons report. Countries are ranked on a scale from Tier 1 to Tier 3. These rankings asses the country’s ability to 1) enact laws and practices that…

A former Obama administration official says Hillary Clinton should release her private email server to the public.

The State Department will hang the Cuban flag in the lobby of the State Department building on Monday in recognition of the imminent reopening of the communist nation's embassy in Washington. The AP's Matt Lee reports:

Americans are rightfully concerned about ISIS’s rampage across the Middle East. But one thing that even ISIS has not yet accomplished is what the president, the director of the FBI, and the director of the NSA all insist Kim Jong-un's hackers did last year -- suppress the release of a major motion…

The elite media types have been in bed with the elite national Democratic party types for so long that one hardly bothers to note it any longer. Still, it is a little jarring when the Hillary Clinton e-mails reveal this kind of panting sycophancy

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times reported this morning that dozens of Hillary Clinton's emails are now be labeled classified. Clinton, of course, said that none of her emails were classified. 

Although President Obama has not yet fulfilled his promise to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the population there is gradually shrinking as detainees are repatriated or released into the custody of foreign governments. The Miami Herald noted recently that of 116 remaining…

Here's a news bulletin from the Iran talks in Vienna:

The State Department's practice of downplaying Palestinian incitement has reached a new low, with its latest report whitewashing not only the Palestinians' behavior but also Secretary of State John Kerry's own words on the subject.

A State Department official at the center of the Benghazi controversy may also have called off a controversial inspector general probe.

A little more than three hours after the State Department released 848 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Daily Beast had seen enough to render its judgment: “Sorry GOP. There’s No Smoking Gun In Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Emails.” The subhead: “Conspiracy-minded conservatives, be warned: The…

Even as diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Russia remain decidedly chilly over the Ukrainian conflict, the State Department is reaching out to "up-and-coming" Russian journalists. A recent $150,000 grant offering from the U.S. embassy in Moscow seeks to establish a program to give Russian…

For the last several days, State Department spokesperson Marie Harf has been at pains to explain why Iran is not violating the interim nuclear agreement, or Joint Plan of Action. For the last few days, the Obama administration has been pushing back against a New York Times article published Monday…

Among the emails released by the State Department today was one sent by Hillary Clinton to Jake Sullivan on April 8, 2011. Clinton was forwarding a private intelligence report that Sidney Blumenthal had sent her with the subject line: "UK game playing; new rebel strategists; Egypt moves in."

Hillary Clinton was forwarded an article a month after the terrorist attack on Benghazi that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens that quoted Stevens's father. In the October 14, 2012, Bloomberg article, Jan Stevens, the late ambassador's father, was quoted saying that it would be "abhorrent" to…

Oklahoma City

In the coming weeks, President Obama may announce his support for—or at least his non-objection to—a U.N. Security Council resolution defining the terms of a Palestinian state. This would represent an unprecedented break with Israel and mark the culmination of the Obama administration’s six years…

The United States is offering big pay outs to anyone who has "information" on key ISIS leaders. "The U.S. Department of State's Rewards for Justice Program is offering rewards for information on four key leaders of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The Secretary of…

Most American wouldn't know a donkey drop from a paddle scoop, but nevertheless, half a million taxpayer dollars will be going to support a cricket league in Afghanistan. The current grant opportunity looks to  build on what was considered a successful 2014 program. The plan is for at least five…

The State Department, through the U.S. Mission to India, is offering a $35,000 grant to develop a workshop for "sharing ideas on the role of editorial cartooning in India and the United States in creating public dialogue" with "print and broadcast journalists, bloggers, citizen journalists, and…

Despite issuing statements commemorating the National Days or Independence Days of nearly 170 countries in the past twelve months, Secretary of State John Kerry allowed the 67th anniversary of the establishment of the nation of Israel to pass without comment. This is the third year in a row Kerry…

State Department deputy secretary Heather Higginbottom testified on Capitol Hill today that the State Department is routinely cyber-attacked. “We are attacked every day, thousands of times a day,” Higginbottom said in response to questioning from Georgia senator David Perdue.

The inspector general of the State Department confirmed today in Senate testimony that the State Department network at some point was hacked. He made the comments in response to a question from Georgia senator David Perdue.

The U.S. State Department is looking to design and facilitate a media ethics course for journalists in India, and has even proposed appropriating the name of Robin Thicke's 2013 hit "Blurred Lines" as a title for the course. The U.S. consulate general in Hyderabad, India is looking for a non-profit…

Secretary of State John Kerry has often spoken to the Muslim world during his tenure, particularly during the past year as negotiations with Iran have intensified and conflict with the Islamic State has escalated. But what Kerry has not said during the past twelve months is also significant. A…

Here's video, via Fox News, of the power outage at the State Department today:

The State Department has cancelled daily press briefings in Washington, D.C. three days in a row as John Kerry continues to try to strike a nuclear deal with Iran. Matt Lee of the Associated Press notes the schedule changes:

Almost two years ago, Tim Miller, the then executive director of the America Rising PAC, authored a letter to look into possible favoritism from Hillary Clinton's State Department epartment to longtime Clinton associate Terry McAuliffe. The letter, addressed to the State Department, was…

In an interview this evening on Fox News, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki would not promise that Americans would get to see the details of a nuclear deal with Iran before it's "signed, sealed, delivered."

Senator Chuck Grassley has sent two letters to the State Department to ask about Huma Abedin's special government status when she was a government employee--and for information on Abedin's email use while working for the government. Abedin is a close aide to Hillary Clinton, and worked for the…

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, a former State Department official, sidestepped questions about Hillary Clinton's exclusive use of a private email address in testimony today on Capitol Hill:

When President Obama attended the G-20 summit in Brisbane, Australia last November, the entire delegation required over 5,000 room nights at five different hotels over the course of the summit, costing $2.1 million. Transporting all those people around Brisbane was not cheap: the State Department…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on Secretary of State John Kerry's Syrian mess.

Upon learning that Hillary Clinton used a private email account to conduct all official business during her tenure as secretary of state, CNN’s Dan Merica remarked, “GOP aides on the Benghazi committee have long said they were going to find something others hadn’t. And they did.” The New York Times…

Hillary Clinton's internal review of her personal email account did not involve opening and reading each piece of mail, according to a report in Time magazine.

Hillary Clinton’s email problems do not end with her illegal privatization of government communications or her Nixonian stonewalling of questions about how much of her public record she has destroyed in order to avoid public scrutiny.

Plans for a one million dollar granite sculpture for the new U.S. Embassy in London have been scrapped because the sculpture was too heavy for the planned site. As THE WEEKLY STANDARD first reported in December 2013, the State Department awarded a $1 million contract to Irish-born American artist…

During her press appearance today, Hillary Clinton acknowledged that about 60,000 emails, including sent and received, went through her home email server that she used during her tenure as secretary of state. About half of those, she said, were work related. UPI reports:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Mark Hemingway on his recent editorial "Hillary's Email Trickery."

In 2012, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Scott Gration abruptly stepped down from his post. According to a Foreign Policy report by Josh Rogin (now a reporter for Bloomberg), Gration was the subject of a withering evaluation from the State Department:

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that it couldn't "definitively" rule out the possibility Hillary Clinton had classified information on her private email address:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on his take on Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech, Iran policy, and Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email account while serving as Secretary of State.

In a strong new web ad, the Republican National Committee whacks Hillary Clinton for the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation accepting foreign donations while she held the job of secretary of state. The ad is titled "A Very Serious Matter" and is meant to coincide with the Clinton…

Monday night, it was revealed that Hillary Clinton used a personal email account the entire time she served as secretary of state. Not only does conducting official business with a private account violate federal law, it raises a host of concerns ranging from whether or not her communications were…

Hillary Clinton is under increasing pressure for her exclusive use of a personal email address during her four years as secretary of state. In October 2011, Mrs. Clinton was interviewed by Savannah Guthrie of NBC's Today Show, and Guthrie asked about her personal email address. While Mrs. Clinton…

CNN host Chris Cuomo said this morning that reports Hillary Clinton used her private email address to conduct official State Department business "smells terrible."

Failing upwards is a Washington tradition, but even The Scrapbook was taken aback by the promotion of Jennifer Psaki from State Department spokesperson to White House director of communications. Psaki, along with her State Department colleague Marie Harf, had acquired quite the reputation for…

President Barack Obama will not be meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week when the Israeli leader comes to Washington. Neither will Secretary of State John Kerry. And though Netanyahu will deliver an address to a joint session of Congress (thanks to an invitation from Republican…

This week's three-day White House summit on "countering violent extremism" ended Thursday, but the community-focused spirit of the summit lives on. In a Friday blog post at the State Department's "Dip Note," the Obama administration asks readers a question: "What Solutions Do You Think Are Most…

On its much maligned Twitter feed, Think AgainTurn Away, the State Department is denouncing higher taxes -- and even asserting they're evidence a utopian society is a pipe dream.

The Obama adminstration begins its three-day summit on countering violent extremism with a "roundtable discussion" Tuesday afternoon led by Vice President Joe Biden and including "representatives from cities working to address the spread of violent extremism." President Barack Obama will join the…

Even as a report has come out that "talks about talks" are taking place with North Korea regarding denuclearization, recent remarks by Sung Kim, the U.S. State Department's Special Representative for North Korea Policy, seem to back up that assertion. 

Despite raised tensions between the U.S. and North Korea recently, there are secret "talks about talks" taking place behind the scenes between the two countries, according to a new report.