Your first reaction might be to think that when we're talking about Form OF109, we're really scraping the barrel looking for excuses to criticize Hillary. Surely that's what those bound by partisan allegiances to defend her will say. But you'd be wrong.
Form OF109 is what the State Department requires all departing employees to sign as they exit, or "separate," from the department. When you sign it, you affirm that you have turned over all relevant documents (including electronic ones) to State. For some days now, reporters have been asking State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki whether a signed Form OF109 is in Hillary's personnel file. Because if it is, then she falsely claimed to have turned over all her private e-mails - which we know she didn't do for two years after leaving (and even then only the ones she wanted to turn over). And if it's not there, then she blew off her own department's policy upon leaving.
Well, at this point we only have Psaki's word, but she says Hillary never signed OF109:
That document is known as a "separation" form, which officials are supposed to sign upon leaving the department. It certifies that the person who signs it has turned over all "classified or administratively controlled" materials, as well as all "unclassified documents and papers" relating to official government business.
Given that Clinton exclusively used personal email while secretary of state and didn't turn over official records until late last year, a former Justice Department official said last week that if Clinton signed that form, she probably gave a false statement and broke the law.
But on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters they are "fairly certain she did not" sign it.
"We have reviewed Secretary Clinton's official personnel file and administrative files and do not have any record of her signing the OF109 [form]," Psaki said.
This admission comes after the department for days was unable to answer questions about whether Clinton signed the form.
Now, it remains to be seen if the queen-awaiting-coronation will make herself available to the press yet again to answer any questions about this. Presumably some reporters will attempt to contact Hillary's people seeking a comment. Presumably no such comment will be forthcoming, at least until the press keeps pushing the issue to the point where they can't ignore it and they have to come up with some sort of excuse.
My guess is that the press won't push it that hard, but I could be wrong. Rob is convinced they want to get rid of her and push Elizabeth Warren, so maybe Hillary really can't get away from this one. If she absolutely must answer the question, my guess would be that she claims she directed the HR department to supply her with all relevant forms she would need, and that she then assumed their response had been thorough, blah blah blah, and she couldn't be expected to know every little detail of how these things work, blah blah blah, she certainly would have signed it, blah blah blah.
Of course, if the press really wanted to push it, they could ask how she could sign it when it required her to affirm she had turned over all her e-mails. At that point I suppose Hillary would claim she'd have turned them over right away if she'd realized what a big deal everyone would make of it, thus trying to put the onus on the people who keep asking these pesky questions she considers so silly.
The real truth here is obvious, of course. Hillary set up her own homebrew server so she could control access to her e-mail, and so neither the press nor Congress could demand access to any of it. As Rob pointed out the other day, her supposed defender Carville admitted as much in a rather sloppy attempt at sticking up for her. Now we're just getting into the administrative details that demonstrate what a liar she is. She's counting on the public getting bored with all the administrative details and moving on.
Public, for once, pay attention.
