The Illustrated Spygate Scandal
The first political coup in American history: Part I
A dramatization of real events. This is Part I. The entire book is online - and available on Kindle and in paperback!
July 23, 2014
The summer heat in Washington was oppressive, but inside the air-conditioned corridors of power, something colder was brewing. The House Select Committee on Benghazi had just hammered out an agreement with the State Department. Simple enough on paper: produce all of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails relevant to the Benghazi Scandal in which four Americans were murdered by Islamic terrorists. But simple agreements in Washington have a way of becoming anything but simple.
Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy leaned back in his chair, pen still warm from signing the agreement. "We'll get what we need," he told his chief counsel. "One way or another."
What none of them knew was that across town, the clock had already started ticking on what would become the most explosive political scandal in decades.
July 24, 2014
Twenty-four hours later, in a cramped IT office that smelled of stale coffee and overheated circuits, Paul Combetta was sweating. And it wasn't just from the broken air conditioning. His fingers hovered over the keyboard as he logged into Reddit under his alias "stonetear." The question he was about to post would later become evidence in a federal investigation, but right now, it just felt like desperation.
"Very VIP (we're talking about the Clinton email situation) needs to have her email address removed from a bunch of archived email that I have," he typed, then paused. His supervisor had been clear: make this problem disappear. But how do you make something disappear from the internet?
He hit submit and waited. Somewhere in cyberspace, his digital SOS was floating among cat videos and conspiracy theories, a tiny cry for help that would eventually help bring down a presidential campaign.
October 15, 2014
Autumn in Washington brought falling leaves and falling dominoes. The Clinton team's instructions to Datto were crystal clear: start purging those emails from the backup storage devices. It was supposed to be routine digital housekeeping. Except Datto didn't do what they were told.
Clinton's attorney David Kendall made the call himself. "I need those backups gone," he said into his secure phone. "Every last one."
On the other end, a Datto technician nodded and made notes. But technology, like truth, has a way of persisting despite our best efforts to erase it. The backups remained, sitting quietly on servers like time bombs waiting for the right moment to explode.
Years later, FBI agents would find those very backups, intact and incriminating. But for now, everyone believed the problem was solved.
December 11, 2014
Winter had settled over Denver, but inside the offices of Platte River Networks, the atmosphere was heated. Company executives huddled around a conference table, their emails painting a picture that would later make federal prosecutors salivate.
"Look," said one executive, leaning forward with the intensity of a man who knew he was in over his head, "we all know what this is. This is the Hillary coverup operation, plain and simple."
His colleague shifted uncomfortably. "Maybe we shouldn't be putting this in writing."
"Too late for that," came the reply. "We're already neck-deep in this thing."
None of them realized that their digital paper trail was creating a roadmap for investigators. Every email, every casual reference to "the coverup operation," was being automatically backed up and preserved. The very technology they were using to coordinate the destruction of evidence was simultaneously creating new evidence.
February 15, 2015
Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough had been losing sleep for weeks. The evidence was unmistakable: China had hacked Clinton's email server. Not attempted to hack. Had hacked. Past tense. Game over.
He sat across from FBI officials in a sterile government conference room, his briefing materials spread between them like accusatory fingers. "Every single email," he said slowly, "every classified document, every state secret—Beijing has it all."
The FBI officials nodded politely, took notes, and filed his warnings in what McCullough would later learn was essentially a bureaucratic black hole. The Bureau had bigger fish to fry, or so they told themselves.
McCullough walked out of that meeting knowing he'd done his duty. What he didn't know was that his warnings would be ignored until it was far too late to matter.
March 2, 2015
The New York Times newsroom buzzed with the electricity that comes with breaking a story that will change everything. Reporter Michael Schmidt had been working his sources for months, and now he had it: Hillary Clinton had exclusively used a private email server for official State Department business.
It seemed obvious why. The Clinton Foundation had seemingly been engaged in “pay to play” activities using Hillary’s role as Secretary of State to set policy based upon donor requests.
Schmidt's editor looked up from the draft story. "You're sure about this? Absolutely sure?"
"Rock solid," Schmidt replied. "Multiple sources, documents, the whole nine yards."
As the story went live, political operatives across Washington felt their phones buzzing with urgent alerts. In Clinton's Brooklyn headquarters, someone was already drafting damage control talking points. At the FBI, agents who had been casually monitoring the situation suddenly realized they had a Category 5 political hurricane heading their way.
The storm had officially begun.
March 3, 2015
Panic moves faster than light in political circles. Within hours of the Times story breaking, Clinton aides were on the phone with Platte River Networks, their voices tight with barely controlled desperation.
"Tell me you followed through," the aide said, gripping his phone like a lifeline. "Tell me everything was deleted like we ordered back in 2014."
The Platte River tech on the other end hesitated just long enough to send ice through the aide's veins. "Well, about that..."
That hesitation would echo through history. Because in that moment, everyone involved realized that the cover-up had failed before it had even properly begun. The emails still existed, somewhere in cyberspace, waiting to be discovered.
March 4, 2015
The subpoena arrived like a legal thunderbolt. The House Select Committee on Benghazi wasn't playing games anymore. They wanted Clinton's emails, all of them, and they wanted them now.
Trey Gowdy signed the subpoena with the satisfaction of a man who had just played his ace. "Let's see them wiggle out of this one," he muttered to his staff.
But across town, the Clinton team was already in full crisis mode. Conference calls stretched into the night. Lawyers consulted other lawyers. And somewhere in the maze of legal maneuvering, someone made a decision that would later be described by federal prosecutors as obstruction of justice.
The subpoena was just paper. But paper has power, especially when it carries the full weight of congressional authority.
March 9, 2015
The Georgetown restaurant was the kind of place where Washington power brokers made deals over overpriced wine and understated influence. Terry McAuliffe, Virginia's governor and the Clinton family’s longtime friend, smiled warmly as he shook hands with Jill McCabe.
"You should really consider running for state senate," McAuliffe said, his voice carrying the smooth confidence of a man who had spent decades in politics. "Virginia needs leaders like you."
What he didn't mention—what neither of them discussed over their expensive dinner—was that Jill's husband Andrew McCabe was positioned to lead the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server. That little detail would remain unspoken, hanging in the air like smoke from an expensive cigar.
Sometimes the most important conversations are about what isn't said.
A dramatization of real events. This is Part I. Based upon The Timeline of Treason.
The entire Spygate series is online - and available on Kindle and in paperback! Paid subscribers get complete access to all of it - including the insane Illustrated Laptop From Hell.
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