mr. bentell about their concerns. according to these new witnesses, mr. bentell told them never to speak of secretary clinton's personal email system again. it seems unlikely that two witnesses who told such similar stories independent of one another would be making it up. plus, they knew that they were under a legal obligation to tell the truth to the inspector general. without having spoken to these witnesses directly, the circumstances make their statements seem credible, and although mr. bentell has been given the opportunity to provide his side of the story, he has refused to cooperate. but if what these two witnesses said is true, it is an outrage and it raises lots of serious questions. good and honest employees just trying to do their job were told by mr. bentell to shut up and sit down. concerns about the secretary's email system being out of compliance with federal recordkeeping laws were thus swept under the record. if these -- if those state department employees had not been muzzled five years earlier, perhaps secretary clinton could have then