Hillary and the classified emails

[Danny Bateman]

I'm having trouble with the calibration on this darned moral compass.....

 

On one hand, cheating is okay if you can get away with it and others are doing it. But on the other hand, people who misuse their work email should be killed. Feel like I'm standing directly on one of the planet's poles watching this thing spin wildly.

 

#perspective

[Saunders]

I don't get the partisan complaints, I'm an independent. I don't like most politicians!

 

And yes, for the record, what Patraeus and Rice did was absolutely wrong... but they not running for President of the United States, so the circumstances are just slightly different.

 

Regardless of what Pataeus and Rice did, this was a major mishandling of classified information. The entire Clinton defense is seems to be based on "well, they weren't classified at the time, so it wasn't illegal" which is decidedly false.

 

In a letter to Capitol Hill obtained by The Hill, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III wrote that Clinton had highly classified information known as “special access programs” (SAP) on her private server.

 

“To date, I have received two sworn declarations from one [intelligence community] element,” the watchdog told lawmakers in Congress, Fox reported. “These declarations cover several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the IC element to be at the CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, and TOP SECRET/SAP levels. “According to the declarant, these documents contain information derived from classified IC element sources,” he added.

 

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/266326-clinton-emails-contained-need-to-know-classified-info

 

 

The State Department doesn't get to decide what information from other departments is considered classified, the other departments do that. When that information comes from other departments to state, it is classified. The classifications that you think are being added retroactively by the State Department were actually granted by other departments when the information was created.

 

More likely, Clinton instructed her staff to remove the classified markings so that they could be sent to her e-mail without scrutiny:

 

But in one email exchange between Clinton and staffer Jake Sullivan from June 17, 2011, the then-secretary advised her aide on sending a set of talking points by email when he had trouble sending them through secure means.

 

Part of the exchange is redacted, so the context of the emails is unknown, but at one point, Sullivan tells Clinton that aides "say they've had issues sending secure fax. They're working on it."

 

Clinton responds, "If they can't, turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure."

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/state-department-releases-more-clinton-emails-several-marked-classified

 

 

That right there is a HUGE no no. If the FBI finds an example of information that was classified, and the markings were then stripped to send to her e-mail address, it's going to get messy, really fast.

 

tl;dr: Saying "I didn't know they were classified" when you're the Secretary of State means you're either lying, or grossly incompetent.

[knapplc]

When do the prosecutions of Colin Powell and/or Condi Rice start?

[Saunders]

When do the prosecutions of Colin Powell and/or Condi Rice start?

 

 

The emails were discovered during a State Department review of the email practices of the past five secretaries of state. It found that Powell received two emails that were classified and that the "immediate staff" working for Rice received 10 emails that were classified.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/politics/hillary-clinton-email-classified-colin-powell-condoleezza-rice/

 

 

 

 

 

But to be blunt, they aren't nearly as important, considering there's 12 emails between the two of them, vs anywhere from 1300 to nearly 2100 emails in Hillary's possession, not including whatever was classified in the 30k she had deleted. Because they aren't running for POTUS, it's not as big of a deal. But, probably (hopefully) an investigation begins after Hillary is done.

[Saunders]

In the end, I don't really expect anything to come out of this though, because even if they actually tried to hammer her, she'd get pardoned. That's just the way it works, and it's frustratingly sad.

[teachercd]

In the end, I don't really expect anything to come out of this though, because even if they actually tried to hammer her, she'd get pardoned. That's just the way it works, and it's frustratingly sad.

I agree and that is one of the many reasons we need some change.

[darkhorse85]

In the end, I don't really expect anything to come out of this though, because even if they actually tried to hammer her, she'd get pardoned. That's just the way it works, and it's frustratingly sad.

 

Pardoned by whom? Obama? Personally, I don't think he would but I'm just a nobody from BFE so I could be very wrong about that.

[knapplc]

But to be blunt, they aren't nearly as important, considering there's 12 emails between the two of them, vs anywhere from 1300 to nearly 2100 emails in Hillary's possession, not including whatever was classified in the 30k she had deleted. Because they aren't running for POTUS, it's not as big of a deal. But, probably (hopefully) an investigation begins after Hillary is done.

If I rob 12 banks or 1,200 banks, I should still be prosecuted.

 

Let's not pretend this isn't a politically-motivated "investigation."

[teachercd]

 

But to be blunt, they aren't nearly as important, considering there's 12 emails between the two of them, vs anywhere from 1300 to nearly 2100 emails in Hillary's possession, not including whatever was classified in the 30k she had deleted. Because they aren't running for POTUS, it's not as big of a deal. But, probably (hopefully) an investigation begins after Hillary is done.

If I rob 12 banks or 1,200 banks, I should still be prosecuted.Let's not pretend this isn't a politically-motivated "investigation."

Exactly! Wrong is wrong and she should be prosecuted and if found guilty serve a min of 40 years according to the law...and if it were 1989 and I was still wearing my sweet jean jacket with some patches of my favorite bands...she would be getting the death penality.

 

I totally agree with you...wrong is wrong

[Saunders]

 

But to be blunt, they aren't nearly as important, considering there's 12 emails between the two of them, vs anywhere from 1300 to nearly 2100 emails in Hillary's possession, not including whatever was classified in the 30k she had deleted. Because they aren't running for POTUS, it's not as big of a deal. But, probably (hopefully) an investigation begins after Hillary is done.

If I rob 12 banks or 1,200 banks, I should still be prosecuted.

 

Let's not pretend this isn't a politically-motivated "investigation."

 

Correct, a crime is a crime, but there is also severity and priority. Dismissing it as a politically motivated "investigation" seems disingenuous. This is a DOJ/FBI lead investigation into a real issue, not some clownshow like the Lewinski "scandal" in the 90's.

[Saunders]

 

In the end, I don't really expect anything to come out of this though, because even if they actually tried to hammer her, she'd get pardoned. That's just the way it works, and it's frustratingly sad.

 

Pardoned by whom? Obama? Personally, I don't think he would but I'm just a nobody from BFE so I could be very wrong about that.

 

Probably, but I wouldn't be surprised to see any of the R's pardon her either.

[knapplc]

 

 

But to be blunt, they aren't nearly as important, considering there's 12 emails between the two of them, vs anywhere from 1300 to nearly 2100 emails in Hillary's possession, not including whatever was classified in the 30k she had deleted. Because they aren't running for POTUS, it's not as big of a deal. But, probably (hopefully) an investigation begins after Hillary is done.

If I rob 12 banks or 1,200 banks, I should still be prosecuted.

 

Let's not pretend this isn't a politically-motivated "investigation."

 

Correct, a crime is a crime, but there is also severity and priority. Dismissing it as a politically motivated "investigation" seems disingenuous. This is a DOJ/FBI lead investigation into a real issue, not some clownshow like the Lewinski "scandal" in the 90's.

 

If Hillary weren't running for office, this would be back-page news. It's naive to think otherwise.

[Saunders]

 

 

 

But to be blunt, they aren't nearly as important, considering there's 12 emails between the two of them, vs anywhere from 1300 to nearly 2100 emails in Hillary's possession, not including whatever was classified in the 30k she had deleted. Because they aren't running for POTUS, it's not as big of a deal. But, probably (hopefully) an investigation begins after Hillary is done.

If I rob 12 banks or 1,200 banks, I should still be prosecuted.

 

Let's not pretend this isn't a politically-motivated "investigation."

 

Correct, a crime is a crime, but there is also severity and priority. Dismissing it as a politically motivated "investigation" seems disingenuous. This is a DOJ/FBI lead investigation into a real issue, not some clownshow like the Lewinski "scandal" in the 90's.

 

If Hillary weren't running for office, this would be back-page news. It's naive to think otherwise.

 

I think you're looking at it from the wrong angle.

 

It should be a big deal because she is running for POTUS. Of course it takes precedent over Rice and Powell, because they aren't putting themselves in a place to lead the country. The American people should know about the dirty laundry of who they're voting into office. We have enough problems with the rich and powerful getting away with stuff that average citizens would get skewered for doing.

[BigRedBuster]

I have this feeling that investigating Hillary for an email scandal is about like investigating Al Capone for tax evasion.

[knapplc]

We have enough problems with the rich and powerful getting away with stuff that average citizens would get skewered from.

Which is exactly what you're saying should happen with Rice & Powell. They're getting away with this, right?

 

I'm not saying Hillary shouldn't be prosecuted. She should, just like everyone else. But pretending that we're looking into this to help the country is absurd. We're looking into this because her political opponents want to smear her name during her presidential campaign. There's no noble purpose of defending 'Merca! going on here.