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Criminal Inquiry Sought Over Hillary Clinton's Personal Email Server

cold fjord writes: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Inspectors General from the State Department and intelligence agencies have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email server while she was U.S. Secretary of State. At issue is the possible mishandling of sensitive government information. Dozens of the emails provided by Hillary Clinton have been retroactively classified as part of the review of her emails as they are screened for public release. So far 3,000 of 55,000 emails have been released. The inspectors general found hundreds of potentially classified emails. "The Justice Department has not decided if it will open an investigation, senior officials said. ... The inspectors general also criticized the State Department for its handling of sensitive information, particularly its reliance on retired senior Foreign Service officers to decide if information should be classified, and for not consulting with the intelligence agencies about its determinations."

26 of 434 comments (clear)

  1. Obama's Justice Dept. will get right on it by jjo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We can expect a zealous investigation of these allegations against Hillary by the Obama Justice Department. Not.

    1. Re:Obama's Justice Dept. will get right on it by Feyshtey · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's less a comment about effectiveness, and more about integrity.

      Hell, even if the Obama administration were to prosecute or less likely convict Clinton, Obama would probably pardon her. I dont know if that's more or less sad that that the media would dismiss it, and that millions of intellectually lazy would still be happy to vote for her.

      --
      "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
  2. Re:Felons by sycodon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hilary's team has been running the latest DOD Wipe algorithms on that server non-stop for months now.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  3. What bothers me by Snotnose · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is she was ordered to give up her email to investigators. She gave them some of the mail and deleted the rest.

    Whether we'd actually done anything wrong or not, if one of us little people had pulled such a stunt we'd be rotting in jail awaiting trial for destroying evidence, not running for president.

    1. Re:What bothers me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      She has already been caught deleting emails relevant to State Department. One of her friends (Sydney Blumenthal) turned over emails in another investigation from Hillary and they were not in what she disclosed to Congress. She claimed deleted emails had to do with a wedding or yoga class.

      So she illegally ran a private email server.
      Deleted requested emails after a subpoena for them.
      Emailed classified information from an unsecure server to Sydney.
      Lied to Congress about it.

      Those above have been proven and no one is questioning that they happened. What they are questioning is if doing the above is wrong/illegal and if something should be done about it.

    2. Re:What bothers me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Except for:

      In the course of the email review, State Department officials determined that some information in the messages should be retroactively classified. In the 3,000 pages that were released, for example, portions of two dozen emails were redacted because they were upgraded to “classified status.” But none of those were marked as classified at the time Mrs. Clinton handled them.

      From TFA. The problem is, none of what she did was actually illegal. It wasn't illegal during her tenure to run her own email server; that changed more than a year after she left. Nor was the material classified at the time. That it is now, doesn't make it illegal then.

      No ex post facto laws. No matter how much you hate Hillary, she can't be convicted of things that weren't crimes when she did them.

  4. Re:It depends on who is in charge by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I don't guess you've been anywhere then. First, Hillary wasn't "in charge". No office holder in the United States can be deemed to be "in charge".

    And, no office holder decides on his own what should be classified, and what should not be classified. None. Not even Emperor Obummer.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  5. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by bondsbw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ask yourself: "What would happen if I were employed in the federal government and mishandled government data in this same manner?"

    I have a feeling the answer would be much harsher than what Hillary will get.

    --
    All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
  6. Re:The Slashdot crowd rises up and says by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Uh-huh. And - you don't understand the difference? See - Hillary is covering up her own crimes. Snowden was exposing other people's crimes. Do you see even the slightest difference between the two circumstances?

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  7. Re:Yep, keep searching by ilsaloving · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While the parent comment is funny, I wouldn't be surprised if republicans actually believed this. They seem to spend all their time focusing on pet conspiracies, while ignoring the real problems facing the USA. The party has successfully reinvented themselves from being "conservative", to "batshit crazy" and their entire existence revolves around defeating the democrats (when they're not attacking each other).

    Actually managing the country seems to be very far down on their priority list.

  8. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by Feyshtey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure that destroying data that has been subpoenaed by Congress is not a misdemeanor.

    --
    "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
  9. Re:The Slashdot crowd rises up and says by blue9steel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Snowden definitely deserves jail time.

    Well, he's guilty of crimes that are usually punished by jail time. In this case I think what he deserves is a pardon and a presidential medal of freedom.

  10. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wrongs have been done before no doubt but the scale of this one was much larger than anything previously done that I've heard about. Rather than justifying the present with the past how about we tighten the rules, not loosen then. I'm 100% sure if any of us had done this we would be in jail forever. When a political elite does it it's fine. This shouldn't be a D vs R type debate where my guy is bad but not as bad as your guy (or gal in this case). How about we make this about anyone breaking rules, D or R, gets punished.

  11. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I doubt Hillary will get anything, as this is 100% politically motivated. I know of a much more serious case that resulted in nothing more than a hand slap, if you can even call the resulting action "punishment" at all. What might happen is something that should have happened 20 years ago - all official government communications will be handled via government owned devices and services, after which using private devices for government communications will be a violation.

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
  12. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anything she gets will likely be harsher than Karl Rove managed to get for outing Valerie Plame.

    All of this has been done before. Complete BS if she gets harsher treatment than the previous administration. I agree that we need to clamp down on the problem, but some retro activity would be nice as well.

    So basically what you're saying is that you'd like to see the Obama Administration sink the same level as the Bush Administration when administering justice? Wouldn't it be better if Obama's Justice Department did the right thing and set the bar high for future administrations? Or is this just a case of "Their team got the kid gloves treatment, so mine should get it as well?"

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
  13. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by sycodon · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I work for a defense company subject to ITAR regulations.

    If I did what she did, I'd be fired...escorted out by security.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  14. Nice by HangingChad · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Dozens of the emails provided by Hillary Clinton have been retroactively classified as part of the review of her emails as they are screened for public release.

    Nice. Retroactively classify information, then open a criminal inquiry over the release of classified information.

    Absolutely no political motivation behind this witch hunt-- I mean investigation.

    --
    That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  15. Re:Yep, keep searching by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    As a republican I really dont care *what* is in those emails. It does show however a total disregard for the laws of our country. Those things apply to other people not her. What I said is also true. Nothing will happen to her other than maybe a bit of a dip in the polls. People will justify what she did as 'ok'. She has a long history of it.

  16. Re:pulp and rubbish by Straif · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One problem is that for any information that was classified at the time (I"m not sure how this whole retroactive classification things works) it was and is a federal offense to even have that information on a private email server.

    Your personal level of access does not give you permission to store classified information wherever you want to.

    I still haven't seen anything confirming that she in fact did have classified information on her server (at least not classified at the time) but as has been mentioned above, there has already been proven verified instances of emails to and from other people about State related work that was not handed over by Clinton but found through subpenas of the other persons email.

    --
    Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
  17. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by Penguinisto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Similar to sibling, I have previously worked for a defense contractor, subject to similar regulations... and among my duties, I was the primary sysadmin on the email MTAs (both the company and the DoD/DLA-owned ones).

    If I would have merely seen someone in the company do what the Clintons did, and had not reported it? I would have immediately lost my IT-1 clearance, gotten fired on the spot, my employer would have probably been kicked off the contract, then we'd both be blacklisted from any further DoD consideration.

    If I had done it myself? Getting fired would have been the least of my worries.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  18. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by Bartles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hilarious. The lack of knowledge present here is remarkable.

  19. Re:Likely misdemeanor mishandling of classified in by Bartles · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This post would mean a lot more if the OP had gotten his their facts correct. Karl Rove didn't get kid gloves treatment. He didn't break the law or out anybody.

  20. Re:Mailbox by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Try that at a company when you first get hired and see how well that defense works out for you. A normal (ie not above the law) person might have asked about the oversight rather than saying "oh well, I guess I'll have to make an email server for myself". The "I wasn't given one" is an amazingly poor defense. It takes a lot of chutzpah to use that with a straight face.

  21. Why not ask the administrator of the server? by zeugma-amp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Since we know that none of the Clintons have the skills to run their own email server, we need to get the administrator of the email server in to testify. He needs to publicly admit before the world that he was so incredibly incompetent that there are no backups of the server.

    Congresscritter: Just to clarify, you're the person who managed the Clinton's email server?

    Admin: Yes.

    Congresscritter: Could you please supply the committee with backups of the email server?

    Admin: There aren't any.

    Congresscritter: Again, just to clarify... You're actually an IT professional?

    Admin: Yes

    Congresscritter: And you're going to go on record, to say that this email server was not backed up?

    Admin: Yes.

    Congresscritter: You realize Mrs. Clinton was a senior administration official whose duties involve, among other things, negotiations with foreign governments?

    Admin: uh....yes

    Congresscritter: And what would you have done if, during negotiations, the hard disk on this computer had crashed, completely wiping out her email?

    Admin: uh....

    Congresscritter: So you're going to state, for the record before the world that as an IT professional, you're completely and utterly incompetent?

    Admin: I'm not incompetent

    Congresscritter: Then provide us with the backups.

    --
    This is an ex-parrot!
  22. The Worst Thing Is... by Sir_Eptishous · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That we have a choice of either Hillary Clinton OR a rag-tag group of nincompoop Republicans for president?

    What a joke.

    --
    We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
  23. Re:The Slashdot crowd rises up and says by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why would you even ask that? What does Trump have to do with recognizing that Clinton is pure evil? How does Trump figure into any discussion of Clinton? I could even ask, "WTF is Trump?" But, I'll be serious. Trump is a puffed up, egotistical, pompous ass - but he's more qualified to be president than Shrillary ever could be. I'd love to punch Trump in the nose. But, I'd love even more to never hear Shrillary's name again. Would I support Trump over Hillary? Yes - but I'd support damned near anyone over Hillary.

    Is your mom considering running for president? You could tell me a lot of bad things about your mom, and I'd STILL vote for her before I voted for Hillary.

    Go on, tell Mom to run. Compared to the turkeys in the field right now, I can see that your mom raised at least one semi-literate child. Yes, she's more qualified than most of them!

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br