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Comey Denies Clinton Email 'Reddit' Cover-Up (politico.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Politico: The FBI concluded that a computer technician working on Clinton's email was not engaged in an illicit cover-up when he asked on the Reddit website for a tool that could delete a "VIP" email address throughout a large file, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday. Republican lawmakers have suggested that the July 2014 Reddit post from a user believed to be Platte River Networks specialist Paul Combetta showed an effort to hide Clinton's emails from investigators. However, at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Comey said FBI agents concluded that all the computer aide was trying to do was replace Clinton's email address so it wouldn't be revealed to the public. "Our team concluded that what he was trying to do was when they produced emails not have the actual address but have some name or placeholder instead of the actual dot-com address in the 'From:' line," Comey said. Comey said he wasn't sure whether the FBI knew about the Reddit posting when prosecutors granted Combetta immunity to get statements from him about what transpired. However, he added that such a deletion wouldn't automatically be considered an effort to destroy evidence. "Not necessarily ... It would depend what his intention was and why he wanted to do it," the FBI director said.

31 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. Clinton is above the law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    just get used to it. they have mastered the coverup and own everyone who could charge them.

    1. Re:Clinton is above the law by tripleevenfall · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The good old "you too" fallacy - why no one ever holds politicians accountable for their misdeeds and illegal activitites today.

      "Sure, my client robbed this bank, but come on. Is he the first person ever to rob a bank? Haven't plenty of bank robbers gotten off scot free? Is it really fair for us to single this one person out?"

    2. Re:Clinton is above the law by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The whole system and a large part of the government is corrupt to the point where nothing will be done. As much as the Republicans want to sling mud at Clinton so they can gain more power, they don't want to actually prosecute her, merely just destroy her reputation. They're not really any better than she is, and I would imagine that if she goes on trial, a lot of inconvenient information starts to come out and she nor her party are the only ones who wind up in serious trouble. At this point it's mutually assured destruction so nothing will ultimately come of it.

    3. Re:Clinton is above the law by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Which is why people still use the "But Bobby's Mom lets him smoke" argument, little kids try on parents. The thing of it is, we are supposed to be adults and not persuaded by childish arguments.

      Pointing to another person's wrong NEVER justifies the wrong you're doing. Justice is never going to be exact, so we should stop trying comparison justice, and let each case stand on its own merits. Anything less leads to lawless anarchy.

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    4. Re:Clinton is above the law by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The whole system and a large part of the government is corrupt to the point where nothing will be done.

      I'm sure that even most liberals would agree, but the solution liberals have is "more government" (and thus, more corruption), rather than reigning in the corruption we have now by limiting government actions. Liberty is messy. The greatest promotion of Fascism was "at least the trains run on time" (nice neat orderly).

      --
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    5. Re:Clinton is above the law by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Oh just quit all the conspiracy nonsense.

      1. Back in the early and mid 00's having your own email was the "Cool" thing to do. As for people in such short term government positions will want an email that will follow them.
      2. Shouldn't the government have a track of all the email sent on its servers. And we just pull all of them that went to Clinton's server and we will know what sensitive information that went across.
      3. Is there any evidence that she scolded or discouraged people from sending emails to her work email?
      4. If this was such a big deal, why didn't anyone bring it up earlier, until she decided to run for president?

      In short I don't see where she broke the law. The person who may had broke the law is the person who sent classified information to her email address.
      But I agree with the FBI she did have a bad judgement using personal email for work... However she is a politician not a IT expert.

      If it was an average guy who did this... Chances are they may had lost their job, but not had criminal activity put on him.

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    6. Re: Clinton is above the law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      When "mercy" is continuously given to one subset of the population whist others are served "justice", I would say "injustice" is present in the system.

    7. Re:Clinton is above the law by Orgasmatron · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can answer #4. Because she fucking hid everything until a lawsuit from Judicial Watch forced the State Department to release some of the public documents generated by her term as SOS. Once the people had access to her public records, they started to notice that her email wasn't entirely on the government servers, but on her own. Then her lawyers and IT people started to panic (the infamous reddit post) because they knew that Congress would get involved soon, and it did.

      The answer to #2 is that every agency seems to be in on the coverup to some extent. They have all been dragging their feet producing records, and several have "lost" drives, tapes, records, etc. IRS Commissioner Koskinen is facing impeachment for this same crap, but for a different scandal (not for Hillary's emails). Obama is probably going to need to pardon every single member of his cabinet and most of the senior management, or President Trump is going to need to build a brand new prison to house the "Most Transparent Administration in history (TM)".

      #1 is crap. See Powell's email leaks. #3 is no, or at least not that I've heard of.

      Here are at least three of the laws that she apparently broke:
      18 US Code 793
      18 US Code 798
      18 US Code 1924

      Whoever, being an officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, and, by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.

      As to your conclusion, there are guys in prison today for violations of the exact same laws, and several are now attempting to appeal their sentences. At the time they were convicted, those laws were seen as strict liability, so their trial records do not include proof of intent. If those same laws, which haven't changed, require mens rea now, at the very least they need a retrial to establish intent.

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    8. Re:Clinton is above the law by ultranova · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Pointing to another person's wrong NEVER justifies the wrong you're doing.

      No, but pointing to someone else's acquittal does give you grounds to demand to be acquitted as well on the basis of equality under law, to which you are entitled.

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    9. Re:Clinton is above the law by bl968 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You missed the most important one...

      18 U.S. Code  2071 - Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally

      (a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
      (b) Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term âoeofficeâ does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.
      (June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 795; Pub. L. 101â"510, div. A, title V, Ââ552(a), Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1566; Pub. L. 103â"322, title XXXIII, Ââ330016(1)(I), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

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    10. Re:Clinton is above the law by Orgasmatron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't remember their names. Over the last few months I've heard several radio interviews with lawyers involved in these cases, mostly while driving. I tried google using bits and pieces of the stories that (I think) I remember, but I didn't have much luck.

      One guy that with a case still in the process (as in, he wasn't in prison yet at the time, and maybe still isn't) was a mechanic in the Navy who took a picture or a selfie of his (classified) work area so that he could tell his kids "this is where I worked when I was away". No criminal intent, prosecuted anyway. I remember clearly one of the lawyers talking about that case said that they were preparing appeals paperwork for their other clients to have ready depending on how his use of the "Clinton Defense" went.

      I mean that no one knows, in the legal sense, if they had intent or not, because it wasn't examined at trial. Criminal trials are narrowly focused on the elements of the crime. Since the laws relating to classified documents were intentionally written by Congress to exclude intent as an element, it never gets examined at trial. Prosecutors don't raise the question because they didn't need to, and defense lawyers don't bring it up because it wouldn't help. At best, it might be in an opening or closing statement, but those are just fluff.

      If the courts agree that some level of intent is necessary for a conviction now, all of those cases are appealable because their trial records no longer contain facts sufficient to sustain their conviction.

      If you've ever pled guilty to something in court, the judge will ask you to affirm each element of the crime. They won't take your word at it that you are guilty of jaywalking, they want you to agree that "Don't Walk" was lit, that you knew it, and that you crossed anyway. The same thing happens in a real trial. The prosecutor lists the elements of the crime and argues that you did them, the defense disputes those claims (among other defenses). If the prosecutor is successful in establishing all of the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, you get convicted.

      Espionage is very hard to prove. A person doesn't have to wrap up a bundle of secret documents in a bow and sign a card saying "Here's the spy work you wanted me to do!", they can do, and have done, things that can plausibly be mere carelessness. For example, you could accidentally leave a document out on your desk instead of locking it in the safe. Oops, careless! Unless the cleaning guy is also compromised and drops it in the trash to be fetched later. Now the secrets left the building, but in a way that both of the people involved can plausibly claim they didn't intend.

      And motivation can be tricky too. Cash is obvious enough, but what about blackmail? Or loss of faith in the government? Or anger at a manager or director? Want to impress a girl? Want to experience the thrill of rule-breaking at middle-age?

      Because it can be so complicated, Congress also made carelessness with classified information punishable, regardless of intent. That's basically our espionage law: If you give away our secrets, or, if you allow through carelessness the conditions for someone else to steal them, we are going to prosecute you and probably throw you in prison for a while.

      Comey is claiming now that the second part should be "...or, if you intentionally allow through carelessness the conditions...", which is just asinine, and if we had honest media in this country, would be seen as such by everyone.

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  2. Two types of laws by rlp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Laws for people who are named 'Clinton' and laws for the rest of us.

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    1. Re:Two types of laws by tsqr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, intent matters when determining guilt.

      I suggest you try, "Officer, I didn't see the sign" the next time you're pulled over for running a stop sign.

    2. Re:Two types of laws by RoccamOccam · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Also, as pointed out by National Review

      In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing. The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence .

    3. Re:Two types of laws by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Which is why they go through a series of training meeting, of which Clinton doesn't recall attending, due to traumatic brain injury, but she is okay to be president.

      Another "convenient" excuse. She either didn't attend the requisite training (a dereliction of duty, and evidence she isn't qualified to be President) or she did, and ignorance is no longer an excuse. Now, you might claim she is too stupid to understand (as Director of the FBI basically said), but then that doesn't look to good if you're running for President either.

      The whole EMAIL thing is a tar pit for the Clinton's because she is either incompetent, or evil. There really is no other option. And as I have said before, (apologies to Arthur C. Clarke) "Any sufficient level of incompetence is indistinguishable from malice". So which is it, is she incompetent or evil?

      Of all the things Clinton should have done, she did none of them. The argument "no proof" is utter bullshit, there is plenty of evidence, and proof is only a conclusion. If you see all the evidence, and can't conclude she is either stupid or evil, you're just being an obtuse party hack.

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  3. Re:It won't matter what Comey says by blogagog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And others are incredibly resistant to admitting that Clinton is clearly breaking laws and suffering no consequences for it.

  4. Double Standard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I appreciate the lengths Comey has gone through to show the double standard justice system. He says Clinton had no intent to hide anything, he never asked her if she did. He says the administrator had no intention of doing anything wrong, and again probably didn't ask him. Comey also rewrote the law claiming Congress wanted intention to be part of the law, which they didn't include in the wording, without having asked them. He also outright ignored her lying under oath to Congress, along with all the people who lied to the FBI during the investigation. He also failed to investigate any of the bribes Clinton took while SOS, didn't even look into it to see if there might be something.

    Meanwhile...
    The IRS targets individuals because they don't follow the correct political views.
    Peter Thiel is investigated by department of Labor because he supports Trump.

    Were the tea party members asked if their intention was to break laws? Was Peter Thiel asked if he intended to be discriminatory in hiring? It doesn't matter in those cases because they are not "important" like Clinton.

    My big question, what can they now do to restore confidence in the system? I actually don't have an answer to that question at this time.

    1. Re:Double Standard by Mashiki · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Considering that there was only one left-leaning organization in that entire group and when it came to light, they were approved forthwith. But those tea party groups were still waiting, some are. And the IRS is still refusing to comply with lawful orders to turn over evidence. On top of that Thiel isn't a racist, he has opinions you don't like. And like many on the left, you use whatever label is convenient to smear people because you think it'll hurt their image. Too bad you've(along with the radical left) been using that shit for so long now that people believe all you've done is cry wolf. Just like the whining about how everything is sexist, or against women or some other inane bullshit.

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  5. Bullshit by acoustix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Either way he obviously tried to alter records that we under subpoena. This is so fucking corrupt it is unbelievable.

    Will I get the same leniency and benefit of doubt if the FBI or Justice Department ever investigates me for the same or less serious crimes? (not that I'm planning any)

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  6. VACCINES DO CAUSE AUTISM! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Vaccines do cause autism. Trump is the only one with guts enough to say this. TRUMP 2016!

  7. Corruption at the highest level by linuxrunner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yet, absolutely fucking nothing anyone can seem to do about it.

    Anyone else would be in jail.

    Give immunity to people you could prosecute for leverage, but they won't talk anyways. Pure evidence of intent and corruption, but oh well.

    I mean, we might as well have the North Korean dictator feeding us propaganda. We the people know it's all lies, but we can't do anything about it and our state media is just bobbing their heads saying what they're supposed to say with their talking points that get sent out every morning.

    Talk about totally fucked as a country.

    --
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    1. Re:Corruption at the highest level by Tablizer · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Anyone else would be in jail.

      I don't see GOP so eager to prosecute Colin Powell or other employees that also used an outside service during H's tenure at State Dept.

  8. Re:It won't matter what Comey says by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Why should Benghazi come up?

    Other than the fact that multiple investigations by Republicans over many years failed to point to anything that was really her fault. No, it's just their desperation (and yours) to pin it on her. I think you'd pin the Lindberg kidnapping on her if it would make you feel better. Even in your response you can't separate Benghazi with other things she may have done.

    That last bit IS about law breaking, but was more about the cover-up of her incompetence and lying. Her email arrangements, of course, were made so that she could run her foundation-related influence selling machinery without those pesky FOIA requests coming in later for a look.

    Yes she's so incompetent that the GOP can't charge with anything. What does that say about the GOP? Let me ask you: if you think she broke the law, would you support the FBI going after the Bush administration for using private emails as well? Also they deleted all of them which were never recovered.

    When Trump BSes about trivial rhetorical stuff, it doesn't help. Just like it doesn't help when Clinton does the exact same thing ("I never said the TPP was the gold standard ..." and similar demonstrable "little" lies, the type of which she also trots out every day). But when Clinton deliberately lies about her official conduct and has her entire staff getting immunity deals in order to protect her from consequences that would send anyone else to jail, it's an entirely different level of behavior.

    Trump lies daily about small factual things like what he said for which there is video. He lies about everything. For Clinton's TPP lie, it was rated as halfway true by Politifact. Yes she said it but at the time the TPP was not finished. She clearly opposes TPP in its present form.

    It's especially awful to watch her trot out a hearsay anecdote from an occasionally unstable Miss Universe contestant from 20 years ago to show how mean Trump is towards Latinas (despite the endless praise he gets from Latina women working in many management roles throughout his company) ...

    Unstable? How do you know she's unstable, again. Are you already attacking her character first? Freudian slip?

    Her story is that he called her "Miss Piggy" and "Miss Housekeeping." If both are true, those statements are fat-shaming and racist. Your defense of Trump isn't that he didn't say those things (Frankly we all tend to believe he would) but that he can't be racist because he has Latina female workers? He certainly can say racist things (and he does) and still work with Latinas. The two are not mutually exclusive.

    this coming from Clinton who personally launched the efforts to smear the reputation of multiple women with whom her husband had been screwing, including some of which were clear cases of abuse on his part. You can and should complain about Trump's ungraceful conversational style and bro-ish behavior.

    Now you are deflecting about Trump's clear misogynistic tendencies by bringing up Bill Clinton. It still does not excuse what Trump does no matter how you want to deflect it.

    But Clinton's career of personal enrichment at the public trough, character assassination, and decades of deceit and lying is far more sinister.

    This is a false dichotomy as it implies Trump has never used character assassination or has had decades of deceit and lying. He has.

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  9. Re:Like gwb43.com? by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Show me where he passed classified information though his private address..... Then we can talk..

    I guess you are OK with Bush's private E-mails? No? So Clinton has NO EXCUSE here... You say so yourself if you want to hold this issue up as an example of what not to do..

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  10. Re:VIP is not Clinton by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Or the Saudis. Who knows what Clinton got on that e-mail server. Who knows what Clinton Foundation / Secretary of State stuff mixed next to each other in a private e-mail account "off the books".

  11. Re:Like gwb43.com? by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Bush was worse" logic of liberals ...

    Pointing to bad behavior to excuse bad behavior is supposed to stop working when you're like 5 years old. Why does it still work with adults?

    --
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  12. Re: People deserve their government. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Couldn't agree more. There is no reason to allow political parties unlimited speech. We limit advertisers in every other venue. Consumer protection should be at its maximum when it comes to politics; not to limit choices but to ensure good practices by all actors.

  13. Re:It won't matter what Comey says by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think you are confusing what is really happening here. I've seen all sorts of arguments about Hillary vs Donald and it almost always boils down to one basic argument.

    1) Trump is worse than Clinton (Excusing bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior).

    They mostly try to avoid her actual record, because quite frankly it SUCKS.Her four years as SoS are a complete disaster. Her stint as Senator is mostly resume lining material (no actual accomplishments), and that she won because she was Bill's wife isn't really that great either. Basically, she has no record of accomplishments. None. Which is why she is playing the "gotcha" game, and sitting there wondering why she isn't "50 points ahead". Well, when you run douchbad against asshole (I'll let you figure out which is which), it is clear that she shouldn't be "50 points" ahead, and why they are basically neck n neck.

    If everyone who actually believes that NEITHER are good for America, actually voted for Gary Johnson (or Jill Stein), it would cause chaos in the election.

    --
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  14. Re:It won't matter what Comey says by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Even in your response you can't separate Benghazi with other things she may have done.

    Because it was in the context of trying to get to the bottom of her (and her boss's) lying about the Benghazi mess for political reasons right before an election that it became clear she had been running her official email on (and ONLY on) a home computer. And in examining that situation, it became clear that she had - on becoming aware that she was under subpoena - that she destroyed tens of thousands of federal documents, and repeatedly lied about what she did, when she did it, and why she did it. Right: you can't separate the two topics because SHE is the one responsible for them being part of an uninterrupted spectrum of incompetence and deceit that doesn't begin and end with just one topic.

    Yes she's so incompetent that the GOP can't charge with anything.

    So the problem here is that you don't actually understand the different branches of government and how they work. That explains a lot about your rambling, here. "The GOP" is a political party. It has no authority. Are you talking about congress? They could charge her with contempt for lying as she did in under oath in front of them, and that's still a possibility. But otherwise, the only entity capable of charging her with anything is the Obama administration. You get that, right? No, apparently you don't.

    Yes she said it but at the time...

    Blah blah. She said that she did NOT say it, and that's simply a lie. Regardless, you're carefully avoiding the long career of deliberate lies about all sorts of things - from the ridiculously meaningless (why lie about why her parents called her Hillary?) to the clearly self-aggrandizing (landing under sniper fire!) to the long, long parade of lies designed to deflect from public awareness of her corruption. Everything from her days in Arkansas to countless bits of business under her control in the White House, to her frequent throwing-under-the-bus of staff with a lie about why, to her non-stop lying - right to this day - about her "mistake" in setting up an off-the-books mail server to hide her public records from scrutiny ... acts serious enough that the DoJ has been doling out immunity deals like candy. Focusing on how half-truthy her spin on the her "it's the Gold Standard" assertion was then or is now is just you trying to avoid the rest of her career's disingenuous handling of the truth.

    Unstable? How do you know she's unstable, again. Are you already attacking her character first? Freudian slip?

    OK, I guess you consider her to be a more authoritative voice on her character than the judge who said she threatened his life. Do you have a reason to consider that judge to be a liar? Please explain.

    He certainly can say racist things (and he does)

    Please explain some of the racist things he DOES say. Or are you one of these people who can't understand the difference between race and culture? While you're at it, of course, please chime in on Hillary Clinton's choice to do things like yukking her way through a skit at a fundraiser where the joke is that being late for events is an example of operating on "Colored People Time."

    Now you are deflecting about Trump's clear misogynistic tendencies by bringing up Bill Clinton.

    No, you just can't read. The issue isn't Bill Clinton, the issue is Hillary Clinton and her personal staff spending time and your tax dollars to deliberately engage in a campaign of character assassination against the women who - by either willingly or unwillingly being the Bill Clinton sexcapade and abuse show - were going to poison the well for Hillary's personal eventual quest for political power. She would never have progressed past being a lawyer getting rapists easy plea deals if she hadn't ridden her husband's coat-tails all the way to national office. S

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  15. Re:People deserve their government. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the choice is between someone that says mean things, and an unindicted felon who is above the law, and played fast and loose with Top Secret information.

    Glad we've got our priorities straight on what to care about.

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  16. Re:Like gwb43.com? by Rob+Y. · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You make it sound like the intent in setting up a personal server was to enable Clinton to pass classified information to where it wasn't supposed to be. That is utter bullshit. The intent was to control where her emails (personal and otherwise) went - and maybe that's a significant issue. But what this is not about is the dissemination of classified information. The few classified items that (yes) slipped through - by being unlabeled or incompletely labeled - are only incriminating to someone looking for a technical excuse to prosecute. The information involved wasn't particularly sensitive, and probably would've been sent on the unclassified State Deparment system, had she been using it. Actual seriously secret info was sent on another, unwieldier system.

    So, maybe there's a case to be made that using the personal email server broke some rule or other, but the FBI got involved to find out whether vital security secrets were revealed, and determined that basically they weren't - certainly not enough to prosecute. And the bottom line is that the whole criminality thing is a red herring for the whole political thing, which is a witch hunt to bring down a presidential candidate over an embassy attack, which was a horrible thing - but largely (mostly) not directly attributable to that candidate.

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