"But even if information is not marked "classified" in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it."
The other devastating revelation concerned the likelihood of hacking or otherwise intercepting of this information:
"We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clinton's use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries."
Now, Director Comey is widely regarded as a fair-minded man of integrity, and I have no reason to doubt that his recommendation was made without political influence or bias. I leave it to the judgement of legal experts to determine whether a less famous and powerful person would have gotten the same recommendation. It does seem, however, that the only way Comey's statement is to be taken as consistent, is to parse the difference between "gross negligence," which he refers to in one of the relevant statutes, and "extreme carelessness," which he characterizes Clinton's use of email to be. Taking him at his word, would imply that these terms are substantially different.
But beyond the legal issues, this statement goes to the heart of the prevailing argument that has come from Hillary supporters on social media, with respect to this investigation. In short, Bernie supporters who criticize Clinton on this and other issues, are often accused of helping to bring about a Trump presidency, by giving him fodder in his campaign against Clinton. Now that the FBI report is out, I say this in turn to the Hillary camp: If you are terrified by the prospect of a Trump presidency, then you need to urge the DNC superdelegates to flip to Bernie Sanders, to avoid handing Donald Trump a huge piece of ammunition against the Democratic nominee.
To those who are concerned about the superdelegate system being undemocratic, I would ask where they were when superdelegates were being counted by the media before they voted, and when the AP suppressed the vote in the last "Super Tuesday" by declaring Hillary the winner based on a survey of superdelegates? While I am not a fan of the superdelegate system, they are still the way the DNC is operating, and they are designed for emergency situations like this one. Charges or not, the idea of the DNC nominating a candidate who has been judged to be "extremely careless" with classified information is terrifying, given her opponent.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
