For All Intents & Careless Purposes

The recent decision by the FBI to not prosecute Hillary Clinton over her email scandal has certainly generated some heated water-cooler conversations around the country. Not surprising, people have pretty much lined up along party lines. Republicans are outraged over Hillary's escape act while Democrats view the whole thing as nothing more than a partisan witch hunt.

FBI Director James Comey described Hillary's handling of the classified emails as "extremely careless" but saw no reason why she should be criminality charged. The reason? Because there was no intent to harm the United States. This, of course, has people scratching their heads. Can a drunk driver now use this excuse if he happens to get into an accident? Even though he may have been "extremely careless", he really didn't get behind the wheel with the intent to hurt anyone.

From what I understand, the "intent" clause was only recently added to Section 793(f) of the Federal Penal code thus giving Hillary the loophole she needed. It kinda sounds like they changed the rules in the middle of the game. I wonder if they'd do the same for you and me?

Although Hillary will not be charged, the negative exposure that she's gotten over this ordeal certainly can't help her bid for the White House. Along with being "extremely careless" with sensitive material, she has been exposed as a liar. Her claims of not sending or receiving any classified emails via her server turned out to be false. Her claim of using only one device to send/receive email also turned out to be false.  Hillary also claimed to have returned all work-related emails to the State Department. But we learned that there were thousands of these emails that were not returned. If it walks like and duck and talks like a duck......

The thing that's most profound in all of this is the blatant disregard for the basic rules. We're led to believe that Hillary "just didn't know" that what she was doing was wrong. Anyone with even a low level security clearance should know the guidelines regarding sensitive documents. So, are we to believe that an attorney, former First Lady, former US Senator and current Secretary of State didn't know that she was breaching protocol? Will this set a new precedent of deniability for future infractions? What ever happened to that old "ignorance of the law is no excuse" proclamation?

Of course, the investigation received even more public scrutiny after Bill Clinton met privately over the weekend with Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Maybe they were only talking about golf and the grand-kids but it sure doesn't look good when, Right in the middle of the investigation, Hillary's hubby has a closed-door meeting with the boss of the FBI Director. If I didn't no any better, I'd say that we could have a conflict of interest here...

I caught some of the Congressional grilling of Director Comey earlier today. Actually, it was only the Republicans who seemed to be doing the grilling. The Democrats spent their time voicing outrage that the GOP would even question the motives and integrity of Comey. (Considering that Comey is a Republican, this would almost seem like a Kum Baya moment between the parties. But we know better than that....)

Attempting to defend Hillary's "extreme carelessness", the Dems also pointed out that high ranking Republicans have done the same thing and have not even been investigated. Perhaps they have a legitimate point. But this particular instance involves the person who could very likely become our next President. If she can't be trusted to handle government secrets. is she really worthy of a promotion? It's hard for me to believe that Joe Schmoo would be treated in the same manner. If a normal everyday government employee was found to be "extremely careless" with confidential information, there would likely be some serious repercussions. At the very least, his/her clearance and employment future would be in serious jeopardy.

With all of this being said, I actually expected this outcome. With all of the political scandals the Clintons have dodged, why would this one would be any different? The email revelations may have a negative effect on her current poll numbers, but memories can sometimes be short. Can any of this carry over into November? It's hard to say but I would expect Donald Trump to keep it alive during the debate season. Pull up a chair, it's going to get interesting.......

kw