Former Attorney General Mukasey: Hillary Might Have Disqualified Herself from Holding Public Office

Do you agree with Michael Mukasey’s reasoning?

One of the consequences of David Petraeus’ undoing, coming as it did by his having left a copy of his journal in a place accessible to his biographer and mistress, was that the former CIA director and military hero could no longer serve in government as a result of his guilty plea to mishandling classified information. That fact is especially relevant to the burgeoning mess Hillary Clinton has made for herself with the ongoing revelations about her e-mail scandal, and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey is one of the first to note the parallels – and the pitfalls associated with Clinton running for president with this scandal hanging over her head

Michael Mukasey, who was the Unites States Attorney General from 2007 to 2009, showed up on Morning Joe today to discuss the Hillary Clinton private server debacle and how it was going to play out. This wasn’t his first cable news hit on the subject and he’d been making the rounds, pointing out that this investigation “is not a witch hunt,” as he said on interviews over the weekend. Most of the information being discussed was nothing new. The panel talked about how Hillary’s decisions to not only have a private server, but to fail to properly classify the contents was a violation of department policy, if not the law. But then, in response to one question from Scarborough, Mukasey went a step further and said that Clinton may have disqualified herself from elected office if the allegations prove to be true.

Now, that’s a phrase we’ve heard before, but generally in a philosophical sense. “If you do this or that bad thing, you’ve essentially disqualified yourself as being the leader of the free world.” But when the former AG was pressed on the question, he informed the panel that he was speaking specifically of federal statute.

Joking that it was a common subject around his family’s breakfast table, he said, “Title 18. Section 2071.”

Here’s the statute in question…

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.

And Paragraph (b), with the sweet spot in bold…

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 “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Here’s a copy of the video…

The question, obviously, is whether Hillary Clinton is convicted of anything in the e-mail case. That’s up for grabs at this point, since lots of people refuse to believe the Obama administration will take down the Democrat Party’s putative frontrunner. But there are reasons to believe it, and with the likely entry of Joe Biden into the race the Democrats at least will have an alternative or two, weak though Biden might be as a presidential candidate. After all, with this scandal continuing to develop it isn’t like Hillary is a particularly viable candidate.

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