Hillary Email Scandal

04 Mar, 2015 by Dave Blount

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If you think Obama’s “transparency” has been opaque, imagine trying to see through President Shrillary’s. In order to keep her dirty deeds off the public record, the infamously unscrupulous politician exclusively and evidently illegally used a private email account to conduct government business as Secretary of State:

Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department. Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.

Too bad Lois Lerner didn’t think of that.

Her expansive use of the private account was alarming to current and former National Archives and Records Administration officials and government watchdogs, who called it a serious breach.

“It is very difficult to conceive of a scenario — short of nuclear winter — where an agency would be justified in allowing its cabinet-level head officer to solely use a private email communications channel for the conduct of government business,” said Jason R. Baron, a lawyer at Drinker Biddle & Reath who is a former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration.

Once again the Clintons demonstrate that obeying the law is for us, not them.

Under federal law … letters and emails written and received by federal officials, such as the secretary of state, are considered government records and are supposed to be retained so that congressional committees, historians and members of the news media can find them. … The use of private email accounts is supposed to be limited to emergencies…

“I can recall no instance in my time at the National Archives when a high-ranking official at an executive branch agency solely used a personal email account for the transaction of government business,” said Mr. Baron, who worked at the agency from 2000 to 2013.

Regulations from the National Archives and Records Administration at the time required that any emails sent or received from personal accounts be preserved as part of the agency’s records.

But Mrs. Clinton and her aides failed to do so.

The NY Times puts this mildly:

The revelation about the private email account echoes longstanding criticisms directed at both the former secretary and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, for a lack of transparency and inclination toward secrecy.

As Robert Heinlein observed,

“Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny.”

Shrillary was so secretive regarding her emails that she actually ran her own computer system to ensure they were kept hidden from the public:

The computer server that transmitted and received Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails – on a private account she used exclusively for official business when she was secretary of state – traced back to an Internet service registered to her family’s home in Chappaqua, New York, according to Internet records reviewed by The Associated Press.

The highly unusual practice of a Cabinet-level official physically running her own email would have given Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, impressive control over limiting access to her message archives. It also would distinguish Clinton’s secretive email practices as far more sophisticated than some politicians, including Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin, who were caught conducting official business using free email services operated by Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

This wasn’t a minor slipup as with Mittens and Sarah Palin. Shrillary went far out of the way to skirt the rules.

Too bad Clintons aren’t expected to obey the law, like the fallen General David Petraeus. Judge Andrew Napolitano says Shrillary could be charged with violating the same law the hapless Petraeus pled guilty to breaking:

Whether this has any impact on her presidential aspirations remains to be seen. The sort of people who would vote for her are not sticklers for the law, as evidenced by their continued support for Slick Willie even after he was impeached for committing multiple felonies while in office.

On tips from JusttheTipHQ, Henry, Christopher T, Stormfax, Wiggins, Varla, and Petterssonp. Graphic compliments of Stormfax. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.