To his credit, in his remarks recommending that Hillary Clinton not be indicted for violating several federal laws regarding her use of a private, unsecured email server, FBI Director James Comey — who I have said in this space is considered an apolitical straight shooter — did blast Hillary for her “gross negligence” and “extremely careless” use of that unsecured server to send and receive classified documents, including eight that were “Top Secret.” Comey also noted that Hillary could not claim, as she repeatedly did claim, that she didn’t know many of her emails were classified “at the time” she sent and received them. “Even if information is not marked ‘classified’ in an e-mail,” Comey said, “participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.”
Two thousand of those emails were of such a sensitive nature that, Comey added, “None of these emails should have been sent on any kind of unclassified system, but their presence is especially concerning because all of these emails were housed on unclassified personal servers not even supported by full-time security staff.”
Clearly, Hillary violated federal law, and the likelihood that Chinese, Russian and other enemy hackers penetrated her email system and obtained highly sensitive U.S. secrets has been called “probable” by several security experts.
Still, Comey based his recommendation not to indict on his belief that although she was “extremely careless,” she did not “intentionally or willfully” mishandle classified material. Negligence is, according to Comey, legally exculpatory, and therefore no “reasonable prosecutor” should bring charges against her.
And yet, every day thousands of Americans are convicted of crimes that they did not “intentionally or willfully” commit. How many times has a person driving down the road let his mind wander, finding himself thinking about some clause in a contract he forgot to include, or a new way to close a business deal to his advantage, or, “Wait a minute? Am I supposed to pick up Jennie after school today?” The result being that he unintentionally runs a stop sign and crashes into another car. Unintentional or not, depending on the severity of the accident he unintentionally caused, he would either pay a fine or go to jail. Commit a crime, intentionally or not, and you pay a price. The law is the law, unless, apparently (as has happened so many times before), you are Hillary Clinton.
Still, the final decision to indict or not rests with the Justice Department under Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who happens to work for President Obama, who very much wants Hillary to succeed him as president, and who, on the same day Comey made his announcement, began to actively campaign for Hillary.
