Despite her protestations of having done nothing wrong, let alone illegal, it has now come out that Hillary Clinton knowingly received classified material, marked classified at the time it was sent, on her home-brew private server. That would be the one set up on the day her confirmation hearings began, specifically to avoid the nosy people who file those Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) inquiries that is their right under, you know, the law.
I have tried to explain, within the limits of reason, things that anyone who has held a clearance understands, including Hillary Clinton. I don't say "should understand", because every year, every person with a clearance is briefed to their clearance level on what is the proper process and what is and is not allowed, and how to handle classified material. They "understand", all right.
And "classified material" has nothing to do with how it is marked, by law and by that annual re-certification. It is all about the content, not the marking.
But Hillary's protestations have always been about the markings, and her sycophants and toadies (I'm looking at you, Lanny Davis), have always used the "markings" argument. That has always annoyed those who know better, including everyone who has ever held a clearance.
Well, now we know better. As noted in the referenced article, at least one email received into her private email server (because she never had, or never used, the state.gov email account she was supposed to use), had what are called "portion markings" on it, a clear indication of classified material.
If you are not familiar with this concept, it is fairly simple. But first, the disclaimer for the 46th time: Classified material is classified because of its content; and its content -- not the markings -- is what makes it classified. Every cleared individual knows that, and if they have somehow forgotten they are reminded of the fact every year when they have to pass a test to retain their clearance, a test which specifically includes the fact that classified material is not handled differently based on whether it is marked so.
Documents marked classified can have individual paragraphs marked at different levels -- e.g., confidential, secret, top secret, unclassified. They are marked with a letter in square brackets at the start of the paragraph -- and a classified document must have every paragraph marked, even if the entire document is unclassified except for one paragraph on page 37. A document with portion markings will also have headers and footers appropriately marking the level.
Those letters are called "portion markings", because the paragraph is the "portion" of the document to which the marking applies.
What is important is this -- as soon as you see a portion marking on any paragraph, you instantly see that the document is classified. It is OK, though very inadvisable, to transmit a page of content where all the portion markings are "[U]", meaning unclassified.
However, the document received by Hillary's private server and viewed by her had markings higher than "[U]." This meant that the following things happened:
- Someone at State sent a classified document to a private server, which is horribly illegal.
- No one, it appears, held the person who sent it accountable for a Federal offense at the time, nor since, presumably because the private server it belonged to was being run by his or her boss, the Secretary of State.
- Hillary Clinton saw a classified document sent to a private server, her own, and did nothing about it, presumably to keep the existence of her private server private.
It also means this -- Hillary Clinton lied to the American people repeatedly by claiming that she "never sent or received material marked as classified at the time." Hillary, of course, has brought the art of the lie to new levels, but even though the markings are not necessary for the offense, this one is a denial of something that now is evident to the sycophants and toadies themselves. What will they say?
The FBI has had dozens of agents going over what is now admitted, even by the White House, to be a criminal investigation into her use of a private server. Enough has been leaked out so that we know it is a pretty strong case. The leaks were done by career FBI people, no doubt so that if somehow Obama's Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, fails to indict Hillary, the FBI agents -- and possibly even the Director, James Comey -- who then decide to quit the Bureau in protest will be understood. You can try to politicize an investigation, but if the nation has been told how strong the case is, Obama, Lynch and Hillary will all end up looking very bad.
The discovery of the marked-as-classified email removes the last defense anyone can possibly make, however sycophantic they might be. Combined with the refusal of Hillary's rat pack to testify, or their answering only a few questions with a half-dozen lawyers, well, if the shoe fits ...
This cannot go on much longer. The penultimate lifeline, unsuitable though it was in actuality, is now gone. There are marked-classified documents that have gone to her private server and she lied about it.
Obama is her last lifeline. Hillary has gotten her revenge -- there is no good action for him. Either his own Secretary of State gets indicted, kills her campaign and soils his legacy for having appointed her, or he declines to let Justice indict her, and soils his legacy when 50 FBI agents and the Director resign because he politicized the process of justice.
Both of them are royally scrod. Let's see where it goes now.
Copyright 2016 by Robert Sutton
Like what you read here? There's a new post from Bob
at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com at 10am Eastern time, every weekday, giving
new meaning to "prolific essayist." Sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at
bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton.
No comments:
Post a Comment