The Lawyer In Her

Although the context of the famous Shakespearean quote "First, let's kill all the lawyers" is not necessarily aligned with Shakespeare's own view, it might have been close.  At the least, it reflects what the citizenry in the time of Henry the Sixth (Part Two) thought to be a fitting end for them.

I'd have to say that we might have a bit more in common with the War of the Roses crowd than we know.  We can say this -- lawyers cause us great pain, vital though their service may be.

One thing that certainly bothers the heck out of us is the way that they parse the English language in such a way as to say something incredibly narrow with the expectation that it will allow them not to be held in court as having said more -- while deceiving the listeners into thinking they actually heard what they wanted to hear.

Case in point. Here is Hillary Clinton in an actual quote, that I know is actual because it is still running in a commercial even today.  It was not under oath, of course, because that would involve answering an actual question under oath, and she is quite above doing that -- in fact, she answers non-prewritten questions almost never.

Check this one out:

"I did not send any classified material ... and I did not receive any material marked or designated as classified"

Hillary Clinton, in that brief period of her remote youth when she was actually paid to do something (as opposed to the core 16 years of her adult life when all she did "productively" was associated with being married to someone), was a lawyer.

Being a lawyer, much like herpes, apparently stays with you for an awfully long time.  In her case it appears it will never leave her.  At 69 years old in couple months, it would appear that her lawyerisms are ingrained.

The quote above is specifically intended -- and the slow, careful delivery equally intended -- to give the impression, to the unwashed masses that vote, that she did nothing wrong and handled everything just perfectly.

Except, of course, that even parsed down to the nouns, she still just lied.

It is arguable, I suppose, that the three instances in which she was a party to the transmission of material marked Confidential on her private account makes her quote a lie on substance, except for the fact that Confidential is a very low standard of classification, and if that were the only case in which such material was transmitted, we would not be talking about prosecution -- maybe a slap on the wrist or a suspended clearance.

The problem, friends, is not the three Confidential items.  It is the 100+ unmarked transmissions that contained classified information (which may be over 2,000, at least from the initial FBI investigation).  Those unwashed masses may not be aware that unmarked classified material is treated no differently from marked classified material -- your oath in office and your annual training to be allowed to touch classified information in the first place validates that you do not transmit that stuff on an unsecured medium, with or without markings.

Hillary the Lawyer -- even in lawyer-speak -- is lying in both phrases.  She certainly sent classified material, apparently lots of it, on her private unsecured account on her private unsecured server.  But "I did not send any classified material", while actually a lie, is the lesser of the two phrases, and she wants you to hear them in that order.

The second phrase -- " ... and I did not receive any material marked or designated as classified" -- is the one that she wants you to hear last, because it taps into what her sycophants and toadies keep hearing, keep believing to be relevant, and then keep repeating.  It is also not true, but the "marking" part of the phrase gives an "out" to those who want to hear the best.

Unfortunately, all that lawyer-speak does what it's supposed to do, i.e., deflect the listener by focusing on a pick of nits here and there (even though they're lies, too), far from the issues at hand.

And that would be the big issue -- Why, when she was going to be transmitting and receiving classified material every day as Secretary of State, did she decide on the day her confirmation hearings started, to set up an unsecured server?  Why did she never set up a secure "@state.gov" email account?  And why did she never allow her State Department to appoint anyone to the independent position of Inspector General?

 We know the answers.  And it doesn't take a lawyer to figure them out.

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.