First, Clinton said she had turned over all emails to Congressional investigators looking into Benghazi, and that everything was in government hands already.
But that wasn't true, as the existence of the server and emails proves.
Then she had "no classified material" on her private server. It was mostly just yoga class scheduling and Chelsea's wedding.
But that wasn't true. There was classified material.
Then she said nothing was "classified at the time." This is just a rules thing. Gosh, government is so complex! Really not her fault.
But that wasn't true either. The material was classified at the time and she should have known it. Not having a stamp on it is no defense.
Then, she said nothing on her server was "marked classified." It's not her fault that somebody else failed to do that! Right?
Well, even if that defense is valid--and it isn't--that isn't true, either. We even have an email where Hillary explains how to take marked material, strip of the markings, and put it on the private email system.
Clinton has another whopper, too:
Clinton’s latest defense is that “it’s likely what they are referring to is the forwarding of a New York Times article” containing leaked intelligence about the drone program. First, she has no way of knowing that. Second, even if true, that is still not a defense. Think about her argument: Because the Obama administration leaked highly classified information about our drone program to the New York Times, she was no longer obligated as secretary of state to treat the program as classified? That is not going to go very far with the FBI agents investigating her right now.
And Team Clinton is facing the fact that the State Department won't release some of the latest documents because they are so secret that revealing them even now, even in part, would damage our national security:
In total seven email chains, covering 37 pages, are being withheld from scrutiny for containing material that could do "exceptionally grave" damage to national security if disclosed.
In response to this decision, we have this delightful new defense (see the 8:50 PM portion):
Clinton's campaign has questioned the secrecy of the messages and called for their release.
The Clinton campaign can't deny there is classified material, classified documents, classified and marked material, or material classified at the time.
So now the argument is that the information shouldn't be classified and should be released to the public!
Isn't that how Edward Snowden justified his theft of classified material from the government and making it public?
I think we are up to 1,300 Clinton emails with classified material in them. I have no doubt the Russians and Chinese have them all already. Oh, the damning files they must have!
Good God, people, imagine what these countries' intelligence services would have paid to get this kind of access? And they got it for free!
And if memory serves me, aren't these just the emails that Clinton released in the belief they were clean? Isn't the FBI recovering emails from the server that wasn't wiped as thoroughly as Clinton believed? Or are they gone forever?
And what about those 30,000 emails that Ms. Clinton had deleted? “I’ll spend the rest of my career trying to figure out what classified information was in those,” stated an exasperated Pentagon counterintelligence official, “everybody is mad as hell right now.” “The worst part,” the counterspy added,” is that Moscow and Beijing have that information but the Intelligence Community maybe never will.”
Not that what Clinton did isn't bad enough. But we may never know since what we have doesn't include recovered emails.
What Hillary Clinton did to avoid the government classification process was wrong. The private server itself is the crime even before you get to a single email!
Consider, all of Hillary Clinton's evolving (and false) defenses would be irrelevant if she had simply conducted her business on a government email as she was supposed to do.
Who's ready for Hillary, indeed. A court room and maybe a prison cell should be ready, I think.
Oh, and in a damning aside that is seldom mentioned, the Obama administration could see that their Secretary of State was using a personal email service and did nothing to stop her.
The government knew Clinton didn't even have a government email:
“This was all planned in advance” to skirt rules governing federal records management, said Howard J. Krongard, who served as the agency’s inspector general from 2005 to 2008.
The Harvard-educated lawyer points out that, from Day One, Clinton was never assigned and never used a state.gov e-mail address like previous secretaries.
Oh, and by coincidence, State didn't have an IG to look into wrongdoing:
He also points to the unusual absence of a permanent inspector general during Clinton’s entire 2009-2013 term at the department. He said the 5¹/₂-year vacancy was unprecedented.
“This is a major gap. In fact, it’s without precedent,” he said. “It’s the longest period any department has gone without an IG.”
How unfortunate for open government types, eh?
Which may explain why the current spokesman for the president defends Hillary so strenuously--which just "pisses off" the FBI, apparently.
Is it any wonder that Secretary of State has no achievements to boast about other than her mileage (which Kerry appropriately surpassed)? Our foes were probably reading her emails before her recipients got them!
Well, maybe Snowden will get a roommate at his Moscow residence. Heck, maybe the Russians will have to reserve an entire dormitory depending on who cooperated with Clinton.
UPDATE: It's worse than we think. (Tip to Instapundit)
Seriously, is Hillary Clinton still running as a bargaining chip to get a pardon? Is she threatening a Viking funeral ride for the Democratic party this year if she doesn't get a pardon by continuing to run, daring the administration to charge her with crimes, even as running tears apart the party and prevents a more viable candidate from entering before the brand is too damaged?
I don't put it past her, of course, to throw as many people as she has to under the bus to save herself. I just wonder if that is what she is doing.
UPDATE: The news doesn't end: should Hillary Clinton retain her security clearance while the investigations continue?
UPDATE: "To believe anything Hillary Clinton asserts requires a willing suspension of disbelief."
