All is not good in Hillary Land. The New York Times is reporting that two inspectors general have called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s possible mishandling of sensitive information on her private server during her tenure as secretary of state. For those wondering if it’s a big deal, war hero and former CIA director David Petreaus recently pleaded guilty to a similar charge.
Since the news of her private account/server has become public, Mrs. Clinton has contended that anything on her server that might have been classified received that designation after it arrived on her server. Of course she also claims that the attacks on Planned Parenthood for selling dead baby parts is somehow a war on reproductive rights.
The Justice Department has not decided if it will open an investigation, senior officials said. A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign declined to comment.
At issue are thousands of pages of State Department emails from Mrs. Clinton’s private account. Mrs. Clinton has said she used the account because it was more convenient, but it also shielded her correspondence from congressional and Freedom of Information Act requests.
She faced sharp criticism after her use of the account became public, and subsequently said she would ask the State Department to release her emails.
And she has asked the State Department to released the cherry-picked 55,000 emails her handlers decided to turn over to the folks at Foggy Bottom. A file of emails almost as large were kept my Clinton and eventually erased from her server. Some of those emails turned up because of copies retained by the recipient and were business-oriented. For example, longtime Clinton pal Sidney Blumenthal turned over 15 emails not among the 55,000.
In a second memo to [Under Secretary of State Patrick] Kennedy, sent on July 17, the inspectors general said that at least one email made public by the State Department contained classified information. The inspectors general did not identify the email or reveal its substance.
The memos were provided to The New York Times by a senior government official.
The inspectors general also criticized the State Department for its handling of sensitive information, particularly its reliance on retired senior Foreign Service officers to decide if information should be classified, and for not consulting with the intelligence agencies about its determinations.
Based on the revelations made in the email case and other scandals which arose since she started running for the 2016 nomination, polling has shown that Clinton’s trustworthiness numbers has fallen quickly. This might add to the decline.
Cross-posted at The Lid
