DCDeac
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- Joined
- Mar 20, 2011
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If people are getting bent out of shape about the term "lied" - maybe everyone can agree on "deceptive" instead. But we knew this already. Originally she said there was no classified information on her server or in her emails. In later interviews she carefully altered that wording to say there was nothing "marked" as classified.
The details here matter. You have to assume after her people reviewed the emails their feedback altered that language. My guess is the very few emails actually marked as classified were either recovered by the FBI outside her search team's access or they simply missed them. When she made her calculated mea culpa it was supposed to be her moment to confess to enough to keep her safe politically and legally. The most interesting thing is that she fucked even that up. But it's very difficult - or impossible - for an outsider to judge her guilt when FBI researchers label something as classified without being marked classified without seeing the content. I'm assuming the content heavily influenced Comey's recommendation.
Secondly, Comey's comments about the State Department as a whole are going largely uncommented on, but I believe they form the majority of his basis for the recommendation against indictment. Hillary's email chains all include another address on the other end. Republicans, Democrats, high ranking officials, and even security specialists who were aware of her private server but did nothing about it are all in line to be torched along with her. When he says no prosecutor would move forward with charges, my guess is that's why. In the larger picture of rampant gmail use, hacked gmail accounts (which he mentioned), and various other public email use by others around her, the whole thing is a mess. Who deserves to be indicted in hindsight more - someone with their own server that doesn't appear to have been hacked or someone who used gmail with the password "password1" dumping every email of theirs to China?
I think Comey looked at the evidence and couldn't let it slide without making it clear that Hillary was deceptive and flat out wrong. That incompetence deserved to be outed and it will (or at least should) have serious political ramifications. But given the rest of the details, combined with his belief of no malicious intent - recommending not to indict fits as well. Hillary fans can rejoice at no indictment and be angered that Comey went soapbox. Hillary haters can play his quotes in thousands of political ads while bemoaning his lack of courage to indict.
Everyone won some and lost some. Which probably means the FBI got it right.
The details here matter. You have to assume after her people reviewed the emails their feedback altered that language. My guess is the very few emails actually marked as classified were either recovered by the FBI outside her search team's access or they simply missed them. When she made her calculated mea culpa it was supposed to be her moment to confess to enough to keep her safe politically and legally. The most interesting thing is that she fucked even that up. But it's very difficult - or impossible - for an outsider to judge her guilt when FBI researchers label something as classified without being marked classified without seeing the content. I'm assuming the content heavily influenced Comey's recommendation.
Secondly, Comey's comments about the State Department as a whole are going largely uncommented on, but I believe they form the majority of his basis for the recommendation against indictment. Hillary's email chains all include another address on the other end. Republicans, Democrats, high ranking officials, and even security specialists who were aware of her private server but did nothing about it are all in line to be torched along with her. When he says no prosecutor would move forward with charges, my guess is that's why. In the larger picture of rampant gmail use, hacked gmail accounts (which he mentioned), and various other public email use by others around her, the whole thing is a mess. Who deserves to be indicted in hindsight more - someone with their own server that doesn't appear to have been hacked or someone who used gmail with the password "password1" dumping every email of theirs to China?
I think Comey looked at the evidence and couldn't let it slide without making it clear that Hillary was deceptive and flat out wrong. That incompetence deserved to be outed and it will (or at least should) have serious political ramifications. But given the rest of the details, combined with his belief of no malicious intent - recommending not to indict fits as well. Hillary fans can rejoice at no indictment and be angered that Comey went soapbox. Hillary haters can play his quotes in thousands of political ads while bemoaning his lack of courage to indict.
Everyone won some and lost some. Which probably means the FBI got it right.
