Amidst the buzz of the 2016 presidential race is the gigantic
elephant in the room for the Democrats: the FBI investigation into
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her private email server,
and her potential indictment for the illegal handling of classified
information.
Here is everything that you need to about it.
1. The very fact that Clinton used a private server for her work as Secretary of State and kept it on her property is a crime.
Radio host and constitutional scholar Mark Levin
pointed out that Clinton's private server violates Section 793, subsection f of the federal penal code, which
reads: (emphasis added)
(f)
Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of
any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph,
photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument,
appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1)
through
gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place
of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be
lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge
that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of
custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or
stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of
such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
Back in August, Levin said on his show, "When you set up an unsecured
server in your barn adjacent to your home in Chappaqua, New York, you
have intentionally – forget about negligence – you have intentionally
bypassed the security process for that server."
Levin continued that even if this was unintentional, it's still a crime: (emphasis added)
"Let’s say you didn’t think or didn’t know that you were
intentionally bypassing the process that is used to secure that server
and that information, which seems absurd to me, but let’s play along.
“Okay, if you do it through gross negligence, you permit the same to be removed from its proper place.
So
I would argue to you, when that server was removed and information was
flowing through it, including classified and especially top-secret
information, boom. You did it.
“And every time that happened, ladies and gentlemen, that’s considered a count. You don’t aggregate at all.
Every time that happened, that’s considered a violation of the statute.
Levin suggested that the fine for every count would be "substantial," a "ten or 20 grand a violation."
2. Clinton had thousands of emails that contained classified information on her unsecured server.
Clinton and her allies try to shrug off the classified information
that was on her unsecured server by claiming it wasn't labeled as
classified at the time. This is flat-out false on its face, as many
emails she received or sent were
born classified
by the nature of their content. As it turns out, there have been over
1,340 classified emails that Clinton received or sent, and intelligence
sources told
McClatchy DC that "some material was clearly classified at the time."
The
New York Post's Paul Sperry
reported
on Sunday that the FBI is investigating whether Clinton aides "cut and
pasted" classified information to be sent to her private server:
Clinton and her top aides had access to a Pentagon-run classified
network that goes up to the Secret level, as well as a separate system
used for Top Secret communications.
The two systems — the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network
(SIPRNet) and the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System
(JWICS) — are not connected to the unclassified system, known as the
Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet). You cannot
email from one system to the other, though you can use NIPRNet to send
emails outside the government.
Somehow, highly classified information from SIPRNet, as well as even
the super-secure JWICS, jumped from those closed systems to the open
system and turned up in at least 1,340 of Clinton’s home emails —
including several the CIA earlier this month flagged as containing
ultra-secret Sensitive Compartmented Information and Special Access
Programs, a subset of SCI.
Raymond Fournier, "a veteran Diplomatic Security Service special agent," told the
Post,
"It takes a very conscious effort to move a classified email or cable
from the classified systems over to the unsecured open system and then
send it to Hillary Clinton’s personal email account." Fournier also said
that while the information may not have been marked as classified, the
information was "so sensitive in nature" that it would have been
"obvious to Clinton."
Sperry also reports that Clinton ordered her deputy chief Jake Sullivan to send the classified information to her:
In one email, Clinton pressured Sullivan to declassify cabled remarks by a foreign leader.
“Just email it,” Clinton snapped, to which Sullivan replied: “Trust
me, I share your exasperation. But until ops converts it to the
unclassified email system, there is no physical way for me to email it.”
In another recently released email, Clinton instructed Sullivan to
convert a classified document into an unclassified email attachment by
scanning it into an unsecured computer and sending it to her without any
classified markings. “Turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and
send nonsecure,” she ordered.
Sullivan is one of Clinton's aides that the FBI is targeting, as well
as deputy chief Huma Abedin and chief of staff Cheryl Mills, as they
are believed to have sent the classified information to Clinton's
private server.
The classified information included "sensitive information on spies," among other information:
Top Secret/SCI emails received by Clinton include a 2012 staff email
sent to the then-secretary containing investigative data about Benghazi
terrorist suspects wanted by the FBI and sourcing a regional security
officer. They also include a 2011 message from Clinton’s top aides that
contains military intelligence from United States Africa Command gleaned
from satellite images of troop movements in Libya, along with the
travel and protection plans for Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was
later killed in a terrorist attack in Benghazi.
A top inspector general also
determined
that Clinton's server "contained intelligence from the U.S.
government's most secretive and highly classified programs." Hot Air's
Ed Morrisey
points out
that this would violate Section 793, Subsection G of the federal penal
code, which reads: "If two or more persons conspire to violate any of
the foregoing provisions of this section, and one or more of such
persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the
parties to such conspiracy shall be subject to the punishment provided
for the offense which is the object of such conspiracy."
"Setting up the server and requiring her aides to use
only that
system for e-mail communications would be an act to effect the object
of the conspiracy to transmit classified information illegally, as well
as hiding communications from Congress," Morrisey writes.
Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
told
radio host Hugh Hewitt that it's likely that "several countries were
able to hack into the server." Congressional investigators
determined
that Clinton's server was the target of hackers from China, South Korea
and Germany, and that five emails were sent to Clinton from Russian
hackers.
3. The Clinton cronies claim that Clinton is not the target of the FBI probe. This is incredibly misleading.
National Review's Andy McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, explains how FBI investigations work: (emphasis added)
The FBI routinely conducts major investigations in collaboration with
Justice Department prosecutors — usually from the U.S. attorney’s office
in the district where potential crimes occurred. That is because the
FBI needs the assistance of a grand jury. The FBI does not have
authority even to issue subpoenas, let alone to charge someone with a
crime. Only federal prosecutors may issue subpoenas, on the lawful
authority of the grand jury. Only prosecutors are empowered to present
evidence or propose charges to the grand jury. And the Constitution
vests only the grand jury with authority to indict — the formal
accusation of a crime. In our system, the FBI can do none of these
things.
No Justice Department, no grand jury. No grand jury, no case —
period. As a technical matter, no matter how extensively the FBI pokes
around on its own, no one can be a subject of a real investigation —
i.e., one that can lead to criminal charges — unless and until there is a
grand jury. That does not happen until the Justice Department hops on
board.
In other words, the FBI cannot name Clinton as a subject under
investigation due to the technical rules, but they are still
investigating her private server that she is responsible for, so it's
absurd for Clinton and her apologists to act like she's not being
investigated at all.
4. The investigation has expanded into Clinton's role with The Clinton Foundation.
Fox News
reports:
The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email as
secretary of state has expanded to look at whether the possible
“intersection” of Clinton Foundation work and State Department business
may have violated public corruption laws, three intelligence sources not
authorized to speak on the record told Fox News.
This new investigative track is in addition to the focus on classified material found on Clinton’s personal server.
"The agents are investigating the possible intersection of Clinton
Foundation donations, the dispensation of State Department contracts and
whether regular processes were followed," one source said.
Clinton denied that this was happening, but according to the report,
subjects of investigations are not required to be informed of these
kinds of developments.
Breitbart has a list of
21 revelations from Peter Schweizer's
Clinton Cash
that makes it obvious that The Clinton Foundation was used as a
money-laundering front to essentially put Clinton's position as
Secretary of State up for sale.
5. Clinton is incredibly thin-skinned when confronted on her emails.
Examples of Clinton's answers when asked about her emails include:
The fact that she's reacting so strongly to being asked about the investigation suggests she's nervous about it.
6. The FBI is ready to recommend an indictment against
Clinton, and will go public with it if the Department of Justice chooses
not to act.
This is what former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has "friends that are in the FBI," told
Newsmax on Monday.
