“It’s common” that people end up using unclassified systems to transmit classified information, said Jeffrey Smith, a former CIA general counsel who’s now a partner at Arnold & Porter, where he often represents defendants suspected of misusing classified information. “There are always these back channels,” Smith explained. “It’s inevitable, because the classified systems are often cumbersome and lots of people have access to the classified e-mails or cables." ...It's true that the law isn't always enforced. General James Cartwright -- who, by the way, headed the list of signatories on that letter from 36 general officers supporting the Iran nuclear deal -- was being investigated for leaking top secret information to the press about a US-Israeli effort against the Iranian nuclear program. The investigation died, officially because it 'might confirm the existence of such a program.' It died just before the Iran deal was announced... but I'm sure it's merely a coincidence that he's now vocally leading the pack in favor of that deal.
"It’s common knowledge that the classified communications system is impossible and isn’t used,” said one former high-level Justice Department official. Several former prosecutors said flatly that such sloppy, unauthorized practices, although technically violations of law, wouldn’t normally lead to criminal cases.
So yes, there's incredible corruption. Hillary may yet go down, though: not because of the law, which is enforced only as a tool of the powerful, but because she's become a liability. If Biden gets in the race, look for her to be prosecuted as a way of clearing the field for him. For political reasons, that is, not legal ones.
"Jeffrey Smith, a former CIA general counsel who’s now a partner at Arnold & Porter, where he often represents defendants suspected of misusing classified information. “There are always these back channels,” Smith explained. “It’s inevitable, because the classified systems are often cumbersome and lots of people have access to the classified e-mails or cables." … "
ReplyDeleteThe "everybody does it" defense does not work for robbery, adultery*, or murder, either.
Two facts: Not everybody does it.
It's illegal for a reason.
Valerie
*illegal for the military, anyway, because it is so extremely corrosive in the workplace.
I'm prepared to listen--a bit--to explanations about how people who really need to use the classified information sometimes cut corners in their communications because it's the only way to get things done timely.
ReplyDeleteNot sure, really, how that applies to Clinton's situation.
This Jeffrey Smith apparently was Hillary's national security advisor for her 2008 campaign. Also headed Bill's transition team for DoD in 1992.
ReplyDeleteHussein Obola could easily have covered up for Clinton's excesses, if the Left's God King wished it.
ReplyDeleteHe wished for it not.
I'm prepared to listen--a bit--to explanations about how people who really need to use the classified information sometimes cut corners in their communications because it's the only way to get things done timely.
ReplyDeleteThat's why Bush II cracked open the intel barriers. If it still exists, it's because the bureaucrats reinstated them after leaks.