While FBI Director Comey stated that the FBI would not recommend charges against Hillary Clinton, some other comments he made were potentially devasting, but as I argue in this post, that potential will remain unfulfilled.
Comey said the following, among other things:
Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.
For example, seven e-mail chains concerned matters that were classified at the top secret special access program at the time they were sent and received. Those chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails about those same matters.
There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about the matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.
In addition to this highly sensitive information, we also found information that was properly classified as secret by the U.S. intelligence community at the time it was discussed on e-mail. That is excluding any later up classified e-mails.
None of these e-mails should have been on any kind of unclassified system. But their presence is especially concerning because all of the e-mails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full-time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial e-mail service like Gmail.
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But even if information is not marked classified in an e-mail, participants who know, or should know, that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.
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With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton's personal e- mail domain in its various configuration since 2009 was hacked successfully. But given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence.
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She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside of the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e- mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal e-mail account.
Transcript of Comey Remarks
Ouch.
Frankly, I think these comments are beyond the scope of Comey’s job and reflected his own political ideology and anti-Clinton animus. That said, they are out there.
We’re going to see them in ads.
That all said, though, in the long run, they won’t matter. Why? Hillary’s opponent, Donald Trump.
Careful is not his middle name. Careless compared to what.
Had the Republicans nominated a different candidate, this could have harmed Hillary.
As it is, no harm, no foul.
Hillary at her most “careless” is light years better than Trump. Who would you want with his or her finger on the button?
In the end, Hillary will win the election because Donald Trump is dangerous. Unfit to lead. And the majority of Americans will arrive at that conclusion.