Jason Chaffetz lost no time in misrepresenting the facts regarding today’s announcement from the FBI. As usual, he has no regard for the truth or for his duty as a representative of the people. I had a secret clearance when I was 18, a top secret clearance when I was 33, and I have been a courier of classified information all over the world, including in and around Washington DC. And I can tell you that all of this hubbub about Hillary Clinton’s emails is a bunch of politically motivated nonsense that has nothing to do with national security.
The system for classifying information is governed by executive order, not by law. And since its inception about 70 years ago, the system has been plagued by inconsistent application of the standard by each executive agency. The sum of all information that is classified is a mess of inconsistency: information is classified that shouldn't be, information is misclassified, and the standards are not uniformly applied across executive departments and agencies.
As Secretary of State, Secretary Clinton was THE person in the State Department with authority to classify, unclassify, and change the classification of all state department information. Undoubtedly there is a system whereby that authority is delegated and a process for information management, but Secretary Clinton was one of a handful of people in Washington who could direct that process within her department. Her judgment of what constitutes a threat to national security, therefore, WAS the standard that was used in the State Department. The fact that she exercised her judgment in the course of transacting emails on a private server—a server physically secured in the home of a former president AND a current cabinet secretary—after consulting her Republican predecessor about how HE sidestepped department security procedures, is perfectly within the realm of what we should all expect from a cabinet-level official. In my view, none of this rises to the level of requiring a congressional investigation, but for Chaffetz’ overzealous partisanship.
In sum, Chaffetz has misrepresented the seriousness of this situation by (1) portraying the system of information classification as a rigid, uniform standard. It is not. The executive order gives wide discretion to departments and agencies on applying the standards. Enforcement of rules are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice in the Defense Department, for example, but no one outside of the military is subject to that harsh standard. (2) Portraying the Secretary of State as someone bound to follow every bureaucratic rule and procedure governing the handling of classified material. She was not. As one of a handful of people with special authority under the executive order, we should expect Secretary Clinton to apply wide discretion in how to follow (or modify) the the rules in order to best serve our nation’s interests. As a lieutenant colonel in the Pentagon, I had to apply judgment and discretion in the handling of classified material. It doesn't surprise me at all that the Secretary of State would find it necessary to do so.
Chaffetz doesn't understand that because he has never really been in charge of anything. He is a functionary, a bureaucrat, with a mid-level manager’s view of rules and how organizations work. He thinks, therefore, that the fact there is a rule and that Secretary Clinton violated standard procedure makes for some great “Gotcha!” He is seeing visions of political sugarplums dancing in his very underpowered head. He doesn't understand that all our rules exist to support our mission, to serve the best interests of our nation. He doesn't understand that, both as a commissioned officer and as a senior business executive, I was trained and trained others to break rules when necessary to accomplish a mission or serve the best interests of our nation. I was also taught that I would be held accountable if I used my discretion inappropriately. There is no evidence that Secretary Clinton used her discretion in a manner fundamentally different than her predecessors or in a way that I consider inappropriate for a cabinet secretary.
Finally, I would say that Director Comey did the best thing he could have done by advising the congressional leaders of the new emails today. The fact is, had he not proactively communicated this information, it would likely have been leaked to Congress. That scenario would have been worse for all concerned because it would have fed the hysterical conspiracy theories on which Mr. Trump and Mr. Chaffetz thrive. It could have been used to undermine the legitimacy of the upcoming election. Our government is worse for having partisan bureaucrats like Chaffetz in a position to undermine the faith and confidence of the people in their government.
