“Investigation of Clinton emails ends, finding no 'deliberate mishandling'”, reports the Guardian. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but I am shaking my head.
The investigation, launched more than three years ago, did find violations by 38 people, some of whom may face disciplinary action.
The investigation covered 33,000 emails that Clinton turned over for review after her use of the private email account became public. The department said it found a total of 588 violations involving information then or now deemed to be classified but could not assign fault in 497 cases.
For current and former officials, culpability means the violations will be noted in their files and will be considered when they apply for or go to renew security clearances. For current officials, there could also be some kind of disciplinary action. But it was not immediately clear what that would be.
The report concluded “that the use of a private email system to conduct official business added an increased degree of risk of compromise as a private system lacks the network monitoring and intrusion detection capabilities of state department networks”.
What that means is: keeping the private server was legal but unwise. Clinton was not to blame for what others sent her. Out of about 600 mails containing classified information, the senders of 91 mails were found culpable, meaning that 38 people will get, as they say, a mark on their permanent record.
And so the screen descends.
Ah, those were innocent times. When people would get upset by a Secretary of State getting mismarked classified emails. Before we had a White House broadcasting classified photos on Twitter, an administration and a governing party willingly larded with foreign agents, and a political class who whose idea of keeping a secret is charging a price to pass it along. The people who signed off on this report probably feel the way meter maids feel in Syrian Kurdistan right now.