Wednesday, July 06, 2016

Less and Less Pretense

James Comey yesterday, in announcing the results of the investigation regarding Clinton’s use of a private email server, did not attempt to claim that what she did was legal or that a person doing what she did should not be prosecuted for the actions that were uncovered.

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

The felony statute regarding the mishandling of classified information makes it an offense to do so “either intentionally or in a grossly negligent way.”

Comey claims that their investigation “did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information,”  but went on to say that “that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”

So he declaims any intent, which is possibly but not definitively arguable, but finds that there is a difference between “gross negligence” and being “extremely careless.”  Someone will have to explain that difference to me because I don’t understand it, and Comey made no effort to clarify it in explaining why Clinton should not be subject to prosecution.

Let’s not forget the “undue command influence” that was in place when Obama endorsed Clinton for the presidency before the investigation was completed. Do you think that there was any chance that Comey was going to recommend prosecution after his boss had said of Clinton in a national forum that he had “the highest possible confidence in her judgement and integrity?” Yeah, right. I’m surprised that Comey’s statement was a critical as it was.

I have no real issue with the law not being applied to the ruling class; it has not been for several decades. What astonishes me is the degree to which pretense has been dropped. The ruling class has simply become openly contemptuous of due process and the rule of law.

Comey openly says in his statement that “this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences,” but goes on to say “that is not what we are deciding now.” More plainly put, “I would hang an ordinary person who did this, but not Hillary Clinton.”

1 comment:

  1. This whole thing was tainted from beginning to end. Ms Clinton knew damn well what she was doing, did it deliberately, and then futzed around to obfusticate the issue. This is classic Clinton all the way, by both Mr. and Mrs. Clinton. They get away with shit no regular person would. Royalty indeed. And she is likely to be our next president. No toothpaste will get rid of that bad taste.

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