Even so, it forced her to announce she would accept the recommendations of Comey and career prosecutors and agents who worked the case.
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In theory, of course, Lynch could have rejected the bureau’s recommendation.
“So, you’re saying the former of secretary of state is not sophisticated enough to understand a classified marking?” Yet he recommended that they not be prosecuted. Still, gross negligence means extreme carelessness and almost every answer Comey offered the House Oversight Committee regarding Clinton’s behavior would have sounded extreme and careless to a reasonable person sitting on a grand jury. Her communications were quite possibly compromised by hostile powers, thus jeopardizing American national security.
Comey’s appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee marked his first public statements since his announcement that removed the threat of criminal charges against Clinton but also revived public scrutiny of her email behavior as secretary of state in President Barack Obama’s first term. And the second – those who feel Hillary was the victim of yet another partisan witch-hunt that ended up being much ado about nothing, and that she’s being harassed simply because she’s a woman intent on breaking the highest “glass ceiling” of all.
Comey also said that it would have been inappropriate to charge Clinton, seeking to become the first US female president, under a 1917 USA law making “gross negligence” a crime.
The FBI assumed its investigative role after it was discovered that Clinton had used a personal email server during her tenure as secretary of state.
The simple fact is Clinton received classified information via email.
Comey said a key reason for his conclusion was that Clinton did not knowingly send classified information despite displaying “great carelessness” and at times lack of sophistication.
“Did the FBI investigate her statements under oath on this topic?” he asked.
About 2,000 additional emails were “up-classified” to “Confidential”. There was a period in this race when Donald Trump was throwing everything that he had at Hillary Clinton – the scandals of the 90s; allegations against her husband – and she was trying to maintain ‘well here’s what I’m going to try to do to help the middle class.’ And frankly it wasn’t working.
In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd hours after being interviewed by the FBI, Todd asked Clinton how her practices did not violate federal law.
Clinton was secretary of state until early 2013.
A Wall Street Journal-NBC News poll last month found that 69 percent of registered voters regard Clinton’s “truthfulness as a serious enough issue to be a concern”. He said that she had a server in her basement with some of the most sensitive information this country possesses. “There is not a line in any of Mrs. Clinton’s emails that meets the smell test of classification, which is their release would be damaging to our national security”, he said.
Comey: There was classified material emailed.
If Clinton wins the presidency, she will be expected to swear an oath to “faithfully execute the office of president of the United States”, and will to the best of her ability, “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States”.
But over the course of a year, Clinton and her staff have painted a picture of an email setup where absolutely zero classified information slipped through the cracks, case closed.
Specifically, as president, she would be obligated under Article II Section 3 of the Constitution to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”.
Despite the no-prosecution decision, Comey had rebuked Clinton and her aides on Tuesday as being “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information and contradicted numerous explanations she’s put forward. Probably not-but interesting if he did.
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Not criminal but careless, and extremely so.
