Hillary Clinton was widely mocked in the 1990s when she spoke of a “vast right-wing conspiracy”, but it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.
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“What we found out was that this investigation was very narrow in its scope and did not consider some of the testimony Ms. Clinton has put out under oath or in the public sphere”, he said.
Prosecutors said that after resigning from the Central Intelligence Agency in November 2012, Petraeus had signed a form falsely attesting he had no classified material. Comey said the cases draw some good contrast, especially because Petraeus lied to law enforcement and the classified information he had was found hidden inside the insulation of his attic.
Still, CNN host Wolf Blitzer pressed her about whether she should have known that other emails, which have been retroactively classified but weren’t marked at the time, contained classified information.
“I know no reasonable prosecutor would take this case”, Comey said. His most damning finding was that Clinton had more than 100 classified messages on her home-brew system, including eight marked “top secret”.
In the old days The Sun’s editorial page would have presented an honest discussion of the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Clinton also said that she used only one mobile device for both government and private emails for “convenience”, and turned over all emails to the State Department. But he added that whether they included such markings was irrelevant. “There were no documents that were in fact marked classified”, Cummings said. Comey explained exactly what that meant.
Comey: “That’s what I said”.
While clearing Clinton of criminal wrongdoing, Comey said in a scathing statement that she and her staff were “extremely careless” in their handling of government secrets.
The issue of Clinton’s use of private email servers has cast a cloud over her campaign for the November 8 presidential election, raising questions among voters about her trustworthiness and judgment and giving her Republican presidential rival, Donald Trump, an avenue of attack.
“Director Comey’s testimony clearly knocked down a number of false Republican talking points and reconciled apparent contradictions between his previous remarks and Hillary Clinton’s public statements”, spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement. As many legal scholars have pointed out, the statute in question does not require intent, simply evidence of “gross negligence”. Comey provided that in spades.
Comey on Tuesday had recommended that no charges be brought over Clinton’s email use from 2009 to 2013. And a vast quantity of classified information. Apparently, the rules that apply to Navy reservists don’t apply to Clinton.
Mr Comey specifically rebutted a litany of Republican charges including that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been biased, ignored the law, applied it unjustly or co-ordinated the decision with Mrs Clinton’s campaign.
Following hisremarks, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan called for Clinton’s security clearance to be stripped while she runs for the Democratic nomination for president.
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In the case of Hillary Clinton they surely could be.
