Using a personal email server for State Department work during Secretary Clinton’s tenure was not a crime; the statute requiring official email accounts for official business wasn’t even passed until 2014.
And receiving or transmitting information that was not known to be classified at the time also was not a crime. This is true even if the information was mislabeled or misclassified. And reports that a larger number of emails are now under review don’t change this — the essential fact remains that there is no evidence that Secretary Clinton sent or received any email marked classified.
As to the alleged mishandling of classified information, once again, the relevant law is crystal clear. The pertinent federal statute requires “knowingly” transferring classified information to an unauthorized location. Transmitting information that wasn’t known to be classified — even if the failure to classify was an obvious mistake — is not a crime under this statute. The latest reporting makes clear that even the emails the CIA now contends contained Top Secret information had no classification markings and did not reference any sensitive intelligence methods or contain any other hallmarks of classified sourcing.
Some partisans and pundits trying to find a way around this obstacle are hoping to find a way to convict without the requisite knowledge and intent, perhaps by arguing that negligence should be good enough. But the deeper they dig into antiquated and inapt statutes involving the theft of battle plans and the like, the more obvious it becomes that no crime was committed here. And all the wishful thinking in the world from opportunist political opponents can’t change that.
Republicans hoping to beat Hillary Clinton aren’t going to be bailed out by some mythical criminal prosecution in a case where there is clearly no evidence of any kind of crime. Perhaps they should spend a bit more time developing policies that might appeal to middle class Americans and a bit less on fantasy indictments and hysterical talking points that speak only to their extremist base.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/08/21/clinton-email-state-server-column/32042775/