Big news this week. Hillary Clinton used the S-word in a sentence. "Sorry..." But Hillary didn't apologize so much as express her undoubtedly sincere regret over all the grief she's caused herself by using of her own private email server for official State Department business. From her Facebook page apology (boldface is mine):
"Yes, I should have used two email addresses, one for personal matters and one for my work at the State Department. Not doing so was a mistake. I'm sorry about it, and I take full responsibility.
It's important for you to know a few key facts. My use of a personal email account was aboveboard and allowed under the State Department's rules. Everyone I communicated with in government was aware of it. And nothing I ever sent or received was marked classified at the time."
A true apology begins with an admission of what you have done that is wrong, and then, that you are sorry for it. But Hillary admits nothing. It's pure Clinton: deny, deny, deny. In fact, at the bottom of her I'm Sorry Page there is a link that goes into a denial overview page on Hillary's presidential campaign website. And at the bottom of that page there is a link to a denial specifics page on her campaign website. A sample:
Clinton only used her account for unclassified email. No information in Clinton's emails was marked classified at the time she sent or received them.
What a careful selection of words. No information was "marked classified," specifically "at the time she sent or received" it.
But Hillary was one of a small set of high level officials who were authorized to classify information at the top secret level. Would a Hillary-originated email containing secret or top secret information have been marked classified at the time she wrote it? She would have had to mark it herself.
In fact, laws that govern the handling or transmission of classified information, make no mention of any requirement that information must be marked classified in order for it to be classified. Since Hillary had the authority to classify, one would expect her to know if something should be classified, whether it was marked or not. Even so, she might not have to know that information was classified in order to be guilty of mishandling it. (Boldface is mine.)
(f) Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
The Inspector Generals have determined that Hillary maintained classified emails on her own private server which was not within the government's protected network, and that she sent them. She now quibbles that the information was not marked classified at the time she sent it. It's plausible deniability, but just barely.
It's truly astonishing that so many are comfortable with a candidate who constantly and deliberately lies. But that's what our earlier Clinton presidency gave us. Hillary has defined a new level of statesmanship where greatness means that we can't actually prove she lied. But everybody knows she did, and for so many it's OK. Hillary is lying for them.
It's the Clinton aura, which is perfectly captured here.
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