Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Hillary Clinton's non-indictment may not help her

Hillary Clinton's non-indictment may not help her: Unindicted co-conspirator. Technically the term, made familiar in the Watergate scandals, does not apply to Hillary Clinton, since no one has been or apparently will be indicted in the emails case.
But if you read the bulk of FBI Director James Comey's statement, it's plain that Hillary Clinton and her top aides conspired to do things that violated the law. And that at the end he made it clear she would not be indicted.
Comey said that no reasonable prosecutor would indict her, even though it's plain from the facts he set out that she violated section 793(f) of the criminal code. That section does not require criminal intent, but imposes liability in cases of gross negligence. It's hard to distinguish that from Comey's description of the conduct of Clinton and her aides as extremely careless.
Can Comey's decision be justified? Well, consider the position he was in. On June 30, it was revealed that Bill Clinton had met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch two days earlier on her official plane on the tarmac of Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport. She says they talked about grandchildren and golf. But the obvious message, even if unspoken was that: If you don't indict her, you can keep your job in the Clinton administration.

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