Hillary Clinton: You've Got Mail

[JAD_333]

What's your opinion about Hillary using a private e-mail account when she was Secretary of State? Although much of the initial furor has died down, the issue is sure to crop up in attack ads during next year's presidential election campaign. Below are links to articles tracing the story's development.



The story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/09/us...-her.html?_r=0

The issue:

Hillary Clinton Private Email: Obama Knew Address But Not Details

Republicans not terribly excited about it

Hillary Clinton emails: Some in GOP resist overreach - CNN.com

Chairman says there are gaps in e-mail chain:

Republicans in Congress Focus on Possible Gaps in Clinton Emails

Democrat defend Clinton on partisan blog; he makes a point, but doesn't address gaps:

Hillary Email Scandal Falls Apart As Democrat Reveals The Contents Of Clinton Emails

[astralis]

politically speaking, tempest in a teapot. absent her talking classified on an unclassified system, no biggie...

[JAD_333]

Asty, tend to agree with you. It's more the appearance of the thing. And being a Clinton, well...

[citanon]

Its a serious matter if she does not meet federal record keeping requirements. Sets a very bad precedent that erodes transparency and congressional oversight.

[Blademaster]

If I ever become an elected official, I would stay away from emails because they are now permanent records and have the potential to come back and bite me in the ass. If I do not want any permanent recordings, I would use phone calls and if necessary make appearances in person and discuss but not on email or computerized records. On paper, I have the option of shredding a piece of paper after I am done with the piece of paper and it would be gone for good and not worrying about it coming back and biting me in the ass.

[citanon]

A Claim of No Classified Emails in a Place That Classifies Routinely

WASHINGTON — Anyone who has tried to pry information from the federal government may have been surprised on Tuesday by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s assertion that in all her emails in four years as secretary of state, she never strayed into the classified realm.

After all, a consensus among Republicans and Democrats for many years has been that the government routinely overclassifies information, reflexively stamping “secret” on mountains of documents with marginally sensitive content. The government classified more than 80 million documents in 2013, according to the Information Security Oversight Office, which publishes an annual count.

“I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,” Mrs. Clinton said at a news conference on Tuesday at the United Nations. “I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”

But some secrecy experts and former government officials on Tuesday were skeptical, noting the interesting turnabout that had a former top official insisting, for once, that none of her exchanges were secret......

Fortunately, she has an out:

But Mr. Aftergood also noted that as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton was the top classification authority for the entire State Department, with broad discretion to determine which department documents were classified and which were not. “There’s zero chance that she’ll be charged with unauthorized retention of classified information, because she decides what’s classified,” he said.

Hillary's face:

[JAD_333]

The reasoning behind saving emails as part of official records is sound. It's the people using emails to communicate that have to learn to use the medium correctly, and they haven't yet, so it seems. People put stuff in emails they would never put on letterhead paper over their signature and send thru the mail or via interoffice delivery systems. If people understood emails are the same thing, they'd be more careful. The electronic world hasn't quite caught to the old culture of the paper world yet, but it will.

The real issue here is not content but process. Hillary's private email system allowed her to sequester her communications apart from State Dept records. That would be fine if she used it only for personal matters. If she used it also to discuss job-related matters, well then things get iffy, even if none of it was classified. It's the fact she had a private side channel that raises questions, not so much what she discussed.

Blade is right. If you want your communication to evaporate legally, do it verbally without recording devices either by phone or in person. Sometimes even those kinds of communication make it it into the official records. I know at DoD we sometimes did memos for the record after speaking to someone, but only to recall details we needed to do our job. Nixon, of course, secretly recorded phone calls. Ironically, that was illegal.

[JAD_333]

Filler news.

Hillary Clinton Email Mystery Man: What We Know About Eric Hoteham - ABC News

[Wooglin]

Its a serious matter if she does not meet federal record keeping requirements. Sets a very bad precedent that erodes transparency and congressional oversight.

This.

If there's no government email being archived then there's nothing to produce when the FOIA request comes in.

[astralis]

possibly quibbling, but that's not the most serious issue. plenty of other officials have done the same.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefi...ob-report-says

most serious issue, given Clinton's numerous e-mails, is the possibility of classified on an unclass e-mail.

after all, AP didn't need no steenkin' FOIA request to do this:

AP sues State Dept. over Clinton e-mails

[JAD_333]

Everyone backing Hillary is looking for other officials who had private email accounts.

We should be clear that this isn't about having a private email account, but about using it to discuss official matters.

Hillary deleted 20k some message she deemed personal and turned over 30k plus to the State Dept. I'll take her at her word that she didn't delete any official emails.

The AP is suing State for failing to respond to its FOIA requests, which so far have gone unanswered for 10 times the usual FOIA wait period at Treasury and CIA. If this is a molehill, someone is turning it into a mountain, doing Hillary a disservice.

I'm sure she wouldn't do anything to damage nat'l security, but come on let's air this thing out and set up some policy to avoid it happening again.

[citanon]

Hillary deleted 20k some message she deemed personal and turned over 30k plus to the State Dept. I'll take her at her word that she didn't delete any official emails.

[Shinytop]

This brouhaha is only an issue because we believe HC is going to run for the presidency. The president is the leader of the country. While she was transacting official business on a private email server she was the leader of the State Department. One of the expected behaviors of leaders is to set the example in following rules. I would prefer a leader who knows what leadership means. In the Army I used to call these type of leaders Imperial Leaders. Those who are more knowledgeable of the privileges of rank than the responsibilities.

[Wooglin]

possibly quibbling, but that's not the most serious issue. plenty of other officials have done the same.

Hagel used personal email on the job | TheHill

most serious issue, given Clinton's numerous e-mails, is the possibility of classified on an unclass e-mail.

after all, AP didn't need no steenkin' FOIA request to do this:

AP sues State Dept. over Clinton e-mails

From your link...

The Associated Press said Wednesday it has sued the State Department to force the release of government documents and e-mails from Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of State, an action taken a day after she defended her use of a private e-mail account to conduct business and after six formal attempts by the news agency to obtain records.

Filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the complaint says "AP seeks the records in question from the State Department to inform citizens both regarding the operation of their government and regarding Secretary Clinton's official actions as Secretary of State."

Beginning in 2010, AP filed six requests under FOIA to obtain records from the State Department[/B] regarding Clinton's tenure as secretary, including her calendars and schedules and records concerning the designation of Special Government Employee status given to her former deputy chief of staff, Huma Abedin.

Since the first FOIA request was submitted, the State Department "has failed to respond substantively to five of the requests, and has only partially responded to one request" related to BAE Systems, according to the complaint

You should read your own source.

[astralis]

indeed. AP didn't get the e-mails via FOIA request, they are going to get it because they sued and won under the FOIA.