Today, two days before the
presidential election, the FBI Director released a follow-up statement that the
latest investigation, into Hillary Clinton’s emails, was being closed and that
they had found nothing. Not sure how exactly it took them months to digest tens
of thousands of emails, but they seemingly went through hundreds of thousands
in a mere eight days, but I will leave that up to you to digest.
If I included this story line in any
of my books, my readers would (rightfully) burn them in disgust, because I
had simply ‘jumped the shark’ and extend the plot line into the land of
outright implausibility. However, in 21st century politics we have
learned that nothing is apparently implausible.
I know a lot of people are having
problems with this whole Hillary Clinton / E-mail investigation. Most of the
loudest cries of ‘Hillary didn’t do
anything wrong’ come from folks who’s closest connection to actual law
enforcement comes from having watched old episodes of Law & Order while staying at a Holiday Inn Express.
Sorry, but your Facebook Police Academy Diploma does not
count in the real world. So, for the sake of aiding you, in this mind-numbing
process, I would be happy to lend my fifteen years of NYC investigatory
experience to the equation.
I thought I would make the facts
of this case abundantly clear to all of you via the new ‘millennial bumper sticker’
format.
In his testimony before Congress on July 7th,
2014, FBI Director James Comey testified that former Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton did not turn over (thousands) of work related emails to the
State Department.
18 U.S. Code §
2071 - Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally:
Subdivision (a) - Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates,
obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes
and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other
thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United
States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the
United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than
three years, or both.
In his testimony
before Congress, FBI Director James Comey testified that former Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton removed work related emails from the system.
18 U.S. Code § 2071 - Concealment, removal, or mutilation generally:
Subdivision
(b) - Whoever, having the custody of
any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other
thing, willfully and unlawfully
conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the
same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years,
or both; and shall forfeit his office
and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As
used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by
any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.
In
his statement on July 5th, 2016, FBI Director James Comey stated the
following regarding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her work
related emails from the system: “…there
is evidence that they were extremely
careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified
information. For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were
classified at the Top Secret/Special
Access Program level when they were sent and received.”
18 U.S. Code § 793 - Gathering, transmitting or losing defense
information:
Subdivision (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.
NOTE: For the record, please note
that there is no culpable mental
state of INTENT anywhere in this passage.
Legal Definition
of : Gross Negligence:
n. carelessness which is in reckless disregard for the safety or
lives of others, and is so great it appears to be a conscious violation of
other people's rights to safety. It is more
than simple inadvertence, but it is just
shy of being intentionally evil. If one has borrowed or contracted to
take care of another's property, then gross negligence is the failure to
actively take the care one would of his/her own property. If gross negligence
is found by the trier of fact (judge or jury), it can result in the award of
punitive damages on top of general and special damages.
There you have it, Hillary
Clinton’s extremely careless behavior was the legal textbook definition of
Gross Negligence, with the exception that, after making the case, Director
Comey CHOSE not to use the exact words.
Understand that if you, or I, committed
any of the CRIMES outlined above, we would go to federal prison for a very long
time.
She has been cleared, not of
wrongdoing, but by a completely personal choice on the part of Director Comey not to pursue this matter, even though
it is not his choice to make.
Investigative agencies (in this
case the FBI) investigate and present their findings to prosecutorial agencies
(in this case the DOJ / Attorney General). It is the responsibility of the
prosecutor to determine whether they will proceed. However, in this case the AG, Loretta Lynch, took the unprecedented move of saying she would defer to the FBI, even though the case was still being investigated and she had just participated in a highly questionable meeting, with the subject of the investigation's husband, in a private plane for a social chat.
Hillary Clinton broke the law and
by very nature of the law she broke is disqualified from holding office, but
what the above tells you is that she
is above the law and that should send a chill down your spine.
