They took their own sweet time about it, but the State Department’s internal investigation into the Hillary Clinton email imbroglio has finally been completed. As you might expect, it was pretty much of a whitewash. The only eyebrow raising news coming from the release is the number of blatant security violations by Clinton and 38 other State Department employees.
State Department investigators probing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state discovered nearly 600 security incidents that violated agency policy, according to a report the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained.
The investigation, conducted by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, found 38 individuals were culpable for 91 security violations. Another 497 violations were found, but no individuals were found culpable in those incidents.
The investigation concluded Sept. 6, and the report was issued Sept. 13.
No criminal charges, no action whatsoever. It’s like the violations never happened.
Big surprise, huh?
Hillary fared a lot better than others who have mishandled classified information.
On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced the arrest of a former CIA officer on a felony charge of unlawfully retaining classified information. Jerry Chun Shing Lee (a/k/a “Zhen Cheng Li”) is charged in a complaint with one count of unlawfully retaining classified information, a felony carrying a potential ten-year prison sentence.
Since Mr. Lee’s name isn’t Clinton, he has to abide by the rules or go to jail.
What makes this story so maddening is that government bureaucrats at every level in several agencies all decided to give Clinton and her aides a pass. Oh, they said mean things about her. Former FBI Director James Comey accused Clinton of being “extremely careless” in using an illegal server to store her classified emails off site. But Hillary never even got a slap on the wrist and the bureaucracies and American law enforcement fell all over each other trying to exonerate her of criminal activity.
Mr. Lee was “extremely careless” handling classified information as well. He admitted to spying for China and got 20 years — not for espionage but for the mishandling of classified information. Hillary, on the other hand, said she was so, so, sorry, would never, ever, ever do it again, and besides, she didn’t do it on purpose.
Although the report identified violations, it said investigators had found “no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.” However, it also made clear that Clinton’s use of the private email had increased the vulnerability of classified information.
With everyone from the Russian government to the Albanian mob hacking into U.S. government and political secrets, Hillary’s private server probably seemed like a godsend.
But we’re assured all of that classified information was perfectly safe, nothing to see here. Move along.
The State Department whitewashed Clinton’s role in the Benghazi failure and now has applied a fresh coat to the email scandal. And the rule of law, protection of classified information, and justice itself has been thrown under the bus.
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