The New York Times reported Monday evening that Hillary Clinton had used a private email account while Secretary of State, which “may have violated federal requirements.” Why the “may have”?
The issue quickly gets murky. For one, previous secretaries of state had all used personal email accounts; John Kerry is the first to use a State Department email address. Why, besides the 2016 implications, was it a big deal for Clinton to have used a personal email account but not, say, Colin Powell?
According to Times reporter Michael Schmidt, who broke the story, new regulations were implemented in 2009 requiring the archiving of electronic correspondence, which were then followed by a major update to the Federal Records Act in 2014 that forbade the use of personal email accounts for government business.
The former was before Clinton became secretary, the latter after she’d already left. The only 2009 amendment to the law this reporter could find was Executive Action 13489, signed on Obama’s second day in office, governing executive privilege; via Media Matters, a post from the National Archives called the 2014 bill “the first significant changes” to the original 1950 legislation.
The Times article intimated that Clinton was in violation of pre-2014 regulations governing electronic communications. “Mrs. Clinton did not have a government email address during her four-year tenure at the State Department,” Schmidt wrote. “Her aides took no actions to have her personal emails preserved on department servers at the time, as required by the Federal Records Act.”
“At the time Clinton was Secretary, the Federal Records Act didn’t require federal employees to use government accounts, only to preserve records of their communications,” the Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky wrote. “This, Clinton seems to have done.”
In my earlier post about this situation somebody accused me of being a hypocrite since I was so hard on Sarah Palin over HER private e-mail use.
However if you read my post you will see that I did not defend Hillary, I simply postulated the possibility that she might have laid a trap for the Right Wing with this, and suggested that the White House obviously knew of this private e-mail and did not insist she change to the government e-mail.
Actually I think using the private account was a stupid idea, an opinion that is borne out by the fact that it was hacked. (By the way I feel we should remind everybody that Sarah Palin's e-mail account was not hacked, David Kernell gained access by guessing her security password. Big difference.)
Having said that the real story is whether this private account was illegal, it wasn't, and whether it hurts Hillary politically, and we're not sure yet.
So to be personal for a moment, does this make it less unlikely I will support Hillary in 2016, no it does not. Considering the alternative, how could it?
Imagine the hysteria on the right had Sec. of State Clinton emailed her husband on her "official" email to remember to let the cat in.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Or that it was time to pick up the new puppy that had just arrived.
DeleteIn response to the revelation that Hillary Clinton used a personal email account for official business throughout her tenure of secretary of state, in apparent violation of federal regulations, Steve Benen writes:
ReplyDeletePolitically, ... Republicans find themselves in an awkward position. The RNC issued a statement asking, “[I]t all begs the question: what was Hillary Clinton trying to hide?”
Putting aside the misuse of “begs the question,” the Republican track record makes this a difficult question to ask.
Eight years ago, for example, the Bush/Cheney White House ran into trouble when its officials were found to have routinely ignored the Federal Records Act. Among others, Karl Rove, who was accused of widespread abuses, used private email accounts instead of official accounts to conduct administrative business. At the time, Republicans en masse said the controversy wasn’t important.
Three years ago we learned that Mitt Romney oversaw the purchase of 17 state-issued hard drives, and wiped clean computers and servers that contained electronic copies of emails from his gubernatorial office. Romney later admitted the move was intended to hide official correspondence from the public and keep potentially-embarrassing information under wraps in advance of his presidential campaign. During the 2012 race, Republicans said this didn’t matter, either.
It wasn't just that Republicans said those scandals didn't matter -- for better or worse, the public agreed.
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2015/03/remember-huge-mitt-romney-email-scandal.html
Notice how Sarah "Me Me Don't Forget About Me In Wasilla" Palin hasn't said a word about this, so far? Wonder why? Alaska maybe you know why Facebook Sarah hasn't said a word?
ReplyDeleteShe had people create a server run out of her house. Her server. Isn't that a huge breach of something? I understand the privacy argument considering she has classified info. But HER server. Run from HER house?
ReplyDeleteFishy
Certain people would freak if this were a repub
Why is it "fishy" to have her own server? Lots of people do.
Delete9:53 AM:
DeleteExactly!
I think what she did was fine. It was done according to the law and other Secretary of States did it too. No one is hollering about them - i.e Collin Powell is an example. Plus, she turned over many, many of those emails for the historical records.
ReplyDeleteI will vote for her and can hardly wait to see her as POTUS!
She has the Republican candidates beat hands down and they are scared to death of her and will dig up any kind of shit they can to make headlines!
But, they forget the Clintons have been politicians for many, many years and have so much more experience handling the crud that has been thrown at them throughout the years. (Yes, Bill Clinton shouldn't have played around, but look at all the other politicians that have done the same thing - Democrats and Republicans!)
Was Sarah and Brad Hanson before or during her governorship?
DeleteYea, Josh Earnest is saying this now because it is now the law and it wasn't back in 2009. It wasn't illegal, end of discussion.
DeleteIt is illegal to attempt to gain access to another's email. Unless a person actually discloses he password, a snooper would have to use some brain power and exert effort to gain access. Anyone who does should be punished.
ReplyDeleteIt very much is the same as going thru mail.
This is interesting because you know every one in an elected office does this. So to see tbe hypocrisy in everyone is illuminating
Btw Hilary's refusal to give comment is also illuminating
Shut up, Alicia
Delete9:30 AM:
DeleteWhy does she have to give comment on this? The Repubs don't believe a damn thing she says.
9:30 am, since you are in the dark about everything, it's interesting that you are jabbering about "illuminating."
Delete"What Hillary Clinton’s Private Email Tells Us About Antiquated Government Technology"
ReplyDelete...Take this choice quote from Thomas Blanton, the Director of the National Security Archive:
“Personal emails are not secure,” he said. “Senior officials should not be using them.”
Are you serious? Let’s be clear, that personal email was probably far more secure than her state.gov email account. The State Department’s email system has been compromised for months. It’s highly likely that it’s been compromised since forever: remember, during her tenure, Wikileaks released the State Department’s classified communications.
A better question is: why would she use the State Department’s email system to conduct official business? In fact, if it’s demonstrably insecure, does she not have a responsibility not to use it? It’s probably the case that if Hillary Clinton was focusing solely on security, using her personal email with 2 Factor Authentication was probably way more secure than using the honeypot mess of IT that is the State Department’s email servers.
But more importantly, let’s talk about records. As the former director of Sunlight Labs at the Sunlight Foundation, it’s a cause I care about. That’s the important bit. I don’t believe Hillary Clinton was actively working to hide her communication from the public. I think she was looking for the easiest way to do her job. The one thing you have to understand about people in public service is people down to the lowest levels of public service understand open records laws, and they all know one thing: if you don’t want something on the record, don’t use email. Pick up the phone. Hillary Clinton knows that, too.
Hillary Clinton was trying to use what she wanted to use in order to do her job. As a former fed, I’m empathetic. When you start at the Federal Government, it’s often like stepping in a time machine. You’re handed technology from years ago and (especially at her level) you’re expected to do tomorrow’s work.
http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/03/04/3629650/hillary-clintons-private-email-tells-us-antiquated-government-technology/
Hillary’s email mess deepens: New evidence raises big questions about adherence to federal rules (Salon)
ReplyDeleteHow Hillary Clinton May Have Violated Government Rules on Emails Mother Jones
The above links go into more detail and both are from liberal sources.
I have no special ax to grind. As a Democrat I will feel compelled to vote for the Democratic candidate in 2016, if I'm still around (if ANY of us are still around, for that matter), regardless of how enthusiastic (or not) I may be about the candidate.
That said - either we hold Hillary Clinton, now, to the same standard we would hold, say, Sarah Palin to, or we don't. I'm quite sure had Sarah Palin pulled this exact stunt, IM would have been all over her for it. The email stunt Palin did pull wasn't IDENTICAL to what Clinton did, but it had the exact same goal - an attempt to keep emails performed during official duty time away from official scrutiny and FOIA requests - so in that respect it is exactly comparable.
Palin has been endlessly REAMED for that - justifiably. But I've seen all sorts of excuses made for Clinton. Just goes to show you, you don't have to be a freeper to be an utter "if their side does it's BAD but if our side does it, we'll make excuses for it" hypocrite!
Either we are intellectually honest and willing to call out Democrat politicians when they act just as shady as Republicans, or we're just as bad as they are. It doesn't mean we won't still vote for them, if that's the only choice - but it does mean we shouldn't feel obligated to also tie ourselves into knots to justify their shadiness as well.
I'm a staunch Democrat who totally agrees with you. I also support our independent Alaska governor, Bill Walker, but emailed him that I was not happy that he involved himself in the firing of the Bethel district attorney, possibly at the behest of someone with an ax to grind who also supported Walker's campaign ... seems to go against everything that Walker has said about 'transparency.' We shouldn't bend over backwards to support our preferred candidates if it means compromising our values and giving them a pass. That said, Hillary would have to do some pretty terrible things between now and elections for me not to vote for her (if she runs.)
DeleteSomething can be legal but still be wrong. In this case, she seems to have followed the laws in place at the time, but the appearance of impropriety still exists.
DeleteAs Jim Wright pointed out on his Facebook page, there is a huge difference between the free email accounts, such as Yahoo and Gmail (that Sarah Palin used) and a Blackberry account that Hillary used. The level of security is entirely different.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/Stonekettle?fref=ts
That's really irrelevant. The issue isn't really how secure either of their email systems were. The issue is that they both tried to keep official email off the record.
Delete"Anonymous10:09 AM
DeleteThat's really irrelevant. The issue isn't really how secure either of their email systems were. The issue is that they both tried to keep official email off the record.'
----------------------
Apparently, that is not the case.
“At the time Clinton was Secretary, the Federal Records Act didn’t require federal employees to use government accounts, only to preserve records of their communications,” the Daily Beast’s Michael Tomasky wrote. “This, Clinton seems to have done.”
The emails have been preserved and turned over for placement on government servers.
But, but, but Sarah Palin did use her private email for State of Alaska business, and she copied the emails to Todd who was not part of the government and should not have been getting cc's. Sarah also had a State of Alaska account, which she was clearly trying to bypass. Did anyone pay the price for these illegal actions? Yeah, some poor kid in Tennessee who hacked Sarah's easy-to-hack private email, and he went to jail for it. Sarah? All that she had to to was quit her job and all of her problems went away.
ReplyDeleteBenghazi Benghazi Benghazi. Really, is this it? And Hillary hasn't announced yet.
ReplyDeleteBenghazi Panel To Subpoena Hillary Clinton's Private Emails Today
Deletehttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/benghazi-committee-subpoena-hillary-emails
Nice try, Gryphen, but you really need to study some history before you blog so recklessly, as you so often do.
ReplyDeleteHave you already forgotten that Calvin Coolidge spent 6 months in federal postal prison for mailing an envelope with a 1 cent stamp when evidence suggests he knew full well that a 1.5 cent stamp was required based upon the weight on the envelope? Plus the envelope was filled with an ounce of pure Turkish heroin, but that's a whole other kettle of fish filled cans of worms that shouldn't be opened.
Using the most conservative index of penile inflation since Coolidge's troubles and the most conservative Conservative Index of Non-Conservative Non-Scandals, it doesn't take a tea baggin' nitwit to calculate that Hillary HUSSEIN Clinton should be executed and then serve life in a Moroccan drug smugglers' prison for using her private email account whilst serving as Secretary of State. She'll be in good company, btw, because Colin Powell committed the same offense, also too.
-------------------------------------------
DAMN!!! DAMN!!! DAMN!!! Gryphen, dude, I screwed it up again. I typed "penal inflation" and it was automagically autocorrected to "penile inflation". I didn't catch the mistake until after I hit "Publish" and now it's too late to fix it!!!! I promise it won't happen again.
Rofl....
DeleteIt's not illegal. Whether or not it's "wrong" has to do with intent and content.
ReplyDeleteWhy did she use her own e-mail, and what did she use it for?
Did she set it up so she could conduct extraneous business away from the prying eyes of her overseers? Was she using her personal e-mail account to hide things she was doing because she'd get into some kind of trouble if it went through the usual channels? There's no indication either of these things are the case.
It sounds like it wasn't a secret she used a personal e-mail account and did so out of convenience as other secretaries of state have done.
Those who support Ms. Clinton will give her the benefit of the doubt. Those who don't support her, won't. It's as simple as that. Which is why, ultimately, it doesn't matter.
O/T This Year's CPAC Speakers: Three Generations of Stupid
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/this-years-cpac-speakers-_b_6794850.html
Baby Boomer Donald Trump
Generation X'er Sarah Palin
Millennial TV host Tomi Lahren
Hillary Clinton has been around Washington D.C. for 25 years now.
ReplyDeleteShe has been "through the fire" what with Whitewater, Monica, etc.
And, don't kid yourself: Hillary knows how to play this game.
If Hillary wants to become president, Hillary will become president and the harder those who oppose her try to stop her
the more foolish they will look.
You wait and see...
I'm fine with President H. Clinton.
DeleteAnyone that can kick the Rs derrieres is fine with me. And she's got the biggest boots right now.
We need a Democrat in the White House for at least the next two decades to clean up this mess and move this country away from fascism and back to a more representative democracy.
Plus, I don't trust any Republican president to put another justice on the Supreme Court. That is the big and sole issue for me. We need to take back the Supreme Court and minimize the damage Roberts can do.
mlaiuppa -
DeleteIf the GOP is allowed to place any more conservative justices on the SCOTUS, we might as well just rename this country 'Koch and Friends'.
desperate times. desperate measures for the clumsy and clueless repugs.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned she can use the same mantra that Republicans use over and over again to justify themselves "It wasn't illegal."
ReplyDeleteSo smart.
DeleteClinton email policy violated Obama administration guidance
ReplyDeleteMar 4, 3:13 PM (ET)
By NEDRA PICKLER
WASHINGTON (AP)
Even if Hillary Rodham Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct official business as secretary of state was not illegal, it violated Obama administration guidance and undermined the president's pledge of historic transparency.
Clinton's reliance on hdr22@clintonemail.com for electronic communication as the nation's top diplomat ignited another political controversy for the presumptive 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner, who is no stranger to scandal. It was a puzzling and risky decision for a political figure who is vulnerable to criticism about trying to operate outside the rules.
Clinton has yet to explain why she took to unusual step of using her own server and eschewing a State Department email address. That has left the White House that vowed to run the most open government in history in the awkward position of having to answer for her electronic secrecy.
For the second day in a row Wednesday, Clinton's emails dominated the White House press briefing. Press secretary Josh Earnest carefully avoided direct criticism of Clinton while making it clear that administration policy is for government emails to be used for official business.
"Very specific guidance has been given to agencies all across the government, which is specifically that employees of the Obama administration should use their official email accounts when they're conducting official government business," Earnest said.
Keep bashing Hillary. The Right-wing bashing of her simply isn't enough, is it?
ReplyDeleteHahahaha
ReplyDeleteMaybe Hillary cribbed from the Bushco Book of Tricks and Ratf*cking!
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/jeb-bush-owns-his-own-email-server
"Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush owns the server that runs jeb@jeb.org, the personal email account he used as governor to conduct official, political and personal business.
Asked who controls the server that operates that email address, Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell responded: “He owns it.”
The server was housed in a state-owned office building during the years that Bush served as governor, from 1999 until early 2007. A Bush source familiar with the situation said there were “digital security” measures in place to protect Bush’s emails,"
She did not violate any rules or regs. See
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2015_03/clinton_email_scandal_a_nothin054473.php
"Having said that the real story is whether this private account was illegal, it wasn't, and whether it hurts Hillary politically, and we're not sure yet."
ReplyDeleteI don't think this will impact her politically so much. If she runs, the people that were going to vote for her, are going to anyways.
What will impact Hillary politically.... is that she is Hillary Clinton. Good luck guys. I don't think she stands a chance. I sure as hell won't vote for her.
And you are the one that wasn't going to vote for her "anyways." Good luck with Republicans in control of all four branches of government, yep, four, the House, the Senate, the Presidency and the Supreme Court. Now that I've scared everybody shitless get out the vote and whatever you do, do NOT vote Republican!
DeleteSo, oh wise 4:12, who will you be voting for in '16?
DeleteDon't know 5:48. Definitely not Hillary. Although frankly I am not as convinced as some that she is even going to run.
DeleteIt's only March of 2015, the election isn't for 1 year and 9 months, almost to the day. The time to consider for whom to vote is after the conventions, which are in 1 year and 6 months, until then, there should be zero focus on the campaign.
DeleteRepublicans aren't going to vote for her anyway.
DeleteThats right mlaiuppa. You're so smart. So smart. You must have a bunch of big masters degrees and such that allow you to look down on all the stupid people with disdain huh?
Delete