Why Hillary Clinton Could Face Indictments and How This Makes Bernie Sanders Nominee

Sen. Bernie Sanders

H. A. Goodman, Huffington Post, June 6, 2016

https://tinyurl.com/jhu2mkl

Rahm Emanuel endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2014, before she officially decided to run, and two years before Democratic voters went to the polls. For this reason, I refer to the 2016 Democratic Primary as the “Rahm Emanuel Primary.” As early as November of 2015, Clinton had a 45-1 superdelegate lead over Bernie Sanders. The majority of Clinton’s superdelegates endorsed the former Secretary of State long before the Iowa Caucus, and Lee Fang of The Intercept has documented the lobbying ties of these Democratic Party bosses.

For anyone claiming the DNC has been fair to Bernie Sanders, or that this election hasn’t been rigged, just read a 2008 Atlantic article titled Obama Manager Accuses Clintons of Widespread Dirty Politics. From superdelegates with lobbying ties (linked to Hillary Clinton), to Rahm Emanuel’s endorsement in 2014, the Democratic establishment has done everything possible to elect the former First Lady. Taken within the context of battling a political machine, Bernie Sanders has already achieved the impossible.

However, Bernie Sanders has won 21 states and earned almost 10 million votes, without the help of Democratic officials beholden to his political power. Furthermore, Vermont’s Senator will be the only person left standing politically, if the FBI recommends indictments of Hillary Clinton to the Department of Justice. For people who believe Clinton is too powerful to jail, here’s a quick breakdown of why indictments could be imminent, and why Bernie Sanders is poised to become Democratic nominee.

It’s a crime under the Espionage Act to willingly, or inadvertently, transfer 22 Top Secret emails from secure State Department servers, to an unguarded private server. This is essentially what Hillary Clinton paid Bryan Pagliano to do (when linking her private computer server to secure State servers) and is likely the reason he was granted immunity.

It is a crime to remove government documents—classified and Top Secret—from secure locations and store them within unsecure locations. I ask how Clinton got this Top Secret intelligence onto a private server in the following YouTube segment.

Whether or not the existence of Clinton’s server was known by others is entirely irrelevant to her own legal predicament. President Obama could be bending the truth about learning of the server in 2015, however even if he knew beforehand, it’s Clinton’s actions that will be the center of controversy. She needed the server for a reason, and it wasn’t “convenience.”

Most importantly, Clinton’s Top Secret emails contained Special Access Program intelligence; an aspect overlooked by pundits focused solely upon “emails” and intent. The severity of Clinton’s SAP emails is highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article titled Hillary’s ‘Special Access’ Server:

The SAP—special access program—reference in particular is ringing Washington alarms. A SAP usually refers to a highly covert technology program, often weaponry. Knowledge of these programs is usually restricted to small groups of people on a need-to-know basis.

NBC News first reported that the SAP reference on Mrs. Clinton’s server is so sensitive that Mr. McCullough had to get special clearance before he could even view the intelligence-community declarations.

Mrs. Clinton would surely have recognized the sensitive nature of such a program—the details of which were sitting on her unsecured email server, affording “special access” to any quality Chinese hacker.

This is probably why Mrs. Clinton’s campaign decided to smear Mr. McCullough as a partisan.

The existence of Special Access Program intelligence is often denied by the U.S. government and is considered the highest classification; even beyond Top Secret.

Regarding her SAP emails, Clinton’s server was unencrypted for three months. Because this server was unguarded, I explain here why Clinton harmed U.S. national security.

Under the Espionage Act, “gross negligence” is enough to prosecute, so intent isn’t needed when evaluating the harm done to national security from an unencrypted private server containing Top Secret emails. Simply claiming ignorance, or disinterest, or naiveté in using a private server isn’t enough to circumvent criminal indictments under the Espionage Act.

The fact that Hillary Clinton owned an unencrypted private server at her home, combined with the fact foreign nations (and Romanian hacker Guccifer) attempted to hack into her server, are other reasons indictments should be a genuine concern for all Hillary supporters.

As for the retroactively classified emails, retroactively classified intelligence was enough to convict CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling and indict NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake.

If Clinton isn’t indicted, free Jeffrey Sterling.

I explain that retroactively classified intelligence has already been upheld by the courts in the following YouTube segment. Regarding the intelligence found on Clinton’s server, the SAP information was “born classified.” Thus, none of the born classified emails needed markings, or any clarification on the documents; Clinton should have known this intelligence needed to be stored within State Department servers.

Then of course, the recent State Department ruling that Clinton violated rules is another reason for potential indictments. As stated by CNN, Hillary Clinton was never given authority to own a private server, and her email practices broke internal guidelines:

The report, which was provided to lawmakers, states, “At a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all emails dealing with Department business before leaving government service and, because she did not do so, she did not comply with the Department’s policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act.”

…Clinton and several of her staff members during her tenure declined to be interviewed, the report said.

The report says, “According to the staff member, the Director stated that the Secretary’s personal system had been reviewed and approved by Department legal staff and that the matter was not to be discussed any further.”

…But the report notes that interviews with officials from the Under Secretary for Management and the Office of the Legal Adviser found “no knowledge of approval or review by other Department staff” of the server.

…the report says that the Inspector General’s office “found no evidence that the Secretary requested or obtained guidance or approval to conduct official business via a personal email account on her private server.”

… the inspector general said, including some on “special access programs,” which are a subset of the highest “Top Secret” level of classification, but are under subject to more stringent control rules than even other Top Secret information.”

Therefore, the basis for imminent indictments rests upon the fact that neither the State Department, nor the president gave Clinton the authority to use a private server. Since this server contained SAP and other Top Secret intelligence, and since these emails are born classified and immune to any retroactively classified defense of owning the server, Clinton faces legal consequences.

Finally, a USA Today piece by Phillip Jennings titled Secretary without honor: Voices highlights the enormity of Clinton’s email fiasco:

Apologists for Hillary Clinton’s alleged criminal mishandling of classified documents say that it doesn’t matter, that she really did nothing wrong, or nothing significant. But the real question is not so much what she did as how she has responded to being found out.

…As the air officer and a senior captain, I had a rotating responsibility for the nuclear code book, kept in the safe in the operations room of the lead amphibious squadron command ship.

… In a rushed moment, he stepped across the passageway to retrieve something he needed from his quarters.

…Against all regulations, the code book had been out of the safe and unattended. It mattered not that it was unattended for only seconds, that the ship was 5 miles at sea, or that it was certain no one unauthorized had seen the code.

…The results went by the book.

…I saw some heroic acts in combat in Vietnam, things that made me proud to be an American and a Marine. But that young captain stood for what makes our corps and our country great.
Clinton is the antithesis of that young captain, someone with no honor, little courage and commitment only to her endless ambition.

If a Marine officer faced life-long repercussions for leaving Top Secret intelligence alone for seconds, imagine what will take place with Clinton.

I explain in my latest MSNBC appearance why Clinton’s emails will lead to indictment. Regardless of delegate count, Bernie Sanders is the true front-runner and the DNC will need Vermont’s Senator very soon. Clinton barely defeats Trump in the polls and only one Democratic nominee faces the prospect of Espionage Act indictments.