With the successful Brexit campaign, the rise of minor parties on Australia’s right, and the never-ending controversy and excitement of the Donald Trump campaign for US President, it is easy to miss another important event which will alter the course of world politics in the years to come. Today, the FBI has decided not to recommend pressing criminal charges against Democrat Presidential Nominee, Hillary Clinton, for her setting up and use of a private email server while she was US Srectary of State.
FBI Director James Comey, has stated that while “There is evidence that they (Clinton and her staff) were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” there was no intent; therefore “no reasonable prosecutor” would launch a case against her.
Considering that Clinton held the most important Cabinet position in the US, and is in the running to become President of the United States, this is an inexplicable turn of events. The point is not “intent.” The point is “gross negligence.”
As Andrew C McCarthy has written in the National Review:
“..Hillary Clinton checked every box required for a felony violation of Section 793(f) of the federal penal code (Title 18): With lawful access to highly classified information she acted with gross negligence in removing and causing it to be removed it from its proper place of custody, and she transmitted it and caused it to be transmitted to others not authorized to have it, in patent violation of her trust… her recklessness very likely led to communications (her own and those she corresponded with) being intercepted by foreign intelligence services…
“In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing.”
In contraction to the FBI Director’s statement, it is perfectly reasonable that Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted.
But there is more to this. According to US Code 18, Part 1, Chapter 101, Section 2071:
“(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.
“(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.”
In deliberately setting up her own private server, knowing it was against the law, Clinton wilfully and unlawfully concealed and removed (at the very least) records and documents filed with a public officer of the United States. Not only is it perfectly reasonable that Clinton should be prosecuted, it is perfectly reasonable that she should be disqualified from running for US President. (You can watch Bill Whittle outline the grounds for prosecution in the Firewall video below.)
Hillary Clinton should be out of the Presidential race, and most likely behind bars. Instead, she has been let off. Today, President Obama appeared publicly with her to endorse her run for President, for the first time………..yep……
This signals the end of the rule of law in the United States. The United States was founded on the idea that government is subject to the people, not the other way around, and those in government are subject to the same rules as ordinary citizens. The US Revolution against rule from Britain was based on this principle.
As I have stated before for The XYZ, the West is in open revolt against its elites. The United States is as polarised as it has ever been. To let Hillary Clinton get away with such a clear breach of the law will only polarise it further, and undermine the legitimacy of the government in the eyes of US law enforcement and intelligence agencies, and the American people. The rise of Donald Trump has been a game-changer in US politics. The fallout from the failure to press charges against Hillary Clinton will be just as profound. The US is in for a very turbulent time.
Photo by Foreign and Commonwealth Office 