Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues The Legal Forum "But her emails..." vs Treachery

It pissies me off that Hillary Clinton's own behavior is casting a long shadow on what Trump has done - and could possible affect if Trump is ever indicted. As I have stated numerous times, I did not vote in 2016 because I just couldn't vote for either sociopath. I am glad that I made that decision given where America is today.

Jonathan Turley wrote a great article for The Hill that discusses what Clinton did vs what Trump has done. There is no way Merrick Garland can prosecute Trump on having and hoarding classified docs because of what Hillary Clinton did. Fair is fair. So Merrick has go for obstruction of justice charges.

Al Capone wasn't brought down because of his being a crime boss - he was brought down by the IRS for not paying his fair share of taxes. If Trump is indicted for NARA obstruction of justice and is jailed for that - I would be good with that.

...because Trump's other legal problems will probably put him in his prison longer.

Jonathan Turley wrote a great article for The Hill that discusses what Clinton did vs what Trump has done. There is no way Merrick Garland can prosecute Trump on having and hoarding classified docs because of what Hillary Clinton did. Fair is fair.

Hillary Clinton had not just 113 documents containing classified material but some documents “classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level” on her private email servers. (In Trump’s case, the government allegedly found roughly 100 documents in the Mar-a-Lago raid in addition to roughly 150 handled over by the Trump team under an earlier subpoena.)

Clinton’s documents were even more vulnerable to being compromised via her unclassified email account and, according to the FBI, “hostile actors gained access” to some of the information. Yet she was never subjected to a raid, let alone a charge.

...

In addition to the transfer of top-secret and other classified documents to her private server, Clinton and her staff did not fully cooperate with investigators. During the investigations of her conduct, some of us marveled at the temerity of the Clinton staff in refusing to turn over her laptop and other evidence to State Department and DOJ investigators. The FBI had to cut deals with her aides to secure their cooperation.

There is no scenario in the universe that does not have Trump profiting from it one way or another.

A key difference between the two

Bradley Moss, a Washington-based lawyer who works on national security cases, said the cases of Clinton and Trump are significantly different.

“Trump took properly marked hard copy classified documents from the White House, shipped them to Florida, and stored them in an unsecured location at his residence,” Moss said.

The presence of classified information in Clinton’s emails was less obvious.

“The e-mails were never marked as classified because these were communications from unclassified government accounts,” Moss said.

In three instances, email chains included information with classification markers. It was never clear that Clinton was aware of the presence of that marked information, or if the classification marking was clear.

Marked information is not to be confused with emails containing unmarked information that could be deemed classified. That is a looser definition, and one that can be applied retroactively. Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, said in one case, an email in one chain forwarded a front-page New York Times story about a drone strike. Under its rules, the CIA called that classified, Blanton said.

When classified information was clearly involved, Blanton said Clinton’s “briefings were on a different system, a classified Blackberry that was managed by State Department IT people.”

Clinton’s emails included moments when staffers wrote that for them to go into more detail, they would need to switch to a secure classified State Department system.

Moss cautioned that while some documents at Mar-a-Lago were clearly marked as classified, many questions remain, such as “where the records were originally located, who boxed them up, when Trump became aware of the existence of the records at Mar-a-Lago, and what, if any, efforts Trump took to rectify the situation once he was informed.”

The answers to those questions, he said, would help determine if anyone could be held criminally liable, and whether Trump himself faces any legal risk.

As for the personal emails that Clinton erased, the FBI said its investigation might have found some of them. Overall, the agency said it was reasonably confident that there was no intentional misconduct.

There's no comparison between Hillz and what Trump has done and Mr. Turley has left out a great deal of information, like the fact that Trump has completely put our intel up for sale. There is no scenario in the universe that does not have Trump profiting from it one way or another.

I'm convinced the nuances are not the same.

That's comparing "doing her job as Secretary of State" to treason. NOT nuance! Just another insane "What About" non-sequitur from the right-wing noise machine. Too bad popular media publishes this kind of tripe.

The point is, because Hillary was never charged, how can Trump be charged? Turley is correct. That is why Merrick Garland has to get Trump on Obstruction of Justice charges.