Hillary Clinton is "too big to jail"

Another Friday has passed and with it more of Hillary Clinton’s emails. At latest count nearly 700 of her emails, emails that were stored on a private, unsecured server, contained information of various levels of classification. At least two of those emails have been identified as originating with data from a KH-series photo-reconnaissance satellite and had the classification of Top Secret and required handling within a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. The FBI’s Counterintelligence Division is now engaged in an investigation. And FBI Director James Comey has vowed to follow the case wherever the evidence leads. But is that true?

Attorneys who have handled classified information cases say the bureau, initially asked to examine whether Clinton’s arrangement compromised national security secrets, ultimately will have to consider whether she and her aides failed to sufficiently safeguard sensitive information.

They disagree about whether there’s enough evidence to prosecute her or her aides for sending and receiving government messages over the personal email system. routed through a private computer server in the basement of her New York home.

But most who spoke to McClatchy say it’s unlikely the former first lady, senator and Cabinet secretary will face charges because of her high profile and the hurdle to prove she knew the emails contained classified information when she sent them to others.

“She’s too big to jail,” said national security attorney Edward MacMahon Jr., who represented former CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling in 2011 in a leak case that led to an espionage prosecution and 3½-year prison term. He cited a pattern of light punishments for top government officials who have mishandled classified information while lower level whistleblowers such as Sterling have faced harsh prosecutions for revealing sensitive information to expose waste, fraud or abuse in government.

It is no coincidence that his article has been published now, relying on people familiar with the investigation. As with everything else concerning this administration, politics is everything. Were this not a primary season and Hillary Clinton not the front runner for the Democrat nomination she might conceivably be in legal jeopardy. But that is not the case. Obama is faced with a stark choice. He may either let this investigation proceed and see the Democrat nominee indicted… or he can sandbag the investigation.

Already, Obama has tried to send a rather public message that the investigation needs to end. It is really difficult to find another example of any president trying to tamper with an ongoing investigation as brazenly as this guy.

Then there is this nugget. James Covey has been engaged in a rather public spat with the White House over the Black Lives Matter bunch, and the impact of police brutality investigations, and the need to reduce incarceration.

On Thursday, the president met with Mr. Comey in the Oval Office to discuss his views. The White House declined to describe the conversation.

A cynic might connect the available dots in a different way and think that Comey was called to the White House, using the public statements by Covey as a cover, to tell him to leave Hillary alone and to finish up his investigation fast. This article appearing shortly thereafter is just to put him on notice that the Administration is serious.

Once upon a time we were a nation where the same basic set of rules applied to everyone. The legacy of the Obama administration will be the end of the very idea that that is the case anymore.