Did You Know Hillary Clinton's Emails Weren't Even Illegal?

It's funny because we want to die.

Everyone remembers how Hillary Clinton committed a brazen series of email-related felonies and walked away scot-free. At least that's how Republicans recall the events of 2016. Normal people understand that the media's incessant email coverage plagued Clinton's 2016 campaign, and the resulting FBI investigation, thanks to an ill-timed letter from James Comey, likely cost her the presidency.

But Republicans wanted to see Clinton perp-walked into email jail. It was an ongoing theme in Donald Trump's fascist campaign. Overflowing baskets of deplorableswould shout, "Lock her up!" during his rallies. During a presidential debate, Trump promised to sic a special email victims unit prosecutor on Clinton, his political opponent, and threatened tosend her to jail. 

Trump even tried it, once he was actually president — we know, we can never believe it either — ordering his Attorney General Bill Barr via public tweet to start arresting people like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton. "Where are all of the arrests?" he whined before returning to his usual shouted ALL CAPS. And now can you BELIEVE that Joe Biden has ended Western Civilization by holding someone accountable for espionage, obstructing justice, and refusing to give back nuclear secrets?

Back in 2016, Clinton wasn't an average presidential candidate. She was also a former first lady, a major global figure, but Republicans didn't seem worried America would become a banana republic if we started imprisoning first ladies, no matter how bad their cookies were. 

“Re-Indicted And It Feels So Good! @PodSaveAmerica live with @HillaryClinton at #Tribeca2023 "Republicans claim that you did the same thing and got off scot-free. Why did your friend Jim Comey let you off so easy?" 🤔 Full Ep: https://t.co/VO3FGcre7G”

— Hillary In Pictures (@Hillary In Pictures) 1686687771 

Republicans won't stop whining about the supposed "political prosecution" of a presidential candidate, but Hillary Clinton had formally launched her second campaign in April 2015. The FBI opened its criminal investigation into Clinton's email killing spree just two months later. (The investigation was codenamed "Midyear Exam," like it was the secret working title of a Hollywood movie.)

PREVIOUSLY:

 Trump Has Some Nerve Bringing Up Hillary Clinton’s Emails Again 

 Hillary Clinton Did An Email Thing That May Or May Not Be Wrong, And The NYT Is ON IT 

 How Is Hillary Clinton Murdering America With Her Emails Today? 

 Hillary Clinton Not Guilty Of 'Emails,' New York Times To Apologize Real Soon We Bet 

There was much fretting over whether Clinton could be indicted during the campaign or possibly after she was elected. Democrat Dan Metcalfe, who'd served as director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Information and Privacy, wrote in a column for Law & Crime, "So what you must contemplate, as a leader of the Democratic Party, is the very real possibility of your likely presidential candidate actually being indicted, on criminal charges, sometime between now and, say, (a) the time of the convention at the end of July; (b) the time of the general election in early November; or (c) Inauguration Day in January. Which possibility would you prefer?”

Yes, Trump screams in all-caps on Truth Social about "ELECTION INTERFERENCE" when the primary reason he ever befouled the White House is because of the overblown criminal investigation that his opponent endured. Then House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy admitted that a major goal of the Benghazi hearings was damaging Clinton in the polls. She hadn't yet declared her candidacy but was the most likely frontrunner.

STILL MORE EMAILS!

 Why Hillary Clinton Will Not Rot In Jail For Aggravated Emailing: Your Ultimate #Emails Wonksplainer 

 Comey Hearings Just A Bunch Of House Republicans Stepping On Own Dicks. Again. 

 FBI Director James Comey: HAHA, YOU GUYS! MY BAD! 

 The FBI interviewed Clinton for three hours on July 2, 2016. This was after Clinton and Trump were officially their parties' nominees. On July 5, James Comey gave his public finger-wagging press conference where he said, "Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

You're not going to believe this, because it gets lost a lot in this discussion, but they couldn't find evidence Clinton intended to violate the law because what she did was not actually against the law. No, really! Tell us about it, Wonkette in 2016. 

There was not an explicit, categorical prohibition against federal employees using personal emails when Clinton was in office, said Daniel Metcalfe, former director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Information Policy, where he administered implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. [...]

In Clinton’s defense, we should note that it was only after Clinton left the State Department, that the National Archives issued a recommendation that government employees should avoid conducting official business on personal emails (though they noted there might be extenuating circumstances such as an emergency that require it). Additionally, in 2014, President Barack Obama signed changes to the Federal Records Act that explicitly said federal officials can only use personal email addresses if they also copy or send the emails to their official account.

Funnily enough, just a couple of paragraphs later in that 2016 time machine, is this prescient bit of HUH:

"Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."

And that's what we call "espionage."

Back in 2016, after Clinton's severe, jailable offenses (except not illegal) came to light, Republicans leapt on this:  House Speaker Paul Ryan argued that Clinton shouldn't have access to classified briefings, despite her status as as the Democratic nominee, presumably because she might forward them to Nigerian princes. Barely a few days after Comey said he wasn't recommending charges against Clinton, the Republican-controlled House dragged Comey in to testify at their Benghazi 2: Email Boogaloo hearings. They put Clinton on trial in absentia and Comey on trial for not summarily executing her.

 Rudy Giuliani boasted on Fox News in late October that the Trump campaign might have a seasonally appropriate “surprise or two that you’re going to hear about in the next two days.” We don't know conclusively whether FBI insiders leaked information to Giuliani or he was just "throwing a fake," as he charmingly put it, but Comey did release his infamous letter just two days later.

And after all that, Hillary Clinton lost the presidency to Trump despite receiving three million more votes.

[ CNN ]

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