Hillary Clinton Knew About Criminal Penalties for Mishandling Classified Information
No “unauthorized disclosure”
Last Friday, the State Department revealed that investigators had found 268 more classified emails stored on Hillary Clinton’s homebrew server. That discovery brought the grand total of sensitive messages stored where they never should have been stored to over 600.
We’ve still got three more releases to go, and there’s no indication that we shouldn’t expect to find more classified content. This is a huge concern—and one that the mainstream media is still bent on covering up; but what should concern us even more is that Clinton exposed sensitive information in spite of her full knowledge of the consequences of those actions.
When Clinton was appointed Secretary of State, she signed a “Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement.” This means that she knew 1) what constitutes SCI, 2) how the release of SCI could harm the U.S., and 3) what criminal penalties she could face if caught even negligently handling SCI.
The Washington Free Beacon got their hands on a copy of the NDA:
Clinton received at least two emails while secretary of state on her personal email server since marked “TS/SCI”—top secret/sensitive compartmented information—according to the U.S. intelligence community’s inspector general.
The State Department said in September that Clinton’s private email system, set up at her Chappaqua, N.Y., home, was not authorized to handle SCI.
The Democratic presidential frontrunner defended her unauthorized possession of SCI and her sending of emails containing classified information by claiming that the information was not marked as classified when it was sent or received.
The language of her NDA suggests it was Clinton’s responsibility to ascertain whether information shared through her private email server was, in fact, classified.
“I understand that it is my responsibility to consult with appropriate management authorities in the Department … in order to ensure that I know whether information or material within my knowledge or control that I have reason to believe might be SCI,” the agreement says.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the NDA.
You can read the full NDA here, courtesy of the Free Beacon.
Even if we assume for the sake of argument that Clinton is simply that dense when it comes to classified material (which I don’t believe to be the case) further investigation by the excellent Free Beacon shows that Clinton was made fully aware of the possibility that “malicious actors” would attempt to hijack her private email account.
The WFB has the memo in hand:
The February 2011 memo, obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute through an open records request and shared with the Washington Free Beacon, warned of “a dramatic increase … in attempts by [redacted] to compromise the private home e-mail accounts of senior [State] Department officials.”
All of Clinton’s official email communications as secretary of state took place through a personal email address housed on a “homebrew” server in her Chappaqua, N.Y., home.
According to the memo, written specifically for Clinton by Eric Boswell, then the State Department’s top diplomatic security official, the unnamed hackers were attempting to breach officials’ email accounts via a technique known as “phishing.”
“Specifically, the actors are sending cleverly forged e-mails to victims’ private web-based accounts (e.g. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo),” he wrote. “These ‘spear phishing’ messages appear to be sent by U.S. government officials but are designed to trick recipients into activating embedded malicious code by clicking on an attachment or link.”
Oh, and those “cleverly forged emails?” Clinton definitely received one.
We should be used by now to the media and progressive surrogates making excuses for Clinton’s attitude, her policy failures, and her lies—but this is beyond the pale. This goes beyond “negligence”—which is a weak standard to begin with—and barrels right into “knowing.”
Hillary Clinton knowingly made herself, her staff, and her countrymen vulnerable to the attacks of malicious hackers. Who will hold her responsible?
I think we already know the answer to that.
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Comments
BTW, anyone who sent the TS/SCI, Secret, or even Confidential email to her server also broke the law. These classified servers are closed systems. The only way she could have received these emails is if someone copied them from the classified server to a storage device i.e. thumb drive or CD etc. walked over to their un-classified workstation, uploaded them, and then sent them.
This was no “oops” type of thing, not one single time. This is also something not being covered. Everyone in these email chains is a lawbreaker.
Even copying them to a thumb drive, however, is very difficult to get around.
This actually stinks much more than just about anyone considers.
Good point–thanks. We’ve moved beyond “mistakes.”
Most of those systems have their USB ports physically disabled or glued shut and don’t have CD writing capability either to prevent just such pilferage. so whoever did it had to be high enough in the chain of command to have access to a machine that could even download the data to a portable device. Your average code clerk or analyst doesn’t have access to that.
So the State Department will now declare those Top Secret Emails – NOT Top Secret Emails.
Jake Tapper already is, see my post below.
sorry CLAPPER. brain fart.
So, tell me again why Ben Carson’s made-up “lie” scandal is reported so heavily, and this is covered up?!?!
Media malpractice. Textbook example.
Malpractice is generally accidental … the media lies are deliberate and seditious. But hopefully the FBI recommends prosecution, as they surely would have long ago against any low level employee.
We are now at Omission and Commission – LIES. Not malpractice.
The “Ben Carson lied” story did it’s job in keeping this one out of the news…..no sacrificial lamb is too great.
UPDATE: Politico has updated its headline and removed allegations that the Ben Carson campaign admitted to “fabricating” his West Point story.
The headline now reads: “Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.”
C’mon, peeeps. There was never ANY doubt about all this.
She’s a lying, cheating, criminal who will…and HAS…sold this country out for $$$$.
And she WILL again, if it comes to it…
But of course Jake Clapper is now walking back the TS/SCI classification ruling, which begs the question why? Does Hildebeast have dirt on Clapper? Obama? Is there a smoking gun connecting Obama, Jarret (Obama’s puppetmaster and the real president, if only in deed) or Clapper to these disclosures? as American Human pointed out, there has to be a sender for every recipient… who else is implicated?
That was more desperate disinformation from Politico. (They’re having crow for dessert after their main course of Carson crow tonight.)
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/06/no-determination-obama-admin-disputes-politicos-rush-end-clinton-email-scandal/
The Clintons and ‘dirt’ you ask?
Remember the Clinton Whitehouse FBI file ‘scandal’?
Do you think that bunch would have stopped digging up dirt on anyone that might, even remotely, be able to do damage to them?
I bet by now they have Obumma’s college transcripts, and a certified photostatic copy of his original birth certificate.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/hillary-clinton-email-no-highly-classified-215599
There is no question she broke the law. Probably in many ways we don’t even know about, but sadly at least since Biden decided not to run Obama has put the fix in for her and there will never be any charges brought against her.
The most patriotic thing Shrillary Shrooooo could do would be to go home and bake cookies for Chelsea’s kid.
It’s shameful the way the WashPost and other major media are trying to sweep this under the rug. After all, didn’t they cheer when Scooter Libby did time for outing a CIA operative? Surely Shrillary Shrooo deserves no less.
No, the most patriotic thing she could do is go home and drink a large bottle of Drano.
Scooter Libby did time for obstruction of justice and lying to a federal investigator. Basically Patrick Fitzgerald knew who had outed the CIA agent, but he had a desire to get somebody. Libby has a poor memory, and forgot to whom he told what and to whom he didn’t tell what. Fitzgerald was on a fishing expedition. The person who did out the agent was never charged.
Not my memory. Rather, what I remember is President Bush pardoning Libby’s prison term, but not his conviction. In other words, he is a convicted felon who didn’t have to do any time.
Correct. Bush didn’t have the courage to grant a full pardon when he knew he truth.
This isn’t news, but it’s good to keep the story alive. Everyone who obtains access to classified material must first sign the NDA. Everyone who obtains a clearance is trained in handling classified information, and learns exactly why any particular information is classified.
What is more stunning is that the Sec State has original classification authority (OCA), meaning that Hilliary received special training on how to determine whether a particular piece of information should or should not be classified. This is contrasted with “derivative classification authority” by which you rely on someone else to make initial determination, and you walk in step, so to speak. To have OCA, you must receive more extensive training. A person with OCA, therefore, has no excuse in failing to recognize what constitutes SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information), exactly what was found on her server.
Instead of being on the campaign trail, Hillary should be stuck in a SCIF (SCI Facility) with the stack of emails, explaining under oath every last detail of how each piece of classified information got to her, where it went after she had it, and why. Her responses would be written down, and she would have to sign them. All of this would be admissible in court, and any lack of cooperation would be noted. All this is agreed to in the NDA. Likewise her co-conspirators at the State Dep’t should be doing the same. Under usual circumstances, this would be SOP.
If nothing ever happens, is there really a penalty?