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Although I'm supposed to be taking today off (lol), there's a big news story today: FBI director James Comey made a statement on the completion of the FBI's more than year-long investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails.
The key point: The FBI found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing and is not recommending charges to prosecutors at the Justice Department.
Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.By way of reminder, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has already said "that she would accept whatever recommendations career prosecutors and the F.B.I. director made about whether to bring charges in the case."
In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information, we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.
I have much more at BNR: "A Dark Day for Hillary's Opponents: FBI Says 'NO CHARGES' on Her Emails."
Hillary said herself that her vicious detractors, whose hopes for her fall have been hung on this investigation, would be deeply disappointed; that their "fondest wishes will not be fulfilled." At the same time, she admitted that she made mistakes with her email server and that she regretted doing it.The haters will console themselves by attributing her exoneration to her Machiavellian control over a rigged system, because an elaborate conspiracy theory is somehow easier for them to believe than the reality: That after an exhaustive investigation, she was found to have done nothing wrong—besides making an error in judgment (which itself only looks like a unique error in judgment if you erase the standards of practice of her predecessors).
...The FBI announced, after its more than year-long investigation, that no criminal charges were appropriate in this case. At the same time, they also confirmed that the mistakes Hillary conceded were indeed worthy of her regrets.
We have repeatedly warned Hillary's ideological opponents – and competitors of all descriptions – that staking their reputations on a devastating outcome of this investigation, necessarily predicated on the idea that she acted in a way that was anything less than honest and ethical, was a foolhardy proposition.
Now, like the legions of discredited attackers who have tried and failed to destroy her over the last three decades, their reputations are crashing against the shores of her integrity.
This is what happens – it's what always happens – when people can't see past their own hatred of Hillary to understand who she really is.
And by embracing this approach, they will prove that they've learned nothing, relying on the same ridiculous conspiracies upon which their rotten expectations were based in the first place.
As I've said before, the most reasonable expectation to have of Clinton at this point is that, having learned from this entire thing, she'd make sure the electronic security in a Clinton administration would be the best the nation's ever known.
In any case, aside from the spin, the emails are now in the rearview mirror. Onward to Election Day.
UPDATE: And here's one more related piece I wrote, published at BNR: "America Just Took One Huge Step Closer to a Woman President."
The facts are simply not on the side of her detractors, and so all they've got is the same thing they've always got: Spin and insinuation and smears.
That strategy hasn't worked to stop Hillary for three decades. It's not going to work now.
...President Obama will join her on the campaign trail; she will continue to speak directly to voters about breaking down the barriers that keep us from fulfilling our maximum potential; and she will stand as a competent and esteemed statesperson in stark contrast to her Republican opponent.
She will continue to be the best candidate. None of the noise about her emails can undercut that.
We are one step closer to electing our first woman president. And I, for one, could not be more pleased.
