{"id":50157,"date":"2016-09-24T12:25:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-24T16:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=50157"},"modified":"2016-09-24T12:26:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-24T16:26:07","slug":"obamas-growing-conflict-of-interest-in-the-clinton-e-mail-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=50157","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s Growing Conflict of Interest in the Clinton E-Mail Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

by ANDREW C. MCCARTHY
\n<\/a><\/span>NATIONAL REVIEW<\/p>\n

he latest revelations regarding Hillary Clinton\u2019s mishandling of classified information are stunning. For example, several of the former secretary of state\u2019s \u201cprivate\u201d e-mails contain national-defense information so sensitive that it is classified at the highest levels.<\/p>\n

Moreover, classified information so pervades the thousands of pages of e-mails communicated through and stored on Mrs. Clinton\u2019s unsecured, homebrew server system that the court-ordered disclosure process has ground to a halt. Remember, Mrs. Clinton reviewed her e-mails before finally surrendering them to the State Department, and she initially insisted there was no classified information in them. Now, it turns out they were so threaded with classified information that the State Department and intelligence agencies have fallen hopelessly behind the court\u2019s disclosure schedule: The task of reviewing the e-mails and redacting the portions whose publication could harm national security has proved much more complicated than anticipated. Thousands of remaining e-mails, and any embarrassing lapses they contain, will be withheld from voters until well into primary season.<\/p>\n

So egregious have the scandal\u2019s latest developments been that a critical State Department admission from last week has received almost no coverage: Eighteen e-mails between Mrs. Clinton and President Obama<\/a>have been identified, and the government is refusing to disclose them.<\/p>\n

The administration\u2019s rationale is remarkable: Releasing them, the White House and State Department say, would compromise \u201cthe president\u2019s ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel\u201d from top government officials.<\/p>\n

Think about what this means. Not only is it obvious that President Obama knew Mrs. Clinton was conducting government business over her private e-mail account, the exchanges the president engaged in with his secretary of state over this unsecured system clearly involved sensitive issues of policy. Clinton was being asked for \u201cadvice and counsel\u201d \u2014 not about her recommendations for the best country clubs in Martha\u2019s Vineyard, but about matters that the White House judges too sensitive to reveal.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Why the Justice Department Won\u2019t Work with the FBI on Clinton\u2019s E-mail Case<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

That explanation got me to thinking about General David Petraeus. Recall that the Obama Justice Department prosecuted Petraeus for mishandling classified information<\/a>. His offense involved conduct narrower in scope than Mrs. Clinton\u2019s systematic transmission and storage of classified information on her private system.<\/p>\n

What is the relevance of Petraeus\u2019s case? Well, in order to outline the factual basis for his guilty plea, the Justice Department filed a document<\/a>describing the information involved. In the main, it was the classified contents of the general\u2019s journals. Among the most significant of this information, according to the prosecutors, were notes of \u201cdefendant DAVID HOWELL PETRAEUS\u2019s discussions with the President of the United States of America<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: How the FBI Could Force DOJ to Prosecute Hillary Clinton<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In light of Mrs. Clinton\u2019s numbing repetition of the legally irrelevant talking-point that the classified information found throughout her thousands of e-mails was not \u201cmarked classified,\u201d it bears emphasizing that General Petraeus\u2019s journals were not marked classified either. That did not alter the obvious fact that the information they contained was classified \u2014 a fact well known to any high government official who routinely handles national-defense secrets, let alone one who directly advises the president.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as is the case with Clinton\u2019s e-mails, much of the information in Petraeus\u2019s journals was \u201cborn classified\u201d under the terms of President Obama\u2019s own executive order \u2014 EO 13526. As we\u2019ve previously noted<\/a>, insection 1.1(d)<\/a> of that order, Obama directed: \u201cThe unauthorized disclosure of foreign government information is presumed to cause damage to the national security.\u201d In addition, the order goes on (in section 1.4) to describe other categories of information that officials should deem classified based on the national-security damage disclosure could cause. Included among these categories: foreign relations, foreign activities of the United States, military plans, and intelligence activities.<\/p>\n

If the administration is refusing to disclose the Obama-Clinton e-mails because they involved the secretary of state providing advice and counsel to the president, do you think those exchanges just might touch on foreign-government information, foreign relations, or foreign activities of the United States \u2014 deliberations on which are presumed classified?<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Ex-Spies Say That Clinton\u2019s Illegal Server Triggered Widespread Devastation<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Will anyone in the press corps covering the White House and the State Department ask administration officials whether this is the case?<\/p>\n

I believe some, if not all, of the communications between Obama and Clinton should be classified. To classify them now, however, would imply wrongdoing on both their parts since they knew they were communicating via private, unsecured e-mail. Essentially, Obama is invoking executive privilege because the effect of doing so \u2014 viz., non-disclosure of the e-mails \u2014 is the same as the effect of classifying them would be\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0but without the embarrassment that classifying them would entail.<\/p>\n

Of course, Petraeus did not get executive-privilege treatment. His communications with Obama were deemed classified and he was prosecuted for failing to safeguard them.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Hillary\u2019s Latest E-mail Gambit: Tragedy, Comedy, or Low Farce?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

To summarize, we have a situation in which (a) Obama knowingly communicated with Clinton over a non-government, non-secure e-mail system; (b) Obama and Clinton almost certainly discussed matters that are automatically deemed classified under the president\u2019s own guidelines; and (c) at least one high-ranking government official (Petraeus) has been prosecuted because he failed to maintain the security of highly sensitive intelligence that included policy-related conversations with Obama.<\/p>\n

From these facts and circumstances, we must deduce that it is possible, if not highly likely, that President Obama himself has been grossly negligent in handling classified information. He discussed sensitive matters on a non-government, non-secure e-mail system that could easily be penetrated by foreign governments (among other rogue actors). By doing so, he left an electronic- and paper-trail that was outside the government\u2019s tightly secured repositories for classified information. He also personally indulged, and thus implicitly endorsed, Clinton\u2019s use of private e-mail to do government business.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement investigations are supposed to proceed independent of political considerations, but I\u2019d wager few people believe the decision whether to indict Mrs. Clinton will be made by Attorney General Loretta Lynch alone. It will be the president\u2019s call. In making it, he may face a profound conflict of interest. A prosecution of Clinton might expose that Obama engaged in recklessness similar to Clinton\u2019s, albeit on a far smaller scale. Moreover, Clinton would likely argue in her defense that the president, who is ultimately responsible for safeguarding classified information, not only authorized Clinton to use private e-mail but knowingly used it himself in order to communicate with Clinton.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve observed, Obama is already under immense political pressure<\/a>not to permit an indictment that would doom his party\u2019s presumptive presidential nominee. Now, factor in the embarrassment a prosecution could cause the president personally. Many have asked why Hillary Clinton has not been charged already. We may have our answer.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/430706\/obama-hillary-clinton-email-problem<\/a><\/p>\n

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