OPINION:
Washington reduces everything to politics, and never more than when a public official is suspected of criminal behavior that would send the average citizen to live a good part of the rest of his life behind the bars of a dreary federal prison. Just now the nation’s capital is abuzz with speculation about Hillary Clinton and her clear violation of the law against playing fast and loose with the nation’s security secrets. The 200-million (or 500-million) dollar question, enough to pay for a presidential campaign, is what will the law do about it.
One mock photograph making viral rounds on the Internet’s social media sites, realistic in its particulars but contrived by a photoshopper, depicts Hillary, dressed in an orange jump suit, sitting on her bunk in a bare cell with an open toilet as her only furniture. “Bill,” she asks her visitor, “how long will I have to be in here?” Bubba, with bowed head and trying not to crack up, answers: “At this point, what difference does it make?”
Harsh, and perhaps cruel, but it makes the point that Hillary is in deep trouble, trouble with lethal perception if not actual reality. The expanding FBI investigation into her abuse of her private email server is far more serious than Bernie Sanders and the Democrats may think it is.
President Obama, who is counting on Hillary to preserve the damage he has done over seven years and counting, concedes that “she made a mistake” with her email server, but offers the wishful assurance that it was “not a situation in which America’s national security was endangered.” This is worthless as assurance, though it may help morale among the president’s constituents. James Comey, the director of the FBI, pointedly notes that the president would not have any knowledge of what his investigators have uncovered, and the director is staying “very close, personally,” to the investigation.
The law is clear. Section 793(f) of the federal criminal code describes as a violator any person with access to “national defense” information who through “gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of that trust.” The government has used the “gross negligence” standard to prosecute peasants, as Hillary might regard them, for violations considerably less serious than the reckless disregard of established security procedures by a secretary of State. Of whom much is given, at least a little is expected. A Marine sergeant was charged after he accidentally put classified documents in his gym bag and, in fear of discovery, hid them in his garage. An Air Force sergeant was prosecuted for throwing classified material into a Dumpster to get home early. The FBI, with no time for sergeants, is in hot pursuit of bigger game.
Mr. Comey, a Republican, has earned a reputation as a straight shooter, praised by Democrat and Republican, for his independence and his dedication to his oath to pursue wrongdoing no matter where the search leads him. He threatened to resign as deputy to Attorney General John Ashcroft a decade ago to prevent the George W. Bush administration from renewing a warrantless wiretapping scheme that he thought violated the Constitution. A man or woman of integrity, determined to do the right thing, can be the greatest obstruction to politics as usual.
The president and the Democrats put a public face on the Clinton investigation as much ado about what they hope is nothing very much. Privately, they’re terrified. Hillary Clinton does not have to be indicted to see her campaign collapse. The “mere” appearance that the fix is in will be enough.
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