2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumRolling Stone: What Should We Make of the Hillary Clinton Indictment Speculation?
With Clinton poised to secure the nomination, the chatter about the FBI investigation into her email server has grown louder
By Tessa Stuart May 3, 2016
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/what-should-we-make-of-the-hillary-clinton-indictment-speculation-20160503
Hillary Clinton has all but locked up the delegates needed to become the Democratic nominee for president a fact many on both the right and the left are finding difficult to come to terms with. Perhaps that's why potential disaster scenarios seem to be surfacing with increasing frequency these days. With her rival, Bernie Sanders, all but mathematically eliminated after a string of bruising primary losses, chatter has gotten louder about Clinton potentially being indicted by the FBI over her use a private email server during her tenure at the State Department.
Republican mega-donor T. Boone Pickens insisted to Newsmax last week that Clinton would not be the Democratic nominee. "I don't think she's physically up to it, but that's not going to eliminate her," he said. "It'll be some other reason. I just don't think that she will ever hear the starter's gun." Asked if he believed "emailgate" would disqualify Clinton, Pickens said, "All of it. She has so many things." (Both Pickens and former House Speaker John Boehner have in recent days publicly floated scenarios in which Joe Biden swoops in at the DNC to wrest the nomination from Clinton's grip.)
On the left, Ralph Nader speculated obliquely on CNN that Sanders should remain in the race in case a Clinton scandal erupts, while Cenk Uygur, the host of the online news program The Young Turks and a Sanders supporter, stressed that the possibility of an indictment remains very much alive. "If you've got a dozen people investigating you, odds are they will indict you," Uygur said firmly. He went on to speculate that if FBI Director James Comey, a Republican, "wanted to do maximum damage to the Democrats, you know when he would announce the indictment? The last day of the Democratic convention."
Even Jane Sanders whose husband once famously said Americans are "sick and tired of hearing about [Clinton's] damn emails" expressed frustration with the pace of the FBI investigation of those emails. "It would be nice if the FBI moved it along," she told CBS last week.
Jackie Wilson Said
(4,176 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)The FBI is on her trail. They don't do chat.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)They just have unnamed sources leaking wrong information for month after month about the pending indictment.
Phlem
(6,323 posts)Phlem
(6,323 posts)CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)Frankly, I am tired of Democrats wrist slapping Democrats who want to talk about the presumed frontrunner of our Democratic primary and the FBI investigation into her email server.
This issue affects our entire party. Our election could be upended and thrown into chaos. This could be a crisis for the Democratic party.
Trying to position a year-long FBI investigation, as some "right-wing" issue--is a disservice to our entire Democratic party.
The FBI has granted immunity to Brian Pagliano, the man who built the server for Clinton. All you have to do is read the NDA that she signed when she became SOS to see that she violated that agreement, with the use of this private server.
You do a grave disservice to all Democrats with your attack on anyone who DARES to ask questions or discuss the fact that our frontrunner could be indicted during an election year.
Seriously...how dare you?!
randome
(34,845 posts)With an impartial 'jury' like this, who can doubt that Clinton is DOOMED!
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]
IamMab
(1,359 posts)Bjorn Against
(12,041 posts)The FBI clearly thinks there is something worth investigating and whether there is an indictment or not that is not a good thing for Hillary.
The powerful do not get indicted easily however so my guess is that she probably won't be indicted but that is just a guess, I can't say I would be surprised by an indictment I can only say that I am not expecting one.
The very fact that there is serious talk about an indictment right as we are moving into General Election season is most certainly not a good thing however, the party made a huge mistake in supporting her.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)paulthompson
(2,398 posts)Or are you that far behind the news? It's definitely an investigation at this point.
November 10, 2015: The FBI's inquiry into Clinton's emails has turned into a "full-blown investigation." Politico reports, "The FBI's recent moves (regarding Clinton's private emails_ suggest that its inquiry could have evolved from the preliminary fact-finding stage that the agency launches when it receives a credible referral, according to former FBI and Justice Department officials interviewed..." The FBI has been conducting interviews and gathering documents. Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the FBI, says, "This sounds to me like it's more than a preliminary inquiry; it sounds like a full-blown investigation. When you have this amount of resources going into it... I think it's at the investigative level." (Politico, 11/10/2015)
March 2, 2016 - March 3, 2016: The FBI's Clinton investigation is focusing on possible crimes. On March 2, 2016, The Washington Post reports, "The Clinton campaign has described the (FBI investigation into Clinton's emails) as a security review. But current and former officials in the FBI and at the Justice Department have said investigators are trying to determine whether a crime was committed." One former senior law enforcement official asks, "There was wrongdoing. But was it criminal wrongdoing?" (The Washington Post, 3/2/2016) The next day, CNN similarly reports, "FBI investigators are expected to shift their focus on whether the highly sensitive government information, including top secret and other classified matters, found on Clinton's private email server constitutes a crime." (CNN, 3/3/2016)
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)paulthompson
(2,398 posts)Do you have a source for that? That might be worth putting in the timeline.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)If I see it again, I'll send you the link. I don't remember which one it was.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)NewImproved Deal
(534 posts)from the Clinton machine.
Ash_F
(5,861 posts)...but rather for unlawfully keeping it in his desk drawer. Very analogous to the basement server.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)Whereas the people Hillary emailed her information around to did not.
paulthompson
(2,398 posts)I was going to mention that. People generally don't know that Petraeus's lover had a security clearance of some sort, although I don't know if it covered even top secret info. Not all security clearances are equal.
And we know at least in the case of Sid Blumenthal that Clinton gave classified info to someone with no security clearance at all. I think we're going to find more examples of that if the news reports are true about the FBI having recovered all of Clinton's deleted emails.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)ismnotwasm
(42,022 posts)Newsmax and Pickens. Jesus.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)ismnotwasm
(42,022 posts)I'm only here right now for the primary.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)But don't let us disturb you. . . just post your shit and begone.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)it would mean their votes meant NOTHING. The Second Runner Up always is awarded the PRIZE as when the FRONTRUNNER Falls or Fails.
paulthompson
(2,398 posts)This article quotes lawyer Abbe David Lowell. Lowell is clearly biased, having defended Bill Clinton in the impeachment case. But regardless, Lowell is also wrong in saying this:
"Secretary Clinton's use of an email server was (for correspondence with) her own staff and other officials. It was not (intended to be provided) to the press or to a foreign country or any other entity, so it would be ridiculous (for her to) even be considered charged under these laws."
So many "experts" don't know what they're talking about. For instance, what about the emails back and forth to Sid Blumenthal? A private citizen with no security clearance. Most of the 1000 plus emails between them were from Blumenthal to Clinton, but there were also emails from Clinton to Blumenthal where Clinton discussed classified info from him. Blumenthal was a reporter, so Lowell's claim is directly contradicted by the facts.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)jeepers
(314 posts)I have got to believe that the FBI has at the least talked with the secretary
She knows she can't assume the office
Nobody wants to indict or try her for reasons of appearance and national honor
A contested convention and a Clinton "loss" would be most forgiving.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)I watched a video today and it had a lot of it, but near the end, he said that Hillary would never be indicted. Because it would reflect on the whole Obama administration and they can't allow that to happen. But he said that her judgement in this means that she is not qualified to be President.
I don't like it but I think I may agree. She broke laws but I am not sure if she will be indicted.
CoffeeCat
(24,411 posts)Executive Order 13526 and 18 U.S.C Sec. 793(f) of the federal code make it unlawful to send or store classified information on personal email.
President Obama issued this executive order on Dec 29, 2009.
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)I'll have to keep that info for further use. Thanks
Tarc
(10,478 posts)T. Boone Pickens - primary contributor to the Swiftboating of Kerry in 2004
Newsmax - Ground Zero for white Christian homophobia
Ralph Nader - Still whining about being treated like a pariah following his 2000 spoiler run.
Cenk Uygur - A "bro" through and through"
Jane Sanders - spouse who does little but rote recitations of Bernie's talking points
Yea, fuck all of them and the horses they rode in on.
I think this is a big issue, but I'll admit they could have quoted much more credible "experts" than that. It was a pretty lame article, actually, very surface level understanding.
haikugal
(6,476 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Beacool
(30,253 posts)I'll keep my powder dry until it's not coming from some partisan hacks.
underthematrix
(5,811 posts)RufusTFirefly
(8,812 posts)After all, that sensible policy has worked so well in the past.
It has enabled us to learn from our mistakes and move on.
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)brooklynite
(94,916 posts)Vinca
(50,323 posts)apnu
(8,759 posts)Because of Hillary's past. She's had more than a "dozen" people investigating her before and they've come up with exactly nothing every time.
Having lived through Whitewater and all the made up scandals against the Clintons, and the only actionable thing ever turned up was Bill lying about cheating on his wife under oath (which all men, who do such things, do). It is difficult for me to take the Email scandal thing very seriously.
And given how badly the GOP has been burned by the Benghazi investigation, I think the general public is suspicious of this scandal too.
A few Bernie people here and some wacky Republicans out there who've pinned their hopes on an indictment do not make any kind of popular trend in America.