Hillary Broke the Law and It’s All My Fault

 

Big news Monday night as the New York Times reported Hillary Clinton used a personal email account to conduct all official State Department business. This appears to be a violation of federal law since such communications must be kept as an official agency record.

Twitter was abuzz with commentary, with many reporters incredulous.

Shock of shocks, I responded to the BuzzFeed Politics journalist with a mild critique.

It’s obvious why Clinton and so many other Obama officials get away with breaking the law. The D.C. press corps has little interest in holding their favorite president accountable. Sure, this White House might have a flaw here or there but he means well, and did you hear what crazy Todd Akin said about dinosaurs and contraception?

By pointing out this obvious bias, I broke Beltway etiquette. Team Journolist lashed out.

Actually, the Fourth Estate didn’t expose this. Trey Gowdy did:

The existence of Mrs. Clinton’s personal email account was discovered by a House committee investigating the attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi as it sought correspondence between Mrs. Clinton and her aides about the attack.

The Daily Beast’s Jackie Kucinich admitted as much. But now that I had mildly criticized a fellow Beltway reporter, I had to be mocked.

A reporter from the New York Times jumped in as well:

Rosie Gray’s editor joined in the fun by mocking Breitbart (one day after the anniversary of his death, incidentally):

Four highly paid Acela elites ganging up on a lowly Ricochet editor? I thanked them all for holding me accountable for daring to question the Fourth Estate. Confessore said that was “lazy cynical [expletive]” and issued a long rant ridiculing anyone who suggests the media is biased.

It always amazes me how reporters — professionals dedicated to questioning others — have such thin skin when they themselves are questioned. Unlike these pros, I was calm, polite and used no profanity; they still reacted with rage. Despite their claim to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” their actions show otherwise.

There was a single Twitter headshake wondering how one of the most powerful people on the planet got away with violating federal law for years. This was followed by a barrage of ridicule, mockery and outrage attacking a lowly citizen who typed “Asked the journalist.”

The D.C. press corps is so unsettled by offering even the mildest concern about Democrats that they must quickly return to their comfort zone mocking proles. There is little interest in questioning the rich and powerful, it’s all about defending their tribe. The Clintons certainly don’t view Gray, Confessore, et al., as fellow elites, but this only makes these reporters more desperate to flaunt the tribal markers.

Kudos to the New York Times for grudgingly holding a liberal accountable now and then. But if you want to see zeal, wait until Gov. Walker says something about evolution.

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  1. MikeHs Inactive
    MikeHs
    @MikeHs

    What a bunch of pathetic losers.

    • #1
  2. Beowulf's accountant Member
    Beowulf's accountant
    @

    But you have been through Navy nuclear power school and they have only been through j school, so lighten up on them a little.

    • #2
  3. Ricochet Member
    Ricochet
    @EustaceCScrubb

    I believe Monica Lewinsky is still awaiting your apology, Jon.

    • #3
  4. user_199279 Coolidge
    user_199279
    @ChrisCampion

    It’s actually pretty amazing to watch Journolist in the wild.  Presented with facts about a darling of the left, it becomes a Monty Python-esque speeded-up skit that mostly involves people loudly crashing into one another.

    The fourth estate.  Let’s call it something else.  Maybe the Leech Estate.  If your livelihood depends on defending the people you’re supposed to be holding accountable, you don’t have integrity.  What you have is a cash machine that allows you to live a comfy lifestyle without having to actually consider the long-term ramifications of your actions.

    It’s a tired cliche’, but it still applies – what would those same tools on Twitter be saying about a Republican SecState who did the following:

    a) Used personal emails to avoid a record of correspondence while SecState.

    b)  Secured multi-million dollar “gifts” to a spouse’s foundation from foreign countries while SecState.

    c)  Openly lied about what happened at a US embassy where 4 people were killed, including an ambassador.

    Actually, just those three things right there should preclude this aging windbag from being considered a candidate for dog catcher, but there she is, Miss America, running for President.  Again.  And there shall be no questioning of her actions by the lumpen proletariat.

    Or the occasional journalist who asks the questions the “real” journalists will never, ever ask.

    • #4
  5. Ricochet Member
    Ricochet
    @DougWatt

    One does not receive invitations to the best parties in DC or Manhattan by pursuing stories that involve the truth about malfeasance in the Democrat party. Christmas during the last six years must have been a lonely time Jon. No kale appetizers from the White House farm for you.

    • #5
  6. Ricochet Inactive
    Ricochet
    @MatthewSinger

    <sarcasm>But, but… its a woman’s turn to be president.  Nothing else matters. </sarcasm>

    • #6
  7. Ricochet Inactive
    Ricochet
    @GoldwatersRevenge

    If nothing else the Clintons are consistent. Deceive, obfuscate, lie, shift blame, deny………

    • #7
  8. Nick Stuart Inactive
    Nick Stuart
    @NickStuart

    May have missed it, but as far as I know we still don’t know who hired Craig Livingston.

    • #8
  9. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Someone (Washington Examiner maybe) followed up last night showing the server for her private email account was set up a week before her confirmation hearings started. She intended to do this illegally the whole time. I’m sure she’ll use the ignorance defense, but comeon! this woman has done nothing except work for government (with the occasional private, free lance fraud) her whole life. In most government services even checking a personal email account is very limited if not banned outright.

    I read through the exchange last night. I was sure where to congratulate you or offer condolences for making Twitter fall on your head.

    • #9
  10. user_645 Member
    user_645
    @Claire

    It’s not just the journalists I’m wondering about.

    How many people received an e-mail from her personal account and either failed to think, “That is a national security breach, which is bad,” or immediately thought, “That is a national security breach, which is fascinating?”

    Isn’t State Department e-mail supposed to be encrypted? In a rather different way than a private e-mail account? And for very good reasons?

    I mean–this is beyond, “The journalists didn’t notice,” isn’t it?

    Does anyone know what kind of personal e-mail account the Secretary of State was using to send what you have to assume everyone in the world wants to know, but shouldn’t?

    • #10
  11. Son of Spengler Member
    Son of Spengler
    @SonofSpengler

    The King Prawn:Someone (Washington Examiner maybe) followed up last night showing the server for her private email account was set up a week before her confirmation hearings started. She intended to do this illegally the whole time. I’m sure she’ll use the ignorance defense, but comeon! this woman has done nothing except work for government (with the occasional private, free lance fraud) her whole life. In most government services even checking a personal email account is very limited if not banned outright.

    Can you imagine what a young Hillary Clinton would have done if someone in the Nixon administration had been discovered violating records rules so egregiously?

    • #11
  12. The King Prawn Inactive
    The King Prawn
    @TheKingPrawn

    Does anyone know what kind of personal e-mail account the Secretary of State was using to send what you have to assume everyone in the world wants to know, but shouldn’t?

    A server was set up “clintonemail.com.” I’d find the story talking about it but work is making unnecessary demands of me today like actually doing something.

    • #12
  13. Ricochet Member
    Ricochet
    @OldBathos

    You would think GoHillster16@clintonemail.com would have raised some eyebrows.

    What are the odds that the physical location of the server for CLINTONEMAIL.COM is a non-extradition country and the admin is a former Arkansas official or Madison Guaranty employee?

    Most noteworthy is the fact that (a) she thought in advance not to trust the Department she would head to guard her email and (b) she assumed (correctly) that no one would call her out for doing this. It is that old Clinton formula of instinctive corruption and spectacular arrogance that we all love.

    The same gelded scribes who are taking credit for the Gowdy leak would have been demanding jail time in an endless series of followup reports if Dick Cheney or John Ashcroft had used a yahoo adress from a govt computer to send a birthday greeting.

    • #13
  14. Son of Spengler Member
    Son of Spengler
    @SonofSpengler

    I wonder if Hillary got a heads-up from the NYT editors. Has she been out of the public eye lately because she’s been working frantically to plan her response/damage control?

    And what are the chances that MSM journalists, finally waking up to the fact that Dems don’t have a Candidate B, will have circled the wagons around her by January 2016?

    • #14
  15. Ricochet Inactive
    Ricochet
    @WardRobles

    Why so much fuss over a simple email account? Ms. Clinton merely wanted her emails archived with the same care that her Rose Law Firm billing records received.

    • #15
  16. RushBabe49 Thatcher
    RushBabe49
    @RushBabe49

    Who else noticed the “aptronym” Confessore?!  Perfect for a “journalist”, don’t you think?  And, why don’t we all start using scare quotes around the term journalist from now on, since they aren’t any more.

    • #16
  17. Z in MT Member
    Z in MT
    @ZinMT

    I know for a fact that some intelligence related agencies use Google software for their official email services.

    Also, encryption software for email is pretty simple to implement using PGP.

    The real scandal here is the attempt to circumvent Freedom of Information Act and Congressional Oversight.

    But since the EPA doirector didn’t suffer consequences for conducting business under an email alias, what do we expect will happen to Earth Queen Bubbette.

    • #17
  18. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Chris Campion:It’s actually pretty amazing to watch Journolist in the wild. Presented with facts about a darling of the left, it becomes a Monty Python-esque speeded-up skit that mostly involves people loudly crashing into one another.

    The fourth estate. Let’s call it something else. Maybe the Leech Estate. If your livelihood depends on defending the people you’re supposed to be holding accountable, you don’t have integrity. What you have is a cash machine that allows you to live a comfy lifestyle without having to actually consider the long-term ramifications of your actions.

    It’s a tired cliche’, but it still applies – what would those same tools on Twitter be saying about a Republican SecState who did the following:

    a) Used personal emails to avoid a record of correspondence while SecState.

    b) Secured multi-million dollar “gifts” to a spouse’s foundation from foreign countries while SecState.

    c) Openly lied about what happened at a US embassy where 4 people were killed, including an ambassador.

    Actually, just those three things right there should preclude this aging windbag from being considered a candidate for dog catcher, but there she is, Miss America, running for President. Again. And there shall be no questioning of her actions by the lumpen proletariat.

    Or the occasional journalist who asks the questions the “real” journalists will never, ever ask.

    d) After having lied (over flag-draped coffins no less), and having the incident reviewed, whines “what difference, at this point, does it make,” which is journolist-ese for “defend me, o mighty myrmidons of the media.”

    • #18
  19. PHCheese Inactive
    PHCheese
    @PHCheese

    The foundation of Hillarys wealth is cattle futures in another words Bull S

    • #19
  20. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Is this part of the official record? I suppose it depends on what the definition of “is” is.

    • #20
  21. user_86050 Inactive
    user_86050
    @KCMulville

    As others have said, if this kind of journalism is the “first draft of history” then I’m really skeptical about history.

    She must turn over every email she ever received since conducting official business on that account, because these regulations were put in place to make sure that all official business was transparent. She can’t just skirt that regulation. And I want to see everything; she can’t decide what emails to select or redact, she has to turn over everything, whole and complete. That includes the Nigerian prince who begs for money, as well as as any sex toy satisfaction survey followups.

    • #21
  22. user_82762 Inactive
    user_82762
    @JamesGawron

    Jon,

    Do you remember Koskinen’s complete denial of the existence of the backup emails at IRS. Are we completely certain that this Hillary private email account isn’t just a cover story. That she most certainly had an email account at State and it has been deleted. If this is true then there are backups somewhere that still exist.

    Why should I trust this after Koskinen, head of the IRS, sat in front of a Congressional Committee and lied bald faced. Repeating his lies through a series of direct questioning.

    The defensiveness of the idiot MSM is the least of their failings. They don’t do their job period.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #22
  23. Fricosis Guy Listener
    Fricosis Guy
    @FricosisGuy

    Fappy Duck was hard at work test marketing Clinton cover stories:


    FappyDuck

    • #23
  24. MikeHs Inactive
    MikeHs
    @MikeHs

    Nearly 4 years after “Benghazi” and now 2 years after her leaving the State Dept., and we are now finally finding out about this, from the House Committee, and not the “Press.”  Unbelievable.  I hope Congressman Gowdy goes after this like gangbusters and nails the press’s favorite politician, her cronies and the embarrassment that is this banana-republic administration to the wall.

    • #24
  25. Son of Spengler Member
    Son of Spengler
    @SonofSpengler

    MikeHs:Nearly 4 years after “Benghazi” and now 2 years after her leaving the State Dept., and we are now finally finding out about this, from the House Committee, and not the “Press.” Unbelievable. I hope Congressman Gowdy goes after this like gangbusters and nails the press’s favorite politician, her cronies and the embarrassment that is this banana-republic administration to the wall.

    But who would prosecute? Obama’s DOJ has not exactly been steadfast in investigating and prosecuting executive branch malfeasance.

    • #25
  26. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    The US needs its own version of Private Eye and Frank Magazine. The Frank section devoted to the egomania of the ink-stained-wretchoisie is fantastic.

    • #26
  27. Ryan M Inactive
    Ryan M
    @RyanM

    Can I be a sexist male for a minute?  Rosie Gray has one of those pictures where you think she might be pretty good-looking, so you click on it, and then you click away from it, disappointed.

    • #27
  28. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    PHCheese:The foundation of Hillarys wealth is cattle futures in another words Bull S

    You can always use the greek version: tauroscat

    • #28
  29. Misthiocracy Member
    Misthiocracy
    @Misthiocracy

    Ryan M:Can I be a sexist male for a minute?

    I have no doubt of it.

    ;-)

    • #29
  30. Autistic License Coolidge
    Autistic License
    @AutisticLicense

    They’re understandably defensive.  By the way, did any of the journolists say where their own company is publishing this item?  Or was it enough to let it die on the AP feed?

    • #30
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