The Power Line team gets down to business with the latest Democrat scandals: Hillary Clinton’s “clear cut” violation of State Department rules and the Justice Department’s criminal corruption charges against Senator Robert Menendez. 3kgV0RJE_400x400

The team expires several important questions. Did the White House know about ClintonEmail.com since August? What’s Clinton’s most ludicrous claim about her email? And is the Obama administration breaking the news of her email account to silence Hillary on the debate over a deal with Iran? Could this happen to a better former Secretary of State? What difference at this point does it make?

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There are 16 comments.

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  1. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Obama owns Hillary now.  One wrong step, one bad word against Obama, and he’ll come down on her (maybe Bill too) with criminal charges just as he did against Menendez.

    Obama also owns the Clinton Foundation now.  Failure to use some of those funds as he sees fit will also result in charges.

    My guess is that Hillary will play ball in the short term, but watch for Clinton, Inc. to find a way out . . .

    • #1
  2. crizzyboo Inactive
    crizzyboo
    @crizzyboo

    Stad:Obama owns Hillary now. One wrong step, one bad word against Obama, and he’ll come down on her (maybe Bill too) with criminal charges just as he did against Menendez.

    She’s got a lot of dirt on him as well though… there may be controls on his enthusiasm.

    At the very least, Obama must know that she’s tracked and documented a king’s ransom of scandals… she may be able to reveal one that doesn’t directly implicate herself, and take him down without wrinkling her pantsuit.

    • #2
  3. Chris Member
    Chris
    @Chris

    The idea (@ 10:50) that “all things being equal most bureaucrats would rather operate in secret” and being “a control freak” is an excuse for not using your employer’s email system is laughable.  Especially when your employer is the US government (i.e., the taxpayers).

    The fact that many Dems will use this or any other fig leaf (perhaps successfully) is just depressing.

    • #3
  4. user_199279 Coolidge
    user_199279
    @ChrisCampion

    Let’s assume for a second that Hillary did the offsite server thing for a reason, because she obviously knew this was against the rules if not the law.  If you take that assumption, then the private email was done for probably a few reasons:

    1.  There might be communications that would implicate Hillary in some way.

    2.  There might be communications that would implicate Barry in some way, and she could use that later.

    That’s it.  Those are the reasons. This is Hillary Hardball.  She knowingly violated the law for her own political benefit, and probably personal benefit as well, considering the relationships between foreign entities and the Clinton foundation.

    Her whole political career should come crashing down for this, and she can be relegated to the ashbin of history, where embittered failures go to be forgotten.

    • #4
  5. user_656019 Coolidge
    user_656019
    @RayKujawa

    Chris Campion:Let’s assume for a second that Hillary did the offsite server thing for a reason, because she obviously knew this was against the rules if not the law. If you take that assumption, then the private email was done for probably a few reasons:

    1. There might be communications that would implicate Hillary in some way.

    2. There might be communications that would implicate Barry in some way, and she could use that later.

    That’s it. Those are the reasons. This is Hillary Hardball. She knowingly violated the law for her own political benefit, and probably personal benefit as well, considering the relationships between foreign entities and the Clinton foundation.

    Her whole political career should come crashing down for this, and she can be relegated to the ashbin of history, where embittered failures go to be forgotten.

    Given that there is the potential for abuse stated above, there is defense for secrecy in the Executive branch of government in Federalist 70.

    “That unity is conducive to energy will not be disputed. Decision, activity, secrecy, and dispatch will generally characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent degree than the prodeedings of any greater number; and in proportion as the number is increased, these qualities will be diminished.” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 70.

    State Department policy would not carry the force of law. For reasons stated by Hamilton, exemptions would and should apply to those at the very top of the State Department, i.e. Secretary of State, carrying on the most sensitive discussions and negotiations with our foreign allies and adversaries.

    • #5
  6. kmtanner Inactive
    kmtanner
    @kmtanner

    Here in Finland has been reported only that hillary will release those emails. No one thought her that her tweet about it was funny.

    • #6
  7. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    How coincidental that Senator Menendez got charged by DOJ just days after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to the Congress, and Menendez is the biggest critic of the Iran Nuclear deal, and has a bipartisan bill ready for a vote…..

    • #7
  8. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Ray Kujawa:

    State Department policy would not carry the force of law. For reasons stated by Hamilton, exemptions would and should apply to those at the very top of the State Department, i.e. Secretary of State, carrying on the most sensitive discussions and negotiations with our foreign allies and adversaries.

    Seriously? “most sensitive negotiations with our foreign allies and adversaries“…

    On a kitchen email server? You don’t think it was compromised by FSB, DRG, SAVAK, etc etc?   This was both stupid AND criminal.

    • #8
  9. Raw Prawn Member
    Raw Prawn
    @RawPrawn

    I am only surprised that private server has not been relocated from Hillary’s home to the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

    • #9
  10. Ansonia Member
    Ansonia
    @Ansonia

    All this talk on Facebook and in the news about the e-mails really does deflect attention from anything written about foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation. And why would the e-mail story get more attention than this that appeared in the Wall Street Journal and then in Real Clear Politics: How America was Misled on al Qaeda’s Demise, by Stephen F. Hays and Thomas Joscelyn ?

    • #10
  11. user_483582 Inactive
    user_483582
    @PepeLePew

    To persuade those who let their emotions control them, you need to put this in their language, so to speak. For example, you could ask any woman (especially one watching The View) what she would feel on discovering her husband had an email account he kept secret from her. Wouldn’t she feel betrayed, that the secret email account is a sure sign of his dishonesty in a whole range of behavior? Then maybe your listener can see how we all feel due to Hillary’s betrayal.

    • #11
  12. Ricochet Coolidge
    Ricochet
    @Manny

    Kozak

    How coincidental that Senator Menendez got charged by DOJ just days after Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to the Congress, and Menendez is the biggest critic of the Iran Nuclear deal, and has a bipartisan bill ready for a vote…..

    My thought exactly.  When I looked at the charges yesterday, I didn’t think they were all that corrupt.  I guess the devil is in the details as to what specifically he did, but on the surface it looked like a hatchet job for going against the diety in the white house.

    • #12
  13. Ansonia Member
    Ansonia
    @Ansonia

    Re comment # 11

    As a woman who watches The View (Well, I’ve seen it once or twice.) I would say hearing about Hillarymail is like discovering your fiancé set up a secret email account after getting engaged to you. But reading “How America was Misled on al Qaeda’s Demise”is more like accidentally discovering good evidence that your husband is The Green River Killer.

    • #13
  14. Indaba Member
    Indaba
    @

    What amazes me about email protocol is surely the government have a Compliance Department?

    Thanks to the US Government, my place of work, an international bank, is loaded up with compliance people. We have strict protocol for use of emails and the Internet.

    I would be fired for breaching compliance if I used my iphone for work and not my Blackberry. My emails can be read at anytime. This makes it simple to make the right business decisions.

    So where is Hilary;s compliance department? Why is she not, at the very least, having a time out?

    Wow, America, your credibility as a well run government is diminishing rapidly.

    While I am at it, Hilary’s husband’s sexual practices with young women is now being run through popular media, such as in The Good Wife. Again, People seem to forget Monica was an employee!!! That was a work situation which would have been looked at poorly if a paid CEO was frolicking with an employee and making business calls while enjoying himself. It was not just an affair.

    Why is it the Clintons do not have the rules of good governance applied to them?

    • #14
  15. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Indaba:What amazes me about email protocol is surely the government have a Compliance Department?

    Thanks to the US Government, my place of work, an international bank, is loaded up with compliance people. We have strict protocol for use of emails and the Internet.

    I would be fired for breaching compliance if I used my iphone for work and not my Blackberry. My emails can be read at anytime. This makes it simple to make the right business decisions.

    So where is Hilary;s compliance department? Why is she not, at the very least, having a time out?

    Wow, America, your credibility as a well run government is diminishing rapidly.

    While I am at it, Hilary’s husband’s sexual practices with young women is now being run through popular media, such as in The Good Wife. Again, People seem to forget Monica was an employee!!! That was a work situation which would have been looked at poorly if a paid CEO was frolicking with an employee and making business calls while enjoying himself. It was not just an affair.

    Why is it the Clintons do not have the rules of good governance applied to them?

    Was not EVERY person who corresponded with Queen Hillary using their @state.gov email also culpable for not reporting this breach in security when they got emails from hdr22@clintonemail ?

    • #15
  16. user_370242 Inactive
    user_370242
    @Mikescapes

    I started a thread “Menendez Bust” under My Feed. Didn’t cause much of a stir in the comments section. Did these Power Line guys steal my “Bust” line? I bet they did.

    So here I get another chance. Right now Email Gate is gobbling up the headlines. As a real Jersey Boy I’d like to put in a word for Sen. Menendez. He’s being targeted because he went up against Obama on a negotiated settlement with Iran. Is he guilty of illegal conduct in connection with his amigo Melgen. Yeah, probably. So what? It’s NJ. If he’d kept his mouth shut about Iran, he’d never have been indicted. Whatever Menendez did or didn’t do, selective prosecution is far worse. I’m not a fan of Menendez (he’s always been something of a ladrone), but this is retaliation on the highest level. It’s hypocracy of the lowest order.

    This Podcast is split between Hillary and Menendez. Yet, I don’t see one comment about the Menendez bust. The indictment of Menendez is of deep concern as it strikes at the heart of law enforcement. The DOJ operates outside the constraints of professionally responsible enforcement. It’s what lawyers call Malicious Prosecution. Who is Holder to question anyone’s ethics? He’s nothing more than a political hatchet-man for his boss Obama.

    The lawyers at DOJ have no compunction acting outside the scope of their authority. Constitutional law simply doesn’t matter. They investigate police departments looking for patterns of racial discrimination. They invariably find it since their minds were made up in advance. Nationalizing our  police departments, regardless of the facts, is the goal. So jumping on one Senator who didn’t go along with the script is just another day at the office.

    • #16
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