Karnal wrote on Sep 8
th, 2022 at 7:56pm:
Bobby, Secretaries of State send top secret emails all the time. Hillary sent 22, but I'm curious.
Do you think Hillary should be prosecuted for that?
She had them in an illegal place - her home computer/ server.
They were insecure from hackers.
Lock her up.
The 2 cases are amazingly dissimilar, Almost the opposite is true when comparing them. All the elements needed for prosecution clearly exist in the Trump case and not the Clinton one.
In our system, the prosecutors make the decisions about whether charges are appropriate based on evidence the FBI has helped collect. Although we don’t normally make public our recommendations to the prosecutors, we frequently make recommendations and engage in productive conversations with prosecutors about what resolution may be appropriate, given the evidence. In this case, given the importance of the matter, I think unusual transparency is in order.
Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case. Prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before bringing charges. There are obvious considerations, like the strength of the evidence, especially regarding intent. Responsible decisions also consider the context of a person’s actions, and how similar situations have been handled in the past.
In looking back at our investigations into mishandling or removal of classified information,
we cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts. All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of:
clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here.To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.
As a result, although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this,
we are expressing to Justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case.https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director... Quote:With respect to the thousands of e-mails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received
Quote:With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked