https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/03/nominating-a-presidential-candidate-under-active-fbi-investigation-is-an-incredibly-risky-gamble


Nominating a Presidential Candidate Under Active FBI Investigation Is An Incredibly Risky Gamble

Unless, of course, there is some kind of separate system of justice for the powerful…

by Nathan J. Robinson

The 2016 election has many bizarre aspects, but surely one of the most bizarre is the fact that one of the main presidential candidates is under active investigation by the FBI, and that this is somehow being treated as unimportant or inconsequential.

Of course, everyone knows that Hillary Clinton has a pending FBI investigation, and everyone has a vague sense that it is continuing to grow rather than disappear, and that theoretically the possible consequences include indictment and prosecution. But for some reason a major investigation concerning a presidential candidate isn’t being widely treated as the potentially catastrophic scandal and electability risk that it is. Nominating a presidential candidate who could potentially be subject to prosecution under the Espionage Act should seem like an insane gamble for a party to take. Why, then, isn’t it being taken more seriously?

There’s no mystery as to the basic facts, which by now are wearingly familiar to all. When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she stored much of her email on a private server, free of ordinary oversight and without the government’s security protocols in place. While Clinton insisted none of these unsecured emails contained classified information, according to a Washington Post investigation “more than 100 of the emails that contained classified information were sent by Mrs Clinton herself using her private server.”

The government takes its classification regime extremely seriously, and the FBI has confirmed that it is conducting a review of unspecified scope as part of “ongoing law enforcement efforts.” And the FBI investigation is only “foremost among a half-dozen inquiries and legal proceedings” examining the matter. In addition to the FBI’s investigation, “there are continuing inquiries into Mrs. Clinton’s emails by the inspector general of the State Department....


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Examine, for instance, the case of Bryan Nishimura, a Naval reservist who deployed during Afghanistan during 2007 and 2008. Nishimura was prosecuted when he stored classified information on unsecured devices. In its press release announcing Nishimura’s plea agreement, the FBI summarized the facts as follows:

In his role as a Regional Engineer for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Nishimura had access to classified briefings and digital records that could only be retained and viewed on authorized government computers. Nishimura, however, caused the materials to be downloaded and stored on his personal, unclassified electronic devices and storage media. He carried such classified materials on his unauthorized media when he traveled off-base in Afghanistan and, ultimately, carried those materials back to the United States at the end of his deployment. In the United States, Nishimura continued to maintain the information on unclassified systems in unauthorized locations, and copied the materials onto at least one additional unauthorized and unclassified system… The investigation did not reveal evidence that Nishimura intended to distribute classified information to unauthorized personnel.

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