Posted on 03/15/2015 8:39:13 PM PDT by doug from upland
It’s always nice to know, as I sit here writing, that somebody out there might be listening. This week, I know for sure. My last column essentially asked: What’s the big deal about Hillary Clinton’s emails if she’s turning them over anyway?
Thanks to everyone who wrote to make it clear just what a big deal this is for them.
And then, in classic Clinton damage-control mode, Hillary herself held a news conference at the United Nations on Tuesday to try to answer the critics.
In this case, however, rather than putting out the fire, I fear the Clinton Machine may be fueling it.
Clinton acknowledged that using two email addresses — one for official government business and one for private matters — “might have been smarter.” For sure. But the Clinton office has refused to turn over the server itself (where the emails and the forensic evidence as to when they were written and where they were sent, etc., are stored), giving Republicans (and my new pen pals) reason to scream bloody murder.
One of the first things I tell my clients is to be careful about emails. People write in emails things they would never actually write down on paper. They speak in shorthand that may make sense at the time, but sounds pretty bad when read later. They are full of boasting and criticism and loose language. And of course, the first thing the government asks for when it investigates the company or its executives are the emails.
In the corporate world, it’s common to convict an individual or company based not on evidence the government has collected independently, not on secret witnesses or ex-employees, but solely on their own emails.
No one is better at damage control than the Clintons, so you have to wonder why they haven’t just handed over everything, hook, line and sinker, all at once, putting out the fire with the sheer weight of the documents. I have no inside information, but my guess is that there’s no smoking gun on any of the servers, that there is no smoking gun at all, and this is a controversy that centers on talking points for the Sunday talk shows — but some of the back and forth correspondence probably would have been better communicated by telephone.
My guess is there’s nothing in there about the Clinton marriage or her political ambitions that we don’t already know — good and bad. So why not turn it all over?
By not handing over the server, Clinton has invited just the sort of speculation she doesn’t need. Instead of putting the story to bed, as we say, she has given it new legs.
According to Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., “This is truly about getting the facts out for these poor families and the American people.”
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who chairs the Benghazi investigative committee in the House of Representatives, used the failure to produce the server as a justification for further investigation.
“Without access to Secretary Clinton’s personal server, there is no way for the State Department to know it has acquired all documents that should be made public,” he said, adding that there remain “serious questions about the security of the system she employed from a national security standpoint” — although it appears that it was at least safe from Edward Snowden, which is more than can be said for the official servers.
But Gowdy also now has an excuse to call Clinton to testify again — and to do so without looking like a partisan bully.
It’s unlikely any of this will end up having a bearing on the 2016 race. Absent a smoking gun, we tend to have short attention spans. Clinton will get by this.
But privacy is something you don’t get if you’re running for president, as the Clintons know better than anyone, and Hillary Clinton’s desire to preserve hers is just not going to work in the current climate.
— Susan Estrich is a best-selling author, the Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science at the USC Law Center and was campaign manager for 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis. Click here to contact her or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are her own.
hey Susan, she did turn them over - printed not electronic.
Bea-u-ti-ful.
As expected, Susan Estrich is a strong supporter and enabler of Clintonian malfeasance.
What a loser...
Susan Estrich?
Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. Didn’t know she was still around.
When Bill Clinton was becoming a national name and the 'bimbo eruptions' became more prevalent Hillary got a hold of Ms. Estrich and not only did the book tour suddenly come to an end, Susan Estrich became a big supporter of Bill Clinton.
...any guesses on what transpired between her and Hillary? .... money? ...threats?
The younger generation includes Marie Harf and not much else.
No bench.
“I have no inside information, but my guess is that there’s no smoking gun on any of the servers, that there is no smoking gun at all, and this is a controversy that centers on talking points for the Sunday talk shows — but some of the back and forth correspondence probably would have been better communicated by telephone.”
Yeah right.
LOLOLOL..
That witch is still alive?
I remember her. She was Michael Dukakis’ main spokeswoman and strategist. Then she taught law courses at USC.
Wait, it’s not Halloween is it????
“but my guess is that there’s no smoking gun on any of the servers, that there is no smoking gun at all,”
And Susan, WHY would you make such a guess?
Is it due to Hillary’s squeaky clean track record?
Simply stated, Hillary BROKE THE LAW with malice of forethought.
The idea that printing selected e-mails and then declaring yourself transparent and compliant, is a joke.
My money has it that the server is NOT where she said it was and that by now its been truly destroyed.
If I’m correct, she belongs in jail for destroying government records and obstruction of justice.
Somewhere it can be proven that she either sent or received classified e-mail on her system, based upon records of other people’s e-mail.
Yah, Susan Estrich, Susan Estrich. She is the libtroll
with the grating Carol Channing voice. Hard to forget.
Like all those of her ilk she refuses to make a connection
between Hillary’s dubious behavior before and after
Benghazi (anti-Islamic video for example) and this
personal email server kabuki theater that Hillary
created. Estrich would have no such hesitation if this were
a GOP scandal. The funny thing is that the worst (or best)
of HC State Dept emails might have nothing to do with
Benghazi.
Sometime I can tolerate her talk but most of the time it is difficult..
She claims she herself was RAPED, BUT YET SHE DIDN'T SUPPORT Juanita Broadwich that Clinton was accused of raping...and Juanita had a very believable interview during the early 1990’s. Hillary tried to destroy her. and to this day I believe Juanita side of the tale..
THUS MAKING BILL CLINTON AN ACCUSED RAPIST...to me he will always carry that title...
Well, there's no fuel like an old fuel.
"but my guess is that there’s no smoking gun on any of the servers"
Hold that thought princess. While the server might have disappeared, if Hillary used her private email for official or classified purposes, there just might be people who hate her who will "accidentally" forward copies to Gowdy, assuming it hasn't already been done.
“Didn’t know she was still around.”
How many bottles of cheap whiskey and cartons of Marlboros later?
This is like carbon dating, bringing this woman out.
feh...
I forget the details now, but there was a very attractive woman that he propositioned. When she refused he beat the crap out of her in some parking lot.
This was years ago. He’s not just a rapist. This is one very sick man.
It has always bothered me that he got away with what he did. And his wife running interference and actually intimidating the women he abused?
Hillary would have to get ten upgrades just to be trailer trash.
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