Done and done: Justice Dept says Hillary Clinton could erase emails if she liked

Hotair ^ | 09/12/2015 | Jazz Shaw

[SeekAndFind]

Prepare to be shocked. Regardless of what turns up in Hillary Clinton’s emails in the weeks and months to come, you won’t need to worry about the Justice Department coming along and dragging the former Secretary of State off in handcuffs. Deleting all of those emails was, in the opinion of the nation’s top cops, absolutely fine and dandy. (ABC News)

The Justice Department is affirming that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had the right to delete personal emails from her private server.

Government lawyers made the assertion in a court filing this week in a public records lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, an advocacy group. The legal filing says “there is no question” that Clinton could have deleted personal emails without agency supervision and could have done so even if she’d been using a government server.

Some additional coverage at Buzzfeed turns up this nugget. (Emphasis added)

The back-and-forth over the preservation order, as part of a narrow FOIA case, does not address the classification issues that still command sustained political coverage about Clinton.

But in terms of the email submission itself, the lawyers argue that, without reason to believe that Clinton was not honest and forthcoming in selecting and turning over her federal records, no government agency would be required to “recover deleted material based on unfounded speculation that responsive information had been deleted.” Such was the case with Clinton, the lawyers say.

That’s a fairly amazing argument summed up in only a few words. On the one hand they offer a nod to the fact that Clinton repeatedly lied about sending and receiving classified data on this account. (Classified? Why would you think that satellite photos of North Korean nuclear installations were classified?) But in the very next breath they argue that retention of all of the emails to sort out what was or wasn’t of value was not required because there was no reason to believe that Clinton was not honest and forthcoming.

The mind doth boggle.

Say… I wonder if the IRS would be willing to allow me to go through all of my tax documents, decide which ones were “relevant” and just toss the rest in the old burn barrel? I mean, there’s no reason to think I wasn’t being honest and forthcoming, so pesky little details such as those should be left to my discretion. Even more to the point, if something of interest to the police takes place on my property and it’s captured by my security cameras, I suppose I can decide which footage is relevant and worthy of retention. This is truly wild.

I’m sure it’s just my suspicious nature cropping up again, but doesn’t it seem like there are some folks in the Justice Department who prefer to take a decidedly hands off approach when it comes to Clinton? It was only this week when we discovered that they had been handed a case which seemed to clearly argue that Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin was going down for embezzlement, but they decided that prosecuting her would be more trouble than it was worth. One has to wonder just how far Clinton can push her luck before their interests are roused to the point of taking action.

[Crim]

Laws are for the little people....

[blackdog]

The DOJ said "Personal Emails". 95% of her emails were not personal. She cannot erase those which are government business, be they about staplers, or security services at embassies. Doing so is still a crime. So is the whole classified issue.

All this does is narrow things down. The Clintons' love to comingle their personal lives with government business. It makes discovery a nightmare. It is one of their deliberate tactics in how they operate. They bragged about it in the 90's. It makes any legal problem a "personal attack".

[Mercat]

I never expected an indictment. What is amazing is that it drug out as long as it did. Long enough to damage Hillary.

[Senator_Blutarski]

The issue has always been who it is that gets to define "private".

"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." (Joseph Stalin)

[MamaTexan]

I'd like to bring everyone's attention to the fact that, despite all the stories about 'the Justice Department said' not a single one of these stories mentions the name of the officer making the supposed official release. Everything is in the generic - 'government lawyer'.

Official findings require official paperwork...so where IS it?

[Liz]

Watch for an announcement.....Obama's two foundations (two that we know of) will suddenly receive huge donations for its wonderful do-good "HUMANITARIAN WORK."

OBAMA FOUNDATION ONE---OBAMA'S SISTER IS A BOARD MEMBER
OF OBAMA's PLANNED BILLION DOLLAR CHICAGO LIBRARY FOUNDATION

Maya Soetoro-Ng is President Obama’s sister and a specialist for the Matsunaga Institute for Peace. She is the co-founder of Our Public School, a non-profit that connects schools to their communities, and the co-creator of a peace education program implemented in schools and communities around Hawaii.

==================================================

OBAMA FOUNDATION TWO---OBAMA's KENYAN HALF-BROTHER HEADS
THE MUSLIM FOUNDATION--named for their father

Kenya-resident, Malik Obama in Muslim dress, holds up
photo of his half brother Obama in Muslim dress (left),
taken during Obama's earlier visit.

[Pietro]

This is why the DOJ needs to be separate from the Executive.

There is no way the admin is going to seriously investigate itself, in fact, quite the opposite. It will actively bury or cover-up any wrong doing making it complicit in the deep corruption of the republic.

[A Navy Vet]

I wouldn't lose hope yet. The Justice Department simply affirmed a person has the right to delete "personal" emails on their own private account/server.

The FBI is still investigating the emails Hellery turned over. They've found at least 2 that were Top Secret and undoubtedly will find more. Plus, there is the unlawful private server she used for State Department communications.

No, I'm not being naive about the DOJ statement, just saying this is not over. If the FBI ia so corrupted under Opeaser's Justice Department, they wouldn't have even gone this far.

Also, the FBI are is not stupid. Sure they're looking into others' emails received by Hellery. Until we hear of whistle-blowers that the FBI is dragging its feet and/or suppressing evidence, then I will assume the Agency is doing its job. Notice that the DOJ did not shut down the investigation, which is within its authority.

Of course, Hellery's handlers will try to turn this simple DOJ statement in their favor. Doubt it will help. Stand by...

[Lawgvr1955]

Democrats always stick together, regardless of the issue or situation. Comparing their 100% “group think” to the Party in Orwell’s 1984 is wrong. They are more like the Borg in Star Trek. All unthinking loyal members of the hive collective.

[cotton]

And honest and forthright drug dealers have every right to flush what ever they deem as personal down the toilet when the cop arrive! Why would one think they would flush any incriminating evidence?

[P-Marlowe]

This country is corrupt to the core. We are officially no better than some third world dictatorship.

America RIP

[sport]

You knew or should have known, that nothing would happen to Hillary. The only time either or Bill will face justice will be on the White Throne Judgment Day. Satan pleads with God each day not to send them to him.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

This smells so strongly of far reaching corruption that it is not even funny.

[TheStickman]

Part that makes all of this so incredibly frustrating is Obama will pardon all of them before he leaves office. IF he leaves office.

[onedoug]

Okay for big-shot democrats.

[zzwhale]

she is still guilty of having CLASSIFIED MATERIAL on a personal computer...
THAT IS NOT GOING AWAY

BUT AGAIN WE SEE THERE IS no justice in this administration
and we are NOTHING BUT A BANANA REPUBLIC...

what about the TAXES THE CLINTOON “FOUNDATION” OWES
what about the false filings they made until caught
what about the offshore kickback money
what about only approx 15% of the clintoon foundation money getting to the charitable recipients...

[Menthops]

I think this is the beginning of the end of this “scandal”. The Justice Department is not going to countenance dragging out this whole matter, the investigation is going to go nowhere.

Now, Democrats and progressives can rally around the Hillary campaign, and the GOPe can breathe easier now that Hillary will defeat their Cruz/Trump nemesis.

[Gritty]

Instead of haughtily dismissing this, the DOJ should be prosecuting it under the RICO statutes. The fact they won't tells us as much about the criminals running the DOJ as it does about the criminals in the Clinton Mob.

The entire criminal enterprise should be prosecuted and hopefully they will in a Trump/Cruz Administration - if the country lasts that long.

[Chgogal]

Darn right. When my company was under subpoena we were told in no uncertain terms, “You delete, you wear orange.”

[doug from upland]

Personal is the key. We are still to find out if she wiped clean classified emails. There was a big gap around the time of Benghazi.

Did Obama’s DOJ do this to show Hillary it has her back. When the real crimes emerge regarding the classified stuff, they can tell Hillary they are sorry but there was no choice.