Sure enough - the fix was in for Hillary

By storing sensitive government information on her private server, which didn’t even have security features on it for some months, Hilary almost certainly violated at least three federal statutes 18 U.S. Code § 798 — disclosure of classified information, 18 USC 793 — gathering, transmitting or losing defense information and 18 U.S. Code § 2071 — concealment, removal or mutilation generally of classified material. She also violated the Federal records Act by deleting many of those records.  But the FBI announced today that they would recommend no action against her – not even a fine or withdrawing of her security clearances.

General Petraeus, another Washington insider who got special treatment, gave notebooks full of classified material to his biographer/mistress. He pleaded guilty on a misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information and received no jail time but paid a $100,000 fine.

On the other hand ordinary underlings, without insider pull, got much harsher treatment:

·         Bryan Nishimura, a California Naval reservist, was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $7,500 fine after he pleaded guilty to removing classified material and downloading it to a personal electronic device.

·         Chief Petty Officer Lyle White pleaded guilty to storing classified documents on a nonsecure hard drive in Virginia. He received a suspended 60-day sentence and a suspended $10,000 fine in return for the plea.

·         NSA employee Tom Drake was prosecuted for leaking information to the Baltimore Sun about what he considered mismanagement at the agency. In the end it turned out the government had deliberately and willfully destroyed documents key to his defense, and so his case was reduced to a misdemeanor plea, but not before he was ruined financially.

·         State Department contractor Stephen Kim was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison for providing information to Fox News about North Korea

·         In 2010 CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison (of which he served 30 months) for providing Iran information to the New York Times.

Clearly the fix was in for Hillary, but I expected that with a Democratic administration in power and Hillary now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. It’s about as blatant a case of Washington inside corruption as could be imagined. And if we, the American voters, allow this to go on without some sort of backlash, we will deserve the government we get.