Parity

As deliciously reported in the Washington Post recently, President Trump revealed some highly classified intelligence to Russian representatives last week at the White House ...  purportedly about a potential ISIS terrorist plot. It was later reported that this information had supposedly come from a now-compromised Israeli source. Now, for our current president to achieve top-secret-leakage parity with his former campaign rival, Hillary Clinton. he should need to duplicate this gaff about another 29,999 times.

Back Scratching

The recently revealed proposed quid pro quo arrangement between the FBI and the Clinton State Department is very depressing. The FBI has already been badly sullied by Director James Comey's tortured logic behind his decision to let Hellary slide on her clear perjury and possible treason that she perpetuated with her private e-mail server and her unpersuasive cover-up. This proposed deal was that certain of Hellary's e-mails would be redesignated after the fact by the FBI as non-classified in exchange for the State Department's allowing the FBI to send agents into Iraq and other countries of interest (not allowed by law ... reserved for the CIA) ... see: The Atlantic Story.

Now this "I'll scratch your back, if you scratch mine" proposed transaction is of the ilk that happens all the time within government. However, both sides of this particular quid pro quo were illegal ... and therefore disturbing to say the least. And since it was proposed by the Clinton crime family, it should be the lead story in all the national media. [... crickets ...] It clearly displays the moral depravity that seems to be persistent within the Clinton campaign. Can't have that on display for the voters!

Rigged

To use Donald Trump's words, "the system is rigged." There is more rigging in government ... and, in particular, this administration ... than on the biggest of clipper ships under full sail. One of the best examples of same is FBI Director Comey's partial exoneration today of Hellery Clinton in her private e-mail scandal ... see: FBI Document.

Again for those in a hurry, here are some key passages:

From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were “up-classified” to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent. 

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

Separately, it is important to say something about the marking of classified information. Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information. But even if information is not marked “classified” in an e-mail, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it. 

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. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence. We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.

So Comey and Lynch will both be reappointed were Hellery to win in November. Hooray! And our mighty clipper ship of state will sail on ... fully rigged.

However, Director Comey didn't address in this release the possible public corruption of Hellery's office in how she solicited foreign donations for the Clinton Foundation in exchange for State Department favors. But, I think we all also know the probable results of this sewer cleaning.