Dear editor:
As most expected, the chief question to Hillary during the New Hampshire town hall meeting concerned the email controversy. As she once more reiterated, she did nothing illegal -- she did not set a precedent in using a private server -- it had been allowed and done by other government officials.
As David Ignatius indicated in a syndicated column some weeks ago, it is "The Clinton scandal that isn't." Ignatius is a columnist with The Washington Post, an old-line conservative newspaper. According to Jeffrey Smith, a former CIA general counsel, "It's common that people end up using unclassified systems to transmit classified information." He adds, "It's inevitable because the classified systems are often cumbersome and lots of people have access to the classified emails or cables."
Legal experts, according to Ignatius, say "there's no legal difference whether Clinton and her aides passed sensitive information using her private server or the official 'state.gov' account, because neither system is authorized for transmitting classified information."
Ignatius cites one former State Department official as saying that before emails, other back channels were often used. Regular phones were often used rather than going to the executive office because of so much classification and bureaucracy. At one time, he adds, the State Department had a "Roger Channel" named after the state official Roger Hilsman for sending secret messages to the secretary.
Criminal violations arise when officials knowingly transmit classified documents to unauthorized personnel. The David Petraeus affair is an example. Petraeus plead guilty last April to doing such. He was charged with a misdemeanor, not a felony.
In 2001, John Deutch was pardoned for using an unsecured CIA computer at his home to access classified material. He was ready to plead guilty, but was pardoned instead.
So what does this suggest about Hillary Clinton? Another long political ploy to get her standing in the American public more negative. Republicans, under the domination of the tea party influence, wants more than anything to bring her down.
They are desperate to keep the White House and take us back in this great country another 50 years.
John W. "Doc" Crawford
Hot Springs
Editorial on 10/07/2015