The Emails She Wanted to Hide

 

IBDEditorials.com

Corruption: One would think a young lawyer who worked on the Watergate hearings would be careful decades later to conduct her public life without the appearance of impropriety. But Hillary Clinton has always felt above the law.

That sound of panic screeching across the country Tuesday night emanated from the Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters after the media broke the story that two emails on Clinton's private account had "top secret" information.

It's material that's "more sensitive than previously known," McClatchy News reported.

This revelation takes the scandal to a whole new level, and it makes us ask again: How long can Clinton stay in the race?

"Top secret" is generally considered the highest rank of classified government material. It is deemed to be so sensitive that it can cause grave damage to national security if it falls into the wrong hands. At one time, Clinton claimed that her private email account held no classified information. But we know better. Her personal account had more than a little classified information in it.

Expect Clinton defenders to claim the emails were categorized as top secret only after she turned them over.

That's unlikely. Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard says a former senior intelligence official says there is "no doubt" the information "was directly lifted from classified doc or source." So she had to know she was dealing with sensitive material.

The top secret emails were found by an inspector general for the intelligence community who "notified senior members of Congress that two of four classified emails (were) discovered on the server Clinton maintained at her New York home," McClatchy reported.

That private server located at the Clintons' Chappaqua, N.Y., compound is key to the probe that is now a criminal matter. Its existence has been known for some time, and investigators should have taken possession of it long ago. It holds evidence that Clinton hasn't wanted to give up.

Now, amid the growing pressure of the probe, which includes the FBI and even some mainstream media coverage, Clinton has agreed to turn it over.

The question is: Will the server be Clinton's version of Tom Brady's cellphone?

Tampering with evidence would of course be a criminal offense. Would Clinton go that far? It seems unthinkable that someone of her stature would. But then she used her personal email for State Department business. Rules don't seem to mean much to the Clintons.

Or to those around them. McClatchy also confirmed that "at least" four top Clinton aides used personal email accounts for State Department business.

The scandal grows deeper and wider. What were officials trying to hide?

Clinton must feel that her long-time goal of running every American's life from Washington slips further from her grasp with every new detail of corruption that emerges. Now New Hampshire voters have moved hard toward socialist Bernie Sanders , who has a 44-37 lead among likely Democratic voters.

All the news, it seems, is bad for Clinton.