Key takeaways from the FBI’s Hillary Clinton decision

The FBI has closed the book on its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s homebrew email server, but as agency director James Comey announced Tuesday, they won’t be throwing the book at Clinton. Indeed, despite “evidence that [Clinton and her colleagues] were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” the FBI has recommended to the Department of Justice that “no charges are appropriate in this case.”

In case you don’t want to read Comey’s lengthy statement on how the agency came to such a conclusion, Reddit user HulluvaNinjineer wrote up a good synopsis:

1. It is a felony to mishandle classified information in a grossly negligent way
2. It is a felony to knowingly remove classified information from appropriate systems
3. 110 emails were classified at the time they were sent, 8 at the Top Secret level Outside of the scope of mishandling classified info, this is a violation of FOIA laws, as it’s the destruction of government records – “The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related e-mails that were not in the group of 30,000 that were returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014.”
4. TS/SAP programs are the most highly classified programs in the Military/Intelligence Community, frequently involving information that could literally get intelligence sources killed or result in permanently losing a source of critical intelligence – “For example, seven e-mail chains concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received. These chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending e-mails about those matters and receiving e-mails from others about the same matters.”
5. It’s highly likely that this classified information, and other sensitive information, was compromised by foreign intelligence services – “She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, includingsending 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”
6. HRC and every other person involved should have known what they were doing was wrong – “There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation“
7. Despite all of this, no charges will be filed, as “although there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case“
8. Just because Clinton got away with it, other less powerful people should be warned they’ll be prosecuted – “To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences.“

As to that last point, here’s Comey’s full comment:

To be clear, this is not to suggest that in similar circumstances, a person who engaged in this activity would face no consequences. To the contrary, those individuals are often subject to security or administrative sanctions. But that is not what we are deciding now.

In other words, Clinton is likely getting away scot-free because her last name is Clinton. If last week’s tête-à-tête between Bill Clinton and Attorney General Loretta Lynch wasn’t already suspect, it certainly is now.

It must be nice not being a regular person.