Hillary Clinton Email Scandal: What Is it and Why Does it Matter?

Image Source: Flickr

In March of this year Hillary’s use of a nongovernmental email setup was revealed to the public by the New York Times in a report that has prompted a major controversy that still hangs over her presidential campaign, and will for the foreseeable future. Some are calling for a full scale investigation and charges to be brought, while others think it's no big deal.

So what became of the emails in question? After a request from the State Department (which came nearly two years after she had left office) Clinton turned over more than 30,000 messages to the agency that she and her team deemed to be possibly work-related that were on a private server she had used for official State Department business. Clinton and her staff also destroyed 31,830 messages that they decided were "personal." The private server was then wiped clean, and after two months of requests was finally turned over to the Justice Department for analysis.

When asked about whether she knowingly wiped the server Clinton responded by saying "“I don’t know, I have no idea,” she said. “Like with a cloth or something?"

The real controversy is whether or not her private server was used to store classified documents, which is a federal crime. This is laid out in 18 USC 1924 — that “whoever . . . becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both.”

We now know that many of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails would automatically have entered the world with “classified” status. So far at least 30 email threads since 2009 immediately deserve that designation based on the context in which they were written, according to a report by Reuters.

The reason why using a private server is such a massive concern is because of the lengths that the government goes to to protect classified documents. If it was ever found that her server was compromised, then that could have meant a massive leak of classified information on diplomatic negotiations and national security issues.

The FBI began it's investigation into the matter in July, after the inspector general expressed concerns over whether information had been compromised. The probe is in the beginning stages and is focused on ensuring the proper handling of classified material.

As it concerns her candidacy for presidency, there will be questions of whether a person who already has allegedly mishandled classified information should be granted authority over the armed forces and all intelligence agencies as commander in chief.