# What happened with the Hillary email scandal?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [January 29, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574 "2016-01-29T14:58:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/1 "2016-01-29T14:58:56Z")
It seems to be almost forgotten at this point. Wasn’t she facing felony charges a few months ago? Were they dropped? I don’t really know the details about this particular scandal at all, but I do think running for president is not a get out of jail free card. Unless Obama pardoned her, or the court dropped the charges, she should stand trial.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/2 "2016-01-29T15:03:42Z")
She was never under criminal investigation, was never charged with anything so there is nothing for anyone to pardon or dismiss. The Republican candidates are still beating that drum, but most of what they are spouting is factually incorrect.
There is still some investigation into the nature of all the e-mails, but that investigation is not a criminal matter. It’s possible (though unlikely) that it could become one in the future, but it isn’t now and never has been.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/3 "2016-01-29T15:03:55Z")
> [@boffking](#):
>
> It seems to be almost forgotten at this point. Wasn’t she facing felony charges a few months ago? Were they dropped? I don’t really know the details about this particular scandal at all, but I do think running for president is not a get out of jail free card. Unless Obama pardoned her, or the court dropped the charges, she should stand trial.
What court has jurisdiction to drop charges that were never filed? The people who were talking about charges were her political opponents, not a prosecutor.
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### Author:  [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/4 "2016-01-29T15:12:36Z")
The FBI is still actively investigating the matter.
> **[FBI’s Hillary Clinton email investigation not letting up](https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/267269-fbis-clinton-investigation-not-letting-up/)**
>
> “I don’t know that there’s any magical cutoff date,” said one former FBI official.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/5 "2016-01-29T15:26:07Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#):
>
> The FBI is still actively investigating the matter.
>
> [http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/267269-fbis-clinton-investigation-not-letting-up](http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/267269-fbis-clinton-investigation-not-letting-up)
But to be clear, it’s NOT a criminal investigation at this point.
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### Author:  [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/6 "2016-01-29T15:31:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> But to be clear, it’s NOT a criminal investigation at this point.
In your mind, when would it become a criminal investigation?
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/7 "2016-01-29T15:35:42Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#):
>
> In your mind, when would it become a criminal investigation?
As soon as they find a crime and they start looking for the culprit.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/8 "2016-01-29T15:36:18Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#):
>
> The FBI is still actively investigating the matter.
>
> [http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/267269-fbis-clinton-investigation-not-letting-up](http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/267269-fbis-clinton-investigation-not-letting-up)
> [@](#):
>
> Officials have indicated that the bureau is not targeting Clinton specifically, however, but is investigating whether any information on her account was mishandled.
Yep, just like \*\*Frank \*\*and **John Mace** noted. The article goes to note what it is likely to happen, this is indeed mostly an investigation on who exactly had access to the emails and to set proper guidelines for the future; as some noted, it remains a bureaucratic fight. And then the problem does remain, to indict the authorities will have to have plenty of evidence that a felony took place, so good luck on demonstrating that Clinton had nefarious intent and add to that the very inconvenient fact that the laws the enemies of Clinton are trying to invoke are attempted to be applied retroactively.
No wonder the article does think that a likely possibility is that for political reasons an independent prosecutor will be demanded by the republicans if (IMHO the most likely outcome) the FBI does not come with the “goods”.
Leading then to the usual: The American people realizing, _ **again** _, that the wacko Republicans just resort into abusing the law and their legal authority in such underhanded ways that then they do the impossible: to make people then support the Clintons.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/9 "2016-01-29T15:39:01Z")
There must still be something to it, because my niece just posted (reposted) on Facebook a list of 13 things America needs now, and #1 was **Put Hillary in Jail! NOW!**
You don’t want to see the other 12.
For some people, “What happened with the Hillary email scandal?” is it makes them think she’s a criminal. Mission accomplished.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/10 "2016-01-29T15:41:29Z")
Once again Hillary benefited from Republican whacko conspiracy theories. This was a case of mismanagement, nothing more, for which she’ll never be held to any account. She’s very much like Trump in that respect, able to shed her critics thanks to their outrageous claims.
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### Author:  [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/11 "2016-01-29T15:42:47Z")
This got a little push recently with an supposed leak from an Intelligence Committee Inspector General saying there was highly classified material on the server. The State Department disputes the classification (I guess different agencies have their own rules) and says that some of the material was retroactively classified.
The right is convinced that she should be in jail. You know, because Petraeus was a hero and look what happened to him for something more minor.
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### Author:  [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/12 "2016-01-29T15:52:22Z")
> [@running\_coach](#):
>
> As soon as they find a crime and they start looking for the culprit.
How do you know they haven’t? The FBI wouldn’t normally tip off the alleged culprit (or the public) in advance.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/13 "2016-01-29T16:27:28Z")
Could be any number of culprits in America who have not been “tipped off”. Capped at somewhere north of 300 million.
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### Author:  [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/14 "2016-01-29T16:36:24Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#):
>
> How do you know they haven’t? The FBI wouldn’t normally tip off the alleged culprit (or the public) in advance.
If there was a smoking gun, I’m pretty sure they would have acted by now.
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### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/15 "2016-01-29T16:37:35Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#):
>
> How do you know they haven’t? The FBI wouldn’t normally tip off the alleged culprit (or the public) in advance.
You think Hillary is a flight risk? Lol.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/16 "2016-01-29T16:54:48Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#):
>
> If there was a smoking gun, I’m pretty sure they would have acted by now.
With a candidate in an election they’d have to act fast to avoid raising suspicion of a political motive. So I agree, they would have acted by now if there was anything to act on.
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### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/17 "2016-01-29T16:55:40Z")
> [@CarnalK](#):
>
> You think Hillary is a flight risk? Lol.
“In a press release issued from Clinton’s campaign headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, …”
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### Author:  [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/18 "2016-01-29T16:57:26Z")
> [@CarnalK](#):
>
> You think Hillary is a flight risk? Lol.
No.
They may have discovered a crime, though, and are still gathering evidence. Dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s, even.
And the suspect might not be Hillary, but one of her aides. So no, the FBI isn’t going to announce anything until the investigation is complete. Which would seem to be standard investigative process.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/19 "2016-01-29T16:58:45Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#):
>
> If there was a smoking gun, I’m pretty sure they would have acted by now.
About the e-mails, sure. But maybe its about her complicity in Horndog Bill’s cocaine smuggling airfield in Arkansas? Or the Whitewater Scandal that nearly brought our financial institutions to disaster! We don’t know what the FBI is preparing to indict her for, because the FBI doesn’t indict! Very convenient, don’t you think? Or don’t you?
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### Author:  [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-with-the-hillary-email-scandal/744574/20 "2016-01-29T16:59:44Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> With a candidate in an election they’d have to act fast to avoid raising suspicion of a political motive. So I agree, they would have acted by now if there was anything to act on.
Did you read the linked article:
"In December, FBI Director James Comey pledged that the probe would be “competent,” “honest” and “independent.”
“We don’t give a rip about politics,” he told a Senate committee."
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