It seems that most Dems are steadfastly ignoring the FBI investigation into Hillary’s e-mail trouble. As last count, the FBI is looking into not only if she mishandled classified info, but if she lied or obstructed justice during the investigiation. (Gee, who could imagine that wiping your computer before turning it over to the FBI might piss them off?) See here for today’s update.
So, what if they end up indicting her? Will she try to get Obama to pardon her? (And if she does, would anybody except Bill & Chelsea still vote for her?) Will she stubbornly keep campaigning, hoping this would somehow go away? Will she suddenly have a “medical issue”, that just happens to require an indefinite stay outside the country? Would Joe Biden suddenly decide that maybe he’ll run for president after all?
If the G-men end up swinging the axe, I’m sure they wouldn’t swoop in and handcuff her like a bank robber or something. Let’s assume that the head of the FBI holds a press conference and announces that they’re going to seek an indictment for gross mishandling of classified information, obstruction of justice, and perjury. How do you see this ending up?
I mean this not to hijack, but for clarification: can anyone please summarize what exactly the FBI is investigating wrt Hillary and her emails?
My understanding was that they were looking into whether the server was secure, which right-wing media and the RNC reinvented as “Hillary’s under FBI investigation.” However, I admit I haven’t read up on this.
Straight dope would be appreciated.
As for the OP: well, Perry ran for president while under indictment, didn’t he? It all depends on how credible/damaging the charges are believed to be.
If the indictment appears to be politically motivated the GOP might as well stay out of this election cycle. If there’s merit to it then the fun will really begin. Bernie will be the favorite for the Democratic nomination, but Joe will jump back in and try to make a horserace out of it. On the GOP side they’ll get even nuttier thinking it’s anybody’s game now. One of the best parts of these races stays the same, watching JEB continue to fall no matter what happens.
Quite frankly, it’s very unlikely to happen. Even if she DID do some illegal or negligent things, unless it’s impossible to overlook, they will. But let’s just assume that they do.
First, Obama will not pardon her. If she gets indicted and pardoned, it looks REALLY bad, because it makes her look guilty. She needs to be transparent about it and defeat it openly, otherwise it will turn off a lot of voters. I could see Obama maybe pardoning her if she isn’t elected as part of the tradition of outgoing pardons, but it would basically end her run in its tracks if he did it before election day.
As for what it means, it all depends on what they can get her with. If they get her for perjury or obstruction of justice, I don’t think it would mean all that much. If they get her for something more serious, I think you just might see Joe Biden jump in, if he smells blood in the water. After all, I think he’s just not running because he believes Hillary would beat him, but if she’s got a serious indictment, she’s a lot more vulnerable.
For the general election, again, I don’t think a perjury charge means that much, after all, her husband was indicted on perjury and he probably could have won a third term afterward, if he legally could have run. But we all KNOW if she’s caught with negligence or whatever, she’s going to be hit a lot harder, and I think that would go a long way with turning off a lot of swing voters. So, I could see some sort of deal of them letting things slide or getting a pardon for dropping out of the race since she couldn’t win a general election like that.
It’s way more serious than that. The core of the investigation is whether she committed “gross negligence in the handling of classified info,” because she used an unsecured private server, and apparently putting classified information on such a system is severely non-kosher, even if you are the Secretery of State. The FBI* has since expanded the investigation to include whether Hillary has also committed perjury or obstruction of justice.
In what I find to be a fascinating twist, the FBI has started their own review of the classification status of Hillary’s e-mails, going back to the original sources of the intelligence (CIA or NSA or whoever) to determine if the messages should have been classified or not. It appears that they’ve found several e-mail conversations which should have been marked classified, but weren’t, and they’re trying to determine at what point someone (illegally) stripped off the “Classified” warnings.
*This is an FBI invesigation, not some kind of independent posecutor.
If these email conversations actually SHOULD have been marked “Classified.” One person saying “These should have been marked ‘Classified’!” doesn’t make it so.
If they had originally been marked “Classified” in the first place (by no means a certainty) were the markings stripped off intentionally or otherwise?
Given Point #2, did Hillary have involvement or even knowledge of this?
This isn’t exactly a picture of her standing over Vince Foster’s body with a smoking pistol.
Another story by Fox News and carried only by Breitbart and The Daily Caller and The Daily Mail. Not a word from any reliable source of news. Going purely on their track record, there’s less than a 5% chance of anything coming from this. Probably closer to zero considering the silence from the news organizations who usually get things right.
Doesn’t the Republican base ever get tired of being wrong and getting their chain yanked?
If winged monkeys fly out of your ass for more than 4 hours, call your doctor.
It’s my understanding that there is no criminal investigation by the FBI at this point, so no possible indictment from the current investigation. Is that not correct?