John Schindler on The National Security Superfund Site in Hillary's Basement

Good primer.

These weren't just ordinary secrets found in Clinton's private server, but some of the most classified material the U.S. government has.

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Most seriously, the inspector general assessed that Clinton’s emails included information that was highly classified--yet mislabeled as unclassified. Worse, the information in question should have been classified up to the level of "TOP SECRET//SI//TK//NOFORN," according to the inspector general’s report....

People found to have willfully mishandled such highly classified information often face severe punishment. Termination of employment, hefty fines, even imprisonment can result.

In the real world, people with high-level clearances are severely punished for willfully violating such rules. At a minimum, those suspected of mishandling things like NSA "signals intelligence"--intercepts calls, emails, and the like--have their clearances suspended pending the outcome of the investigation into their misconduct. Any personal items--computers, electronics--here federal investigators suspect the classified material wound up, wrongly, will be impounded and searched. If it has TOP SECRET//SI information on it, "your" computer now belongs to the government, because it is considered classified.

People found to have willfully mishandled such highly classified information often face severe punishment. Termination of employment, hefty fines, even imprisonment can result. Yes, people really do go to jail for mishandling classified materials. Matthew Aid, a writer on intelligence matters, served more than a year in prison for mishandling TOP SECRET//SI information from the NSA, for example. The well-connected tend to avoid jail, however. Sandy Berger and John Deutsch--who both served in high-level positions under President Bill Clinton, did not go to prison for mishandling TOP SECRET intelligence (though Berger got probation and was fined $50,000).

posted by Ace at 12:22 PM

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