Well, how’s that for timing?
This week, Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic nomination and snagged President Obama’s endorsement, defeating a challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders, who argued that she was too cozy with wealthy interests who had an undue voice in government.
The same week,
ABC News has reported that a man named Rajiv Fernando, a top donor to the Clinton Foundation, was added to the State Department’s International Security Advisory Board at the behest of the secretary of state’s office. Fernando appeared not to have the same qualifications as many other ISAB members, other than prolific giving to Democratic interests. When ABC started asking the department about Fernando, newly revealed emails show, staffers scrambled to find a way to defend the appointment. Eventually, Fernando stepped down two days after ABC’s initial questions.
The Fernando flap may be relatively minor itself, but it ties together several strains of concern about Hillary Clinton: Coziness with donors. Conflicts of interest between the Clinton Foundation and her work in government. Secrets hidden in government emails—though these were revealed through a FOIA request from Citizens United (yep, that Citizens United) in a lawsuit, rather than through the tranches of emails being released under court order.
Meanwhile, in a case of unintended consequences,
Politico reports that State staffers were tipped off to Clinton’s private email system—which was if not illegal, certainly irregular and probably improper—by the famous viral photograph of the secretary on her BlackBerry aboard a plane.
A State Department inspector general’s report last month blasted Clinton for the way she dealt with her emails as secretary.
Rather than use the State Department’s system, Clinton set up her own email system, for herself and top aides, using a server at her home in New York. The revelation of that system has prompted several inquiries. An investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department has received the most attention, in large part because it could theoretically result in Clinton being indicted. The IG’s report does not carry the same threat of sanction.
]The emails have become a classic Clinton scandal. Even though investigations have found no wrongdoing on her part with respect to the Benghazi attacks themselves, Clinton’s private-email use and concerns about whether she sent classified information have become huge stories unto themselves. This is a pattern with the Clinton family, which has been in the public spotlight since Bill Clinton’s first run for office, in 1974: Something that appears potentially scandalous on its face turns out to be innocuous, but an investigation into it reveals different questionable behavior. The canonical case is
Whitewater, a failed real-estate investment Bill and Hillary Clinton made in 1978. Although no inquiry ever produced evidence of wrongdoing, investigations ultimately led to President Clinton’s impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice.
With Hillary Clinton leading the field for the Democratic nomination for president, every Clinton scandal—from Whitewater to the State Department emails—will be under the microscope. (No other American politicians—even ones as corrupt as Richard Nixon, or as hated by partisans as George W. Bush—have fostered the
creation of a permanent multimillion-dollar cottage industry devoted to attacking them.) Keeping track of each controversy, where it came from, and how serious it is, is no small task, so here’s a primer. We’ll update it as new information emerges.
Clinton’s State Department Emails
the Clintons’ private email server, what’s actually in the emails that Clinton
did turn over to State? While some of the emails related to
Benghazi have been released, there are plenty of others covered by public-records laws that haven’t.
When? 2009-2013
How serious is it? Serious. Initially, it seemed that the interest in the emails would stem from damaging things that Clinton or other aides had said: cover-ups, misrepresentations, who knows? But so far, other than some cringeworthy moments of sucking up and some eye-rolly emails from contacts like
Sidney Blumenthal, the emails have been remarkably boring. The main focus now is on classification. Sixty-five emails contain information that is now classified. The question is whether any of it, and how much of it, was classified at the time it was sent. Clinton has said she didn’t knowingly send or receive classified material on the account. The State Department and Intelligence Community have disagreed about that. In addition, the Intelligence Community’s inspector general
wrote in a January letter that Clinton’s server contained information marked “special access program,”
a further restricted type of information. Some emails that Clinton didn’t turn over have also since
surfaced. A May report from the State Department inspector general is
harshly critical of Clinton’s email approach.
Benghazi
marathon appearance before the committee in October was
widely considered a win for her. However, it was through the Benghazi investigations that Hillary Clinton’s
use of a private email server became public—a controversy that remains potent.
Da fukk you die in a plane crash, but have a bullet in the back of your skull 
