It's great that Hillary has been cleared. But there should never have been an investigation

[DanTex]

in the first place. This has always been nothing. The reason anyone even cared about this is because Hillary has to play by the "Clinton rules." Remember, Condi Rice and Colin Powell also used private emails, and also had information deemed classified in their emails, but nobody cared. And still nobody cares, the most furiously red-faced Hillary haters have not once suggested that Powell and Rice should be disciplined for doing the same thing as Hillary.

Comey threw the Trumpistas and BoBs a bone with his "extremely careless" statement. Hillary was not careless. Out of 30,000 emails, a handful were found to have classified information. As many people who have worked at high levels of government have pointed out, this happens. Sure, technically she was supposed to figure out every single time she communicated by email, whether the content was classified, even if there were no classified markings present. In practice, Hillary, like Powell and Rice before her, made the correct judgement something like 99.9% of the time. And I'd be willing to bet that if they went through all of Kerry's emails, there would be a couple of instances of information in there that, unbeknownst to him, was designated classified.

Well, anyway, they had an investigation, wasted even more government resources on yet another pointless and ultimately fruitless anti-Clinton witch hunt. And it came to nothing. It's good to have it behind us.

[MaggieD]

1. Comey is a republican

Which I am sure it what led him to the completely unprecedented action of injecting his selective OPINION on the case. And of course he had no opinion about Powell or Rice. They are republicans, so it's okay.

[Bucky]

2. Oh for criminy's sake, she's a Clinton. The Republicans are going to do bogus investigations.

Fox News has spent a quarter century fine tuning the Pavlovian training for the Republican Party to investigate and defame any moving object as long as it's named Clinton. For that matter they'll do that with any nominee we put up. For all the bitterness and bullshit they've thrown at Obama, we have to realize it was always simply hatred in escrow.

[underpants]

3. Yep 25 years if trying to prevent her from being President

That was clearly their goal from the beginning. They couldn't stop Bill.

[Surya Gayatri]

4. A-friggin'-men! So spot on!

[oasis]

5. Imagine the GOP as Ahab and the Clintons as Moby Dick.

Damn everything else I seek the white whale.

[karynnj]

6. Two IGs, both nominated by President Obama referred this to the DOJ/FBI

It was prudent to have an investigation -- and for Obama and all political appointees - to stay hands off on this issue.

Not to mention, as is clear to everyone, what she did -- having everything on a private server -- was unique to her. Rice did not use email and Powell, sometimes used a person email account -- not a private server. Kerry, who you love to equate, has used a .gov account since he became SoS. He does still get some emails sent to him on other accounts that he routinely sends to be archived at the SD. So, no, there are not stricter rules for her because she is a Clinton or a woman.

She will not be indicted, but she herself says that doing what she did was a mistake -- and one that has had a political cost. We are very very lucky that the Republicans have picked a truly disgusting, unelectable nominee or the cost could have been the presidency.

[DanTex]

7. You can stop with the right-wing talking points now.

There's no legal difference between a private email and a private server. Neither should be used for classified information, but both were, unintentionally. There's no legal difference between Rice, Powell, and Clinton. And if Kerry has any classified info on his state.gov account then that's also technically breaking the rules.

Yeah, what she did was a mistake. She knows that she has to play by the "Clinton rules", so something that is totally ignored when other people like Rice and Powell do it is going to get blown up by the right-wing press and the GOP. Politically it was a mistake, she needs to be ten times more by the book than anyone else just to get the same treatment.

[karynnj]

9. Make all the excuses you want and call anyone who disagrees with you right wing

That does not change the truth. What she did was unprecedented. The investigation was not over something that was an innocent mistake. It was over the fact that she had a home brew server and until it was demanded, the SD did not have some of her email and needed it for inquiries..

I do not get why you feel it necessary to attack Kerry or suggest that he is breaking rules when it is clear that he is following them - from the SD IG report. You also keep adding Rice, when she did not use email. You are left with Powell.

[DanTex]

12. I don't need excuses, she was just exonerated.

What she did was the same thing that Powell and Rice did before her. You and many others have been pushing right-wing email smears here for months.

I'm not saying Kerry broke the rules, but I am saying that it would be a big surprise if there wasn't a single piece of information in all his email correspondence that someone, somewhere deemed classified. Especially given that the three AGs before him all had small amounts of classified information in their emails. It's just bureaucratic reality, it happens. This is all about nothing, and always has been.

Anyway, the indictment fairy is dead now. The right-wing talking points will never die, but there's no truth to them, nor was there ever.

[karynnj]

14. She will not be indicted -- that does not mean she was "exonerated"

You also do not know how counterproductive it is that you and others have accused anyone unwilling to say that HRC walks on water of "right wing talking points".

RICE DID NOT USE EMAIL per the SD IG report and Powell did NOT do what Clinton did.

Not to mention, the fact that the SD could not give the Congressional committees her email, meant the Obama SD was criticized for stone walling and added to the time before all the Benghazi hearings ended.

[DanTex]

16. Yes, that's exactly what it means.

There was no crime, she won't be charged, as a matter of substance, the case is closed.

Now it's just politics, people who hate Hillary will still hate her, people that don't won't. And it's not counterproductive to call right-wing talking points what they are. Hugh Hewitt was just on MSNBC saying the same things that you have been saying. For months DU was flooded with articles from right-wing news outlets quoting anonymous sources saying that she was about to be indicted.

The fact is, Hillary did the same thing as the two AGs before her, and confidential material was found there too. This particular incident is only a big deal because she's a Clinton.

[geek tragedy]

13. so having something on the ever-so-secure servers at Yahoo!

is legally distinct between having a private server?

Signed,

Someone whose private web email has been hacked twice.

[scscholar]

11. Rice didn't use email, but she committed a crime when...

she admitted that if she had, she wouldn't have followed the rules.

[karynnj]

15. Really ....

I seriously doubt that saying that would have done something ... means you committed a crime.

[eastwestdem]

8. Totally agree. Point in fact - Comey said that Gmail had more safeguards than

the Clinton server, but Gmail only emerged from beta testing in July, 2009...after her server was set up. So you really can't compare...which is the whole problem with this investigation. They are using current knowledge of internet operations and security to judge what happened 8 years ago.

History will see the mistakes that were made as a typical example of growing pains experienced by most departments of government in transitioning to the technological world. The only difference is that only Hillary Clinton's activities were examined with excruciating detail.

[karynnj]

10. Gmail was simply one type of account and not the only one that existed

Not to mention - it seems that her server had enough problems through the years that she could have changed.

[eastwestdem]

18. But it was the one he chose to reference. Clearly not aware that it was not an option at the time.

[seabeyond]

17. Correct. I agree. Nt