Will Hillary Clinton ever be held accountable for mishandling classified information?
Pundits believed her election loss closed the book on any investigations into her misconduct.
But one lawsuit could spell doom for Hillary Clinton.
Judicial Watch, for one, is not giving up.
The watchdog group previously fought the State Department on releasing Hillary Clinton’s emails through Freedom of Information Act requests which helped expose the corrupt connection between Clinton’s time at the State Department and the Clinton Foundation.
Now they are back at it.
They have filed a new lawsuit against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the State Department insisting they follow the law and prepare an assessment on how Hillary Clinton’s private email server damaged national security.
The group’s president, Tom Fitton, wrote on Breitbart:
“The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, cites the requirement in Intelligence Community Directive (“ICD”) 732, issued on June 27, 2014, that a damage assessment be conducted whenever there is “an actual or suspected unauthorized disclosure or compromise of classified national intelligence that may cause damage to U.S. national security” ICD 732(D)(2) (Judicial Watch v. Office of the Director of National Intelligence et al. (No. 1:17-cv-00508)).
The suit specifically refers to FBI Director James Comey’s devastating statement on July 5, 2016, concerning Clinton’s use of an unsecured email account while conducting official State Department business:
From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification.
Despite the FBI findings and the requirements of Intelligence Community Directive 732, however, the suit argues that: “On or about September 14, 2016, ODNI announced that no Intelligence Community-wide damage assessment into Secretary Clinton’s email practices would be conducted and that no individual Intelligence Community member would conduct such an assessment.”
In addition to the ODNI and the State Department, the suit names Michael Dempsey in his official capacity as acting director of national intelligence, William Evanina in his official capacity as national counterintelligence executive, and Rex W. Tillerson in his official capacity as U.S. secretary of state.”
This lawsuit provides a path to holding Hillary Clinton accountable without a criminal prosecution.
Fitton also writes:
“The Obama administration conspired with Hillary Clinton regarding her emails, so it is no surprise that Obama officials wouldn’t want to hold her to account for her mishandling of classified materials. This new JW lawsuit is an opportunity for the Trump administration to get back to basics on the Clinton email scandal and find out what damage was done to our national security as a result of her illicit email practices.”
This lawsuit may provide the best means to hold Hillary Clinton accountable for mishandling classified intelligence.
An assessment showing she did in fact damage national security would be a stinging rebuke – and coupled with her loss in the election – would brand her for all eternity as a dangerous official who compromised national security and paid the ultimate political price.
