HRC Is Dead Candidate Walking While Obama Is Slow-Walking the FBI
Is Hillary Clinton dead presidential candidate walking? Many current and former members of the US intelligence community appear to want this to be the case. Just before the big news of the IG Report confirming Hillary broke federal rules and laws connected to her private email server, there was another important related story that got little play in the media.
First a small sidetrack if you question whether she broke a law versus a rule. One of those “rules” was that she needed to inform her superior, President Obama, if she intended to conduct any government business on a non-government email server. She obviously did not comply, however, breaking this “rule” carries up to a ten year jail sentence. Getting back to the intelligence community, The Consortium News published the release of a comprehensive statement from veterans who served in the intelligence community to President Obama regarding Hillary’s emails.
They articulate in impressive fashion how the HRC email fiasco could have grave ramifications for national security as this episode affects the entire US intelligence community. Number one, they want and need a fitting punishment to the crime if and when Hillary is convicted of a crime. Number two they are very dismayed by the slow-walk of this case for apparent political reasons. This statement was signed by 17 intelligence professionals representing 400 years of experience. It includes Ray McGovern former CIA analyst of renown and Scott Ritter who was an inspector of WMD’s in Iraq.
This group calls themselves the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS.) According to them the entire intel community is anxiously waiting to see if the mission to keep our nation secure which they have dedicated their lives to, will be treated with the utmost respect or not. For some reason they seem to be highly offended that Hillary chose convenience and her secrecy over national security. Now that the IG Report has made it obvious that Hillary committed serious transgressions and lied about them one can only imagine how badly these veterans of national security want their pound of flesh.
Another element that has thickened the plot is that Guccifer who claims he has hacked into Hillary’s server has been given a trial date. What makes this most interesting is that when a plea bargain deal has been struck they usually wait at least 90 days before the trial date for that person. His trial date has been set for September 12th which is over 90 days away. This would strongly indicate Guccifer has some important information relevant to the investigation. Then there is the case of Bryan Pagliano who has already accepted an immunity deal with the government. Something that has been over looked by everyone is the reason he decided to go for a deal. It was unlawful for Pagliano to not inform the appropriate State Department employers while working for them that he was also privately working for Secretary Clinton.
This was Hillary once again breaking those pesky “rules” which if not followed can get you put in jail. That he knew he was in violation because of this would be a strong motivation to cooperate with the FBI investigation. Pagliano is quite valuable in accessing among other matters how negligent HRC was in the way she mismanaged the hack into her server. The one that she did not report to the government the one that was revealed to us in the IG Report. News of this incident must have exploded more than a few heads among the intelligence community. Bryan presumably has the inside scoop on many of the juicy issues regarding HRC’s emails. So the FBI has an inside source that could possibly confirm the probable reasons why she had a private server. That should include the avoidance of FOIA inquiries. In addition they very likely have absolute proof that her server was hacked without the sophistication available to the hackers supreme of Russia and China.
The members of VIPS are absolutely pleading for Obama to stop the slow-walk of the investigation and release a preliminary finding. They believe the FBI has had more than enough time and information to put together a preliminary report that could also be made available to the public. These intel pros have made it clear it is not necessary to have every detail covered from every possible angle in order to put together a solid preliminary report. This public report could inform voters who need to know the whole picture of what HRC has done. A democracy can only function properly if voters are well informed about the real not the imagined.
There is an interesting possibility for the FBI’s slow-walk of this investigation. It is quite feasible that President Obama in concert with other Democratic establishment players wants to delay any news of an indictment until after the last primaries on June 7th. This way they can stonewall Bernie from possibly winning enough delegates to win the nomination outright. For example if the FBI indicted Hillary tomorrow, its possible Bernie could win all available delegates. There are 79 delegates available June 4 and 5th. There are 806 delegates available on June 7. There are 46 delegates available on June 14. All the remaining delegates total 890. Bernie needs 844 to win it outright. The rumors have been flying that the Dem establishment types want anyone but Bernie for their nominee if and when Hillary is no longer a viable candidate. Cenk Uygur covers this quite well in one of his podcasts.
If the FBI is slow-walking this investigation as VIPS believes they are then there must be a reason. These veterans of the intelligence wars feel politicization of this investigation is further disrespect heaped upon them after General Petraeus got off lightly for his transgression against national security. Their statement makes it clear that if HRC gets off light like Petraeus that morale will plummet in the intelligence community. It does not take a savvy leader to understand that at this critical time of national security it would be a blunder to devastate the morale of the US intelligence community. We need them working at top efficiency.
Not only will morale be at an all time low for them but their anger is bound to bubble over like a volcanic eruption if proper justice is not served to Hillary. This whole election has been about how the nation is coping with their collective anger regarding political corruption. Very often anger leads to destructive behavior, Exhibit A, Trump supporters. With self-awareness anger can be funneled into constructive actions, Exhibit B, Bernie supporters. Whatever cover up the Obama administration may attempt has little chance of succeeding when DC is ready to explode into what will probably be a fair amount of uncontrolled anger if justice is not properly served. It is imperative that the punishment fits the crime if this punishment is to deter future crimes of a similar nature.
Here is an article that shows the enormous harm that has resulted from the precedent set by Nixon avoiding jail time for his abuse of power. Since then no person who has held substantial power in politics or business ever went to prison when their crimes warranted that punishment. This pattern not only enabled the Clintons to break the law repeatedly but also has played a significant role in our currently dysfunctional so called democracy.
The good news is No Drama Obama will probably play it cool and allow an FBI indictment at least until the primaries are over. Will he have the sense to dole out proper justice to an obviously guilty Hillary Clinton? Will the Democrats be unable to stop an honest man from becoming a great president? A lot is riding on those answers.