Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects are evaporating as more details emerge on her abuse of classified information and her lies about it.  A McClatchy story published yesterday must have Democratic Party elders and the Obama White House, especially Valerie Jarrett, plotting the most effective way to dump her before she takes down the party in the 2016 election.

Using already-published texts of one email and leaks apparently from a congressional staffer, McClatchy Washington Bureau reporters Marisa Taylor, Greg Gordon And Anita Kumar write:

The classified emails stored on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server contained information from five U.S. intelligence agencies and included material related to the fatal 2012 Benghazi attacks, McClatchy has learned.

Of the five classified emails, the one known to be connected to Benghazi was among 296 emails made public in May by the State Department. Intelligence community officials have determined it was improperly released. (snip)


 McClatchy also has determined some details of the five emails that the intelligence community’s inspector general has described as classified and improperly handled.

Intelligence officials who reviewed the five classified emails determined that they included information from five separate intelligence agencies, said a congressional official with knowledge of the matter.


Hillary’s previous statement that there was nothing on her emails that was “classified at the time” just won’t wash:

“Even if Secretary Clinton or her aides didn’t run afoul of any criminal provisions, the fact that classified information was identified within the emails is exactly why use of private emails . . . is not supposed to be allowed,” said Bradley Moss, a Washington attorney who specializes in national security matters. “Both she and her team made a serious management mistake that no one should ever repeat.”


The 30,000 emails that she has turned over to the State Department also exist, completely outside of any security protection, on a thumb drive she turned over to her lawyer, David Kendall. This means that any mugger, burglar, or intelligence agency conceivably could get ahold of this US government confidential information:

On June 25, McCullough notified members of Congress that he understood that Clinton’s attorney, David Kendall, possessed the more than 30,000 Clinton emails on a computer thumb drive.

In a July 24 letter to FBI Director James Comey, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa expressed concern about “a compromise of national security information” because of Kendall’s possession of the thumb drive. He called on Comey to explain what steps the FBI had taken to secure the information.

“This raises very serious questions and concerns if a private citizen is somehow retaining classified information,” wrote Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Kendall did not respond to phone and email messages. The FBI and the Justice Department declined to say whether security officials had recovered the device or had arranged for its secure storage.


”Reckless” is the kindest accurate description of this sort of behavior. It is, quite simply, indefensible, and any GOP candidate for president could demolish Hillary in a debate over her exposing secrets to any foreign intelligence agency that cared to look. “Thumb drive” is an expression that carries a concrete image for most people under the age of 80. The picture of David Kendall walking around with a thumb drive in his pocket containing vital secrets of 5 US intelligence agencies is made for a 30 second TV spot.

Hillary’s fate now rests in the tender hands of Valerie Jarrett, who almost certainly is advising President Obama on what to do next.  The last thing she or he wants is a Republican president who can undo his executive orders. They do not want to be seen as torpedoing Hillary willfully, but they need to signal her that if she does not withdraw “in order to spend more time with her granddaughter,” the forensics team at the FBI is going to be working on the hard drive of her home server recovering the sordid details of her haggling with foreign governments and state-controlled enterprises over money for the Clinton Foundation and Bill’s speaking fees.

My guess is that the new(ish) Attorney General Loretta Lynch is going to nod in the direction of launching an investigation, not publicly, but in ways that let Team Hillary know that they will be coming for her server if things don’t change. Perhaps a visit from the FBI notifying the staff in Chappaqua that the server is not to be removed.