Hillary Clinton has been a topic of discussion for a while with the entire email scandal. Rumor has it she has been using a private email and has given out classified information on said email. The basis of the whole scandal lies on the question; should Hillary be searched and prosecuted for the emails?

Hillary has been using a private email server for over 3 years without question. But suddenly with the election here she has begun to be questioned and has also been searched as shown by Patrick Howley “The FBI has a search warrant for Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s laptop, obtained Sunday night after new emails surfaced in the law enforcement investigation of Abedin’s husband Anthony Weiner for allegedly sexting with a minor.” so the FBI not only searched Hillary’s laptop but also Abedin’s laptop. The FBI has found about five emails on Hillary’s server that show classified information such as the location or travel plans for Libyan ambassador Chris Stevens who was killed in 2012. This is very suspicious because his killer knew exactly where he would be and the locations happen to be where he was going when he died. That sounds a bit suspect; why would she know the location of where he would eventually die? Clinton’s private email allowed her to communicate with many world leaders and to swap emails with the Clinton foundation. Clinton’s partner, Huma Abedin, was nervous because in fact she was the one who came up with the idea of creating the private email server. This makes her a suspect if the investigation was ever brought into trial, who has to say that Hillary won’t throw Abedin under the bus to save herself from prosecution? Even though Abedin was the one who came up with the idea she said she didn’t know about it “Huma Abedin later told the FBI that she didn’t even know about Clinton’s private server when she was at the State Department, and Bryan Pagliano pleaded the Fifth”(Patrick Howley). Clinton tried to cover up her story saying that “her server was kept in the basement of her Chappaqua, New York home. But really, the server was stored at a Clinton-owned office in Midtown Manhattan, where it shared physical space with the Clinton Foundation’s server. Hillary’s homebrew server was operating on the same email network as the Foundation’s server and the server for Chelsea Clinton’s office.” (Patrick Howley). It makes Hillary look bad because she’s lying about her emails and where they were sent from. It’s still unclear if she can be prosecuted but if she ever is they can use that against her, not helping her case. Hillary might be able to get charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for lying and making false statements to the government. This is why she’s not fit to be president despite what all the supporters say. Hillary exposed confidential information, “Hillary Clinton posted and shared the names of CIA-protected intelligence sources on her private email server, including a defense attaché and other covert U.S. agents working on matters including Iran and the Taliban and Pakistan” (Patrick Howley). This can very well secure the prosecution of Clinton, but why Clinton has not been prosecuted is puzzling. Her server contained five emails with exact locations of travel plans of Chris Stevens and the location of his murder by a 2012 Benghazi attack. Who knows if she was a part of the attack, but it is scary to think that is a possibility.

“In July, an FBI investigation concluded no “reasonable prosecutor” would bring a criminal case against Mrs. Clinton, but that she and her aides were “extremely careless” in their handling of classified information.” (Anthony Zurcher). Clinton carelessness should make it possible for a prosecution because there is evidence that could be incriminating to her. “The FBI surprised everyone, 11 days before the election, by announcing it was examining newly discovered emails sent or received by Hillary Clinton” (Anthony Zurcher). These new emails may contain incriminating items but it is unknown because the government hasn’t released any info about the emails. Although with incriminating statements by Clinton, the FBI director James Conrey stood by the statement saying that Clinton should not be prosecuted. “Shortly before she was sworn in as secretary of state in 2009, Hillary Clinton set up an email server at her home in Chappaqua, New York. She then relied on this server, home to the email address [email protected], for all her electronic correspondence – both work-related and personal – during her four years in office” (Anthony Zurcher). While Hillary was secretary of state, she sent or received 62,320 emails. 30490 of those are official but the other ones are not, what does this say about the other ones? Maybe the other emails have illegal information or are sent over her private email. Many of her private emails released to the public had information about the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Hillary has claimed that she had to use her private email for business related things although she never stated why. George W. Bush stated in Clinton’s defense that he as well used private emails while he was in office. “The State Department inspector general report found that many of Mrs. Clinton’s predecessors – including Mr. Powell – were also not in compliance with federal recordkeeping requirements, although the rules governing their actions were less detailed when they were in office” (Anthony Zurcher). Mr. Powell told Hillary to use private emails but stated that she should not use that email for private information or classified information.

“Hillary Clinton’s email controversy is older than her 2016 presidential campaign — and it’s been forced into the headlines again Thursday and Friday when two top aides testify behind closed doors for a House committee”(Eric Bradner). Even though the private email scandal is risky for her legally and it can affect her respect level, she said she used it for sole convenience purposes. The FBI believe that she didn’t use them for convenience purposes but to have more control over the emails because the government emails that she was supposed to use were monitored. Clinton believes that it is just easier to use the private emails despite the consequences. Clinton got out of trouble because the FBI released information about Hillary knowing that she willingly sent emails that shared classified information. That was supposed to be kept classified but was not. “But the Justice Department’s investigation, the State Department’s processing and release of her emails, a House panel’s separate investigation and dozens of impending lawsuits are weighing on the 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner’s campaign”(Eric Bradner). Hillary’s lawyers turned over about 55000 pages of emails found on her private email server to the State Department. Some of the emails were released under judge’s order. Even though her emails contained classified information, the government still has to deem them classified. “But Clinton’s emails are being reviewed by a team of about 12 interagency officials, who are making recommendations on what should and shouldn’t be classified”(Eric Bradner).  Clinton has been called into a closed-door deposition by Trey Gowdy. Trey is a part of the house of Benghazi committee. This could be bad considering some of her emails had the travel plans and location of someone’s death in Benghazi. We do not know what happened in that deposition but it could not have gone badly because Hillary is still free.

Clinton’s email server was run under “Eric Hoteham which was a misspelled version of one of her former aids named Eric Hothem. Hillary used google as a backup server, which was traced by the government. The government found out about the emails through a Romanian hacker named Guccifer. President Barak Obama further signed an update to federal records stating that private emails are legal and can be used. Although he stated that they government further made it illegal to use private emails unless they forward or copy the emails to their government emails within twenty days of sending the emails. ‘March 3, 2015 — State Department spokeswoman Maria Harf says: “[There’s] no indication that Secretary Clinton used her personal email account for anything but unclassified purposes … While Secretary Clinton did not have a classified email system, she did have multiple other ways of communicating in a classified manner, including assistants printing documents for her, secure phone calls and secure video conferences”‘(Eric Bradner). This could very well further the investigation because they state that she used other forms of communication to spread classified information. So the FBI could look into her phone records and other forms of communication to potentially find incriminating information. Essentially, this scandal effects all of us because with the presidential election happening she could have become our president and with her on the verge of prosecution why would anyone want that type of person to be a leader of a country. Hillary has  not been publicly registered as the domain owner of the of the email server making her less responsible for her actions as said in the CNN news report. The FBI has stated that have been watching the scandal without involvement for awhile just waiting for Hillary to slip up, which she did to go investigate but when the investigation happened she was deemed being lawful and not breaking any rules so the prosecution is in a standstill waiting for something unlawful to air so that Clinton can be brought up on charges. The fact of the matter is CLinton did something suspicious and illegal and just because the president decided to change a rule last minute to save Hillary shouldn’t be counted because before that rule change Clinton could have been prosecuted and brought into court but wasn’t. Clinton is very lucky for Obama helping her and should count her blessings for the simple fact that she should be in brought into justice, this may be opinionated but maybe she wasn’t prosecuted because she has connections in government and she is a part of a serious position that she’s done so well. The government doesn’t want to see her go because they’d have to find someone who might not be able to do it as well as her.

The email scandal is a serious debate and should be looked into by the FBI. Due to the evidence I believe that Clinton should be prosecuted for her actions of sending classified information. All in all the case has been opened and hopefully will be closed soon with Clinton getting what she deserves.

Works Cited

“Hillary Clinton Email Scandal Explained.” Hillary Clinton Email Scandal Explained, Breitbart, 2017, www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/10/31/hillary-clinton-email-scandal-explained/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.

“Hillary Clinton Email Scandal Explained.” Hillary Clinton Email Scandal Explained, Investor’s Business Daily, Inc, 20 Jan. 2017, www.investors.com/politics/editorials/hillary-clinton-email-scandal/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.

“Hillary Clinton emails – what’s it all about?” Hillary Clinton emails – what’s it all about?, BBC News Services, 6 Nov. 2016, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-31806907. Accessed 3 march 2017.

“Hillary Clinton’s email controversy, explained.” Hillary Clinton’s email controversy, explained, http://www.cnn.com/profiles/eric-bradner, 28 Oct. 2016, www.cnn.com/2015/09/03/politics/hillary-clinton-email-controversy-explained-2016/. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.