Let's have another talk about Hillary Clinton's emails, shall we? Because clearly this is the bogus "scandal" that's going to keep on giving headlines for the likes of Fox News and their cohorts for as long as they can milk it.
The newest nonsense comes in the wake of the CIA stepping on 20 or so emails because they allegedly refer indirectly to CIA officers in the field.
A handful of emails forwarded to Hillary Clinton's personal server while she was secretary of state contained references to undercover CIA officers — including one who was killed by a suicide attack in Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials who have reviewed them.
But contrary to some published reports, three officials said there was no email on Clinton's server that directly revealed the identity of an undercover intelligence operative. Rather, they said, State Department and other officials attempted to make veiled references to intelligence officers in the emails — references that were deemed classified when the messages were being reviewed years later for public release.
So, not classified when they were sent. Attempts made to veil references to the people who might have caused them to become classified. Classified after the fact.
That's the first thing you won't hear on cable news.
Here's the second: Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell also had emails classified after the fact which were also sent to their personal email servers.
State Department officials have determined that classified information was sent to the personal email accounts of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the senior staff of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, NBC News has learned.
In an interview with NBC News, Powell challenged the conclusion, saying nothing that went to his personal account was secret. Rice did not initially respond to an interview request.
In a letter to Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy dated Feb. 3, State Department Inspector General Steve Linick said that the State Department has determined that 12 emails examined from State's archives contained national security information now classified "Secret" or "Confidential." The letter was read to NBC News.
Two of the messages were sent to Powell's personal account, and 10 were sent to personal accounts of Rice's senior aides, the letter said.
Two things to note here. First, both prior Secretaries of State had personal email accounts where they received Department of State business. This is because the system was so incredibly kludgy that you couldn't have a smartphone (like just about everyone does in the real world) and get email on it to your official State Department account.
Second, just as Hillary Clinton did, there were emails sent which were then classified after the fact. And you can see that Colin Powell is arguing they shouldn't be classified, just as Hillary Clinton is.
When you have subjective standards for this kind of thing, is it really a surprise that 20 emails out of 50,000 or so might be disputed?
Don't count on cable news to say it like that, because it's far more delicious to pretend there's a scandal where none exists.
