Did Hillary Clinton Break The Law?

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 sparked intense scrutiny during her 2016 presidential campaign. While no charges were filed, the controversy was the most-covered topic during her second presidential run.

Clinton's use of a private server for official and personal business was initially discovered during an investigation into her conduct and knowledge of the 2012 Benghazi attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterintelligence Division launched a probe into whether Clinton's use of a private server was unlawful.

While Clinton's lies about her awareness of the emails may have been cause for additional criminal charges, the central focus of the investigation was her handling of classified information. Clinton's primary defence was that she was unaware of their classification at the time the emails were sent or received.

FBI Director James Comey stated that Clinton and her aides may have violated the law, but their actions did not warrant criminal charges. Comey noted that Clinton and her aides had been extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information. However, he added that there was no clear criminal intent, and that the bar for prosecuting violations of the espionage laws was high.

Clinton's actions did not shield the FBI from allegations of politicisation in the months leading up to the November 2016 election.

Mishandling of classified information

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official communications while serving as Secretary of State sparked a political and legal controversy. The issue centred on whether Clinton had mishandled classified information, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducting a years-long investigation into her conduct.

The controversy began with the discovery that Clinton had used a private email server and domain hosted in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, New York, rather than an official State Department email account. This arrangement was not disclosed to State Department security personnel and raised concerns about security risks and potential violations of federal record-keeping procedures.

The FBI investigation focused on whether classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on Clinton's private server, in violation of federal statutes. The inquiry examined two potential charges: a felony for mishandling classified information either intentionally or with gross negligence, and a misdemeanour for knowingly removing classified information from appropriate systems.

The FBI found that Clinton had sent and received 110 emails containing information that was classified at the time, including eight email chains containing "Top Secret" information, 36 deemed "Secret", and eight containing "Confidential" information, the lowest level of classification. Additionally, about 2,000 other emails were retroactively classified as "Confidential".

The FBI also discovered several thousand work-related emails that were not included in the 30,000 emails Clinton initially provided to the State Department. These additional emails were found on various devices and through the review of millions of email fragments left on a decommissioned server. Three of these additional emails were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the "Secret" level and two at the "Confidential" level.

While the FBI found evidence of "extreme carelessness" in handling sensitive and highly classified information, they concluded that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring charges due to a lack of clear evidence of criminal intent, following the historical standard for pursuing prosecution in such cases. The FBI noted that past cases of prosecuting mishandling of classified information involved factors such as intentional and willful mishandling, vast exposure of materials, indications of disloyalty, or obstruction of justice, which were not present in Clinton's case.

Despite the FBI's recommendation, the controversy surrounding Clinton's email server persisted and was a significant issue during the 2016 presidential election, in which she was the Democratic nominee. The State Department's internal investigation, concluded in September 2019, found 588 security violations, including 91 valid security violations attributed to 38 individuals. However, the investigation also found no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.

Violation of the Federal Records Act

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State led to accusations of violating the Federal Records Act. The Federal Records Act requires federal officials to retain all incoming and outgoing emails as part of the agency record.

Clinton's use of a private email server was first revealed in March 2015 by the Benghazi panel, which was investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack. The panel discovered that Clinton had exclusively used her own private email server rather than a government-issued one throughout her time as Secretary of State.

Clinton defended her actions, stating that she used her personal email for convenience and that it was permitted by federal laws and State Department regulations. She also claimed that former secretaries of state had also maintained personal email accounts. However, Clinton was the only secretary of state to use a private server.

The State Department's inspector general released a report in May 2016, concluding that Clinton's use of private email for department business was "not an appropriate method" of document preservation and did not follow department policies that aim to comply with federal record laws. The report also stated that Clinton did not seek approval from the State Department staff for her use of a private email server.

While no charges were filed against Clinton, the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server was the most covered topic during her 2016 presidential campaign.

Violation of 18 U.S.C. 1924

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official and personal business while at the Department of State has been the subject of much scrutiny and investigation. The controversy centres around her handling of classified information, specifically, whether she violated 18 U.S.C. § 1924, which pertains to the "Unauthorized Removal and Retention of Classified Documents or Materials".

The statute is violated when:

> [A]n officer, employee, contractor, or consultant of the United States, ... by virtue of his office, employment, position, or contract, becomes possessed of documents or materials containing classified information of the United States, knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and [does so] with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location.

To violate this statute, it must be proven that Clinton knew that classified emails were contained on her private server. While Clinton has stated that she was "confident" she had "never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time", the State Department's review of 30,000 Clinton emails indicates that at least 671 emails sent or received by Clinton contained classified information.

The FBI's investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server concluded that while there was evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges as there was no evidence of intentional misconduct or efforts to obstruct justice. The investigation also found that Clinton's use of a private email server did not result in any successful hacking attempts, although it was assessed as possible that hostile actors gained access.

While Clinton's actions may have minimal legal ramifications, the political fallout from the controversy was significant, especially in the context of her 2016 presidential campaign.

Violation of 18 U.S.C. 793 Subsection F

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official and personal business while serving as Secretary of State led to an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterintelligence Division. The investigation centred on her handling of classified information, specifically whether she had violated laws governing the accessing and storage of classified government information.

Clinton's primary defence was that she was unaware of the classification of the emails at the time they were sent or received. However, a State Department review of 30,000 Clinton emails indicated that at least 671 emails sent or received by Clinton contained classified information.

Clinton may have violated 18 U.S.C. 793 Subsection F, which states:

> Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

An intelligence community source cited in an October 16th Fox News report stated that the subsection requires the "lawful possession" of national defence information by a security clearance holder, who, through gross negligence, such as the use of an unsecure computer network, permits the material to be removed or abstracted from its proper, secure location.

Violation of campaign finance law

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) agreed to pay $113,000 to settle a Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigation into whether they violated campaign finance law. The Coolidge Reagan Foundation filed an administrative complaint in 2018, accusing Clinton's campaign and the DNC of misreporting payments made to a law firm during the 2016 campaign to obscure the spending.

The Clinton campaign hired Perkins Coie, which then hired Fusion GPS, a research and intelligence firm, to conduct opposition research on Republican candidate Donald Trump's ties to Russia. On FEC forms, the Clinton campaign classified the spending as legal services.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC argued that the payments had been described accurately but agreed to settle without conceding to avoid further legal costs. The Clinton campaign agreed to an $8,000 civil penalty, while the DNC paid $105,000.

In addition to the violation of campaign finance law, Clinton also faced scrutiny for her use of a private email server while serving as Secretary of State. This led to an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counterintelligence Division, which looked into whether she unlawfully handled classified information. Clinton maintained that she was unaware of the classification of the emails at the time they were sent or received.

While the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server garnered significant attention, it is important to note that the focus of this question is on the violation of campaign finance law.

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