Retired CIA Officer Explains Why "Hillary's Emails Matter"

The 2016 presidential election, already one of the wildest in American history, has been rocked by the announcement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while Secretary of State.

Apparently while investigating disgraced ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner’s transmission of sexually explicit images to a fifteen-year-old girl, the FBI discovered more emails relevant to Hillary Clinton’s own infamous case.

At the time, Weiner was married to Huma Abedin, Clinton’s personal aide, perhaps best known for her alleged family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The emails appear to have been found on a computer used by both Abedin and Weiner.

Where all this goes from here remains unclear. That said, in the interest of helping a scandal-weary electorate put these new developments in context, shall we review a few things?

I have worked in national security my entire life. Most of that has been in the intelligence community surrounded by classified information. For twenty years, I worked undercover in the Central Intelligence Agency, recruiting sources, producing intelligence and running operations. I have a pretty concrete understanding of how classified information is handled and how government communications systems work.

Nobody uses a private email server for official business. Period. Full stop.

The entire notion is, to borrow a phrase from a Clinton campaign official, “insane.” That anyone would presume to be allowed to do so is mind-boggling. That government officials allowed Hillary Clinton to do so is nauseating.

Classified and unclassified information do not mix. They don’t travel in the same streams through the same pipes. They move in clearly well defined channels so that never the twain shall meet. Mixing them together is unheard of and a major criminal offense.

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