The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it had charged ex-CIA agent Jerry Chun Shing Lee with a felony for unlawfully retaining classified information. Chief Asst. U.S. Attorney Andrew C. McCarthy believes Lee’s arrest demonstrates the Trump administration is doing what the Obama administration, in part, refused to do — enforce the Espionage Act. The move may spell trouble for Hillary Clinton.
McCarthy writes in National Review:
[… ] Trump Justice Department’s prosecution theory in Lee’s case repudiates in every salient particular the Obama Justice Department’s analysis of the Clinton investigation. […] It was based on such an absence of traitorous intent that the Obama Justice Department and the FBI — and, more important, President Obama himself — rationalized dropping the Clinton investigation rather than filing an indictment. […]
Finally, it makes no difference that Lee is charged with felony retention of classified information under the Espionage Act’s section 793(e) while Mrs. Clinton was said to be investigated for grossly negligent mishandling of classified information under the Act’s section 793(f). […]
Mrs. Clinton should have been investigated (and charged) under section 793(e) since she, like Lee, willfully and unlawfully retained classified information in unauthorized places (and transmitted it to unauthorized people). The gross-negligence felony (793(f)) should have been the prosecutors’ fallback position.
[…]
Yet, by drawing us into this morass, the Obama administration ingeniously set the framework for public discussion of Clinton’s case: just carelessness, not real crime. In reality, Clinton was like Lee: She should have been prosecuted for willful misconduct. […] But if the government fails to convict Lee, it won’t be due to the intent element, on which the evidence is strong. In that sense, the Espionage Act is back to being enforced as it is written. If the email investigation were reopened under those terms, it would be bad news for Mrs. Clinton and her underlings.
As The Gateway Pundit‘s Cristina Laila reported, Comey’s original Hillary Clinton statement was recently released to the public by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI).
Comey’s original draft stated, “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statute proscribing gross negligence in the handling of classified information and of the statute proscribing misdemeanor mishandling, my judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Later, the phrases “gross negligence” and “misdemeanor mishandling” where changed to “potential violations of the statutes.”
Shockingly, Johnson revealed “hostile actors” likely gained access to classified information inside Clinton’s private email server.
Documents released in August show Comey exonerated Clinton before the investigation into her email conduct had concluded. Even more concerning is “Mr. Comey even circulated an early draft statement to select members of senior FBI leadership,” reported Townhall.
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow says Comey exonerated Hillary Clinton prior to interviewing 17 witnesses.
Trump Attorney: Comey exonerated Hillary and gave immunity before interviewing 17 witnesses @JaySekulow #FridayFeeling #HillaryForPrison pic.twitter.com/kZ6RsyZE1q
— Cristina Laila (@cristinalaila1) September 1, 2017
