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Comment by jusben1369 | Hacker News Reader

It feels like this was the bar:

"All the cases prosecuted involved some combination of: clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information; or vast quantities of materials exposed in such a way as to support an inference of intentional misconduct; or indications of disloyalty to the United States; or efforts to obstruct justice. We do not see those things here."

Interestingly, those who are strongly opposed to HRC use the term "traitor" frequently. It'll be interesting to see if the more fringe elements pick up on "indications of disloyalty to the US" as the reason why they think this should be prosecuted.

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I am strongly interesting in seeing her prosecuted less because of my political feelings, but more because I know without a shadow of a doubt that if I, as a person who once had to handle classified information, had done what she had done, I would have been promptly fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law (and probably then some).

This gets at the root of the kind of unrest that has led to Trump: there is one set of rules for the elites, and another for the rest of us. There is nothing more un-American.

P.S. - this is certainly not to say that Trump is or would be any better: he totally isn't. But this kind of phenomenon is partially to blame for the anger that has led to his candidacy.

The thing is, these are like conspiracy theories. Any rebuttal is proof you are hiding something!

The Director of the FBI lays out very clearly what he found, why he won't prosecute, and that this was impartial. But you dismiss all that and say it's because she's an elite. I understand if you believe that - but it's apparent you have already made up your mind and that his response would just confirm one of your two conclusions. She should be prosecuted or she should be prosecuted but she won't because she's an elite.

To my mind, the judgments that Comey represents in his report simply aren't believable ("there was no intent"). The Patraeus prosecution is a good example of a case that was very similar in many respects.

Also, technically, in cases of gross negligence (which is surely applicable in this case), intent doesn't matter to the law. It's still criminal. It might have different penalties attached, but it's still criminal.

Eh, the director of the FBI doesn't prosecute, prosecutors do that. The job of the FBI is to collect and collate the evidence.

Prosecutors in fact explicitly ask police and others they rely on to not substitute their own judgement for what merits prosecution and what not.

Great catch. I should have said "why he isn't recommending prosecution"

What Comey writes is that other people in similar circumstances have faced security and administrative consequences- such as being fired, and their security clearance revoked. That sounds reasonable.

This. And it's disappointing to see more average power liberal citizens fail to appreciate that the lesson of "have power, will not prosecute" is well understood, almost as well understood as the realities of "driving while black."

The longer those in liberal America pretend that Trump will destroy himself with his arrogance, the more difficult it becomes to have empathetic and reasonable discussions about issues that could improve our representative democracy. That includes ranked-choice voting, repealing Citizen's United, and a new Voters Rights Act reflecting 21st century problems.

> clearly intentional and willful mishandling of classified information

This is the only one you could make a case on, I think. Setting up an external email server was "intentional". But maybe mishandling confidential information wasn't. After all, the campaign's message was that no emails were classified at time of transmission (a statement that turned out to be false). But if all you have to say to get out of this charge is, "I didn't mean to!" then I guess it's pretty clear cut.

> those who are strongly opposed to HRC use the term "traitor" frequently

Those people also use the word "traitor" when they are cut off in traffic, or when the mailman accidentally delivers their Guns & Ammo subscription to their neighbor.

If there turns out to be corruption with the Clinton Foundation it seems like that'd be the case.

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