For those who still care about this story or feel the need to be armed to defend HRC to friends, co-workers, family members or random Americans who still can’t grasp the clear choice and the importance of this election, I recommend this Mother Jones article to you. Apart from the bloviating of conservative media and aided by their friends in the MSM/cable media, the conclusion of Mother Jones’ detailed review of the FBI notes is the following:
That said, this report is pretty much an almost complete exoneration of Hillary Clinton. She wasn't prohibited from using a personal device or a personal email account, and others at state did it routinely. She's told the truth all along about why she did it. Colin Powell did indeed advise her about using personal email shortly after she took office, but she chose to follow the rules rather than skirt them, as Powell did. She didn't take her BlackBerry into her office. She communicated with only a very select group of 13 people. She took no part in deciding which emails were personal before handing them over to State. She had nothing to do with erasing information on the PRN server. That was a screw-up on PRN's end. She and her staff all believed at the time that they were careful not to conduct sensitive conversations over unclassified email systems. And there's no evidence that her server was ever hacked.
My own takeaways from Mother Jones:
Clinton was again, fundamentally honest. She did not destroy information nor did she tell anyone to do so. Her use of personal devices was permitted. After all this crap, the FBI tried to hose her on retroactively classified emails and 3 improperly marked emails. I feel like contacting Mr. Robot to ask him to hack into Andrea Mitchell’s emails, or better still, just shut down all CNN, FOX and MSNBC broadcasts every time they spew their anti-Clinton diatribes.
I frankly wish Clinton had been secretive and deceitful. The Bush White House avoided inquiries by simply throwing everything in the shredder. Colin Powell at minimum circumvented the law by skirting FOIA through the use of personal email. Jason Chaffetz has done all manner of leaking of classified information. James Comey and his office have leaked confidential information like a sieve. Comey has also violated departmental protocol with his opinions, which has hurt our nominee unfairly. No one with an R next to their name gets an inquiry. But she does. It’s blatantly unfair and dangerous as Josh Marshall has pointed out. I will be very glad when she is on the campaign trail in Ohio, Florida and other states this week.