Hillary, email scandal, and national security

By Lynn R. Mitchell

From today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial:

Eight years ago, Jessica Lynn Quintana, a contractor at Los Alamos National Laboratory, pleaded guilty to removing classified information from the facility. According to a Department of Justice press release, “On July 27, 2006 . . . Quintana printed off pages of classified documents and downloaded other classified information to a computer thumb drive, before putting them in a backpack and taking them home. Quintana stored the pages and thumb drive at her residence, which was not an authorized location for the storage of classified information.”

Does any of that sound similar to Hillary Clinton’s email scandal? You bet it does. Among other consequences, Quintana lost her security clearance. On what grounds should Clinton keep hers?

 

With the ongoing investigation and denials from Clinton herself and those around her, the excuses and lack of accountability are alarming or, as the Times-Dispatch noted, “This is no light matter. A training document by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive states that ‘information is classified as TOP SECRET if an unauthorized disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security.’ ”