PD Editorial: Hillary Clinton email issues take shape

While much of the attention has been on GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, it’s been a good week overall for Hillary Clinton and her White House hopes. On Tuesday, she came away with seven of 11 states where party balloting occurred and, in most cases, the races weren’t close. With two states to be decided today (Kansas and Louisiana) and states such as Michigan with its 147 party delegates to be determined on Tuesday, she’s closing in on the halfway point to the 2,383 delegates needed to claim her party’s nomination.

Meanwhile, the State Department this week released the final batch of emails from her time as secretary without any apparent bombshells or any more correspondence being designated as “top secret.” Furthmore, the New York Times reported this week that a former Clinton aide turned over to the FBI computer security logs from Clinton’s private server, which reportedly showed no evidence that the files had been hacked.

Does this mean the nation and presidential candidates will get back to talking about more substantive issues such as climate change, terrorism and a less-than-robust economy? Hardly. Nor should this be glossed over.

Clinton’s use of a private email server raised serious questions about her judgment and the vulnerability of classified or secret information on her computer. And although the investigation has yet to reveal any breaches of security, the risks were apparent. Of the roughly 30,000 emails Clinton gave to the State Department, more than 2,000 had portions redacted upon release and 22 were deemed “top secret.” Meanwhile, 65 were classified as “secret” and 2,028 were deemed as “confidential.”

Clinton and her supporters say that the top secret emails were not marked classified when originally sent. Even so, it points to the fundamental risk of using an unsecure private server. Clinton said she thought she was keeping the truly important stuff segregated, but she couldn’t because what seemed innocuous at the time turned out not to be.

Before handing the emails over, Clinton purged thousands that she and her staffed deemed personal. Barring the FBI’s forensic experts retrieving those deleted messages from the server’s hard drive, doubts will linger. Those who trust Clinton will take her at her word that she handed over everything. For those who don’t, the possibility that she deleted a damning message or two is hard to ignore.

The investigation won’t be complete until May after which the Justice Department will decide whether to file criminal charges.

We’ve noted before that Clinton’s decision to use a private server was reckless to say the least. The Secretary of State - and any high-ranking government official - must take tremendous caution to protect emails from hackers but also to preserve them for posterity.

It’s still possible that, despite Clinton’s assertions to the contrary, her use of a personal email account allowed vital information to fall into the hands of hackers and/or foreign governments. It’s also possible that the FBI or other investigators could drop a bombshell charge on Clinton or her confidantes. But for now it appears this is emerging as more a major lapse in judgment than a breach of national security. And that should come as a relief to all but Clinton’s critics.