HERE’S AN ADDENDUM to my piece yesterday, “Washington’s manipulation of the English language.”
The word is “intent.” You may recall, as I did, that former FBI Director James Comey told us that Hillary Clinton didn’t have the requisite intent to move forward with a prosecution.
“We did not find evidence sufficient to establish that she (Hillary Clinton) was sending classified information beyond a reasonable doubt to meet the intent standard,” he said.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy believed that Comey, in essence, rewrote the statute by inserting the intent element into his recommendation against prosecution on the grounds that there was no intent to harm the United States. The law, 18 USC 793(f), which Comey explicitly referenced, does not require intent.
Clearly, Hillary intentionally set up a private server to handle her e-mail documentation, which exposed classified information.
Comey recognized that Clinton should have known better than to send classified information. “I think she was extremely careless. I think she was negligent. That I could establish. What we can’t establish is that she acted with the necessary criminal intent,” he said during Congressional testimony.
“The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things to happen due to gross negligence,” McCarthy declared.
Words mean things.
