HILLARY: I am not a crook!

By Investor's Business Daily

Scandal: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus reminds us of the similarity between the 18-1/2-minute gap that doomed a presidency and an email server wiped clean by a lawyer who served on a Watergate committee staff.

Hillary Clinton should know better, know that the cover-up is often worse than any crime, for she once worked as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff for the House Judiciary Committee investigating the "third-rate burglary" at the Watergate Hotel that doomed Richard Nixon's presidency.

The end came when tapes of presidential conversations were found and became public knowledge with one tape containing that famous 18-1/2-minute gap of erased silence that spoke volumes about the cover-up of the break-in at DNC headquarters.

As RNC Chair Reince Preibus notes, as Richard Nixon's claim that "I am not a crook" unraveled, it was due to the fact that he did not destroy those tapes when he could have. Maybe it was vanity, stubbornness or just garden variety stupidity and arrogance, but he didn't burn them or wipe them clean, even if it might have saved his presidency.

Hillary Clinton has, in different words, said that she is not a crook and that she did nothing wrong in having a private email account on a personal server through which she conducted all her government business in violation of both the letter and spirit of federal statutes.

We may never know due to the fact that, as House Select Committee on Benghazi Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., reports, that server has been wiped clean — after any Benghazi-related emails it contained were subpoenaed by the Benghazi panel.

"While it is not clear precisely when Secretary Clinton decided to permanently delete all emails from her server, it appears she made the decision after October 28, 2014 when the Department of State for the first time asked the Secretary to return her public record to the department," Gowdy said in a statement.

What emails were returned to State were done so in paper form, unsearchable electronically, and were carefully selected by Hillary's "plumbers," led by Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, so as not to include any that were potentially embarrassing or politically damaging to her ambitions to be president.

Like her decision to set up a personal server and email account, this indicates a premeditated decision to deceive the American people and obstruct justice.

Richard Nixon may have covered up a criminal enterprise but at least he did not destroy the final incriminating evidence.

We now know that Mrs. Clinton had multiple personal email accounts on her server and, as the New York Times has reported, used those accounts to discuss Benghazi with aides using their own personal accounts, making it a lie that she sent all her official business emails to people at their government addresses.

Even if that were true, it would be an insurmountable task to find all the possible recipients and any and all emails sent from Hillary's server.

One of the emails that has been found came after House Republicans grilled a State Department official about security lapses at the Benghazi compound.

"Did we survive the day?" Mrs. Clinton asked.

The real question is whether her presidential candidacy will survive the day. If she truly has nothing to hide she will turn over that server to neutral and impartial computer-forensic experts. Failing that, she should withdraw from presidential contention.

Of course, it may not just be the secrets of Benghazi, such as the origin of the video lie, that server contained, but information on the relationship between her actions as secretary of state and donations to the Clinton Foundation.

Team Hillary says she will survive because, as the saying goes, she is not a crook. We need that server to determine what she truly is — and what she did.

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