THE REAL EMAIL QUESTION: Did Hillary Clinton Sell U.S. Secrets?

Over at RedState, author "streiff" makes a stunning -- and quite rational -- assertion:

While the media is focusing your attention on the shiny object that is her email server, the real story is not being told. The circumstantial evidence indicates that Hillary Clinton, or members of her inner circle with her connivance, purloined highly classified US intelligence and either sold it, traded it, or used it for personal gain. This is not a conspiracy theory and it is not hyperbole. Stick with me for a moment.

Let's summarize what Clinton and her associates may be in for:

• Removing TOP SECRET documents from a SCIF (Secure Compartmented Information Facility, an installation specifically designed to handle highly sensitive information) and placing them on a non-secure system: A Felony

• Removing classification markings from government documents: A Felony

• Trading classified information for money or favors: Not Just a Felony, Possibly Treason

Back to streiff's agenda, the first bullet point of which is the media smokescreen, happily relayed by -- among other -- the Associated Press.

On Monday, the inspector general for the 17 spy agencies that make up what is known as the intelligence community told Congress that two of 40 emails in a random sample of the 30,000 emails Clinton gave the State Department for review contained information deemed “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information,” one of the government’s highest levels of classification.

The AP story, along with much of the rest of the media is trying to give two impressions... First, the Clinton abstracted classified information and included it in her emails... Second, that there is all kinds of confusion about security classification...

There isn't any confusion about security classifications: TOP SECRET files landed on Hillary Clinton's email server, which she summarized and apparently relayed to other parties for fun or profit.

Hillary's fable that the information in her emails was classified post facto was shredded by the Inspector General.

The information we are talking about had to have originated on a highly secure network, one that was certified to handle SCIF-level information... At some point it migrated from a SCIF to a highly secure network to Clinton’s email to her server. To get the document from the secure channel to the non-secure channel requires conscious effort. IT CANNOT HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT. This is evidenced by the fact that it appears someone stripped classifications from documents...

...Now we have a situation where a person or persons downloaded highly classified images in a SCIF environment, or scanned hard copies of documents in a SCIF (cleared persons can bring electronic devices into a SCIF and there are dozens of scanner apps for smartphones and tablets. Clinton and her clique would undoubtedly be cleared.), ported those electronic files over to a non-secure computer and emailed them to someone using Hillary Clinton’s server. These particular images were emailed by or to Hillary Clinton.

...The information the IC IG is talking about a) could not have accidentally ended up in Clinton’s email, b) it was altered to remove security classifications, and c) there has to be a reason someone selected this information, from among the wealth of top secret information Clinton had access to, to steal.

Hillary Clinton, or her key aides Huma Abedin or Cheryl Mills, sent TOP SECRET information to her private email server. Why? The risks were high and the payoff was low.

Unless that information was going to be relayed elsewhere, say, to benefit a Clinton.

Clinton speeches to third-world dictators in need of sensitive information?

Trading favors with foreign entities in exchange for large Clinton Foundation "contributions"?

The weak links would appear to be Huma Abedin or Cheryl Mills, who have a lot to lose and little to gain at this point.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.