Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Re:Let me fix that for you... (Score 5, Informative) 662

Clarkson was the one to report the assault so if anyone was looking for an excuse out of re-upping a contract it was probably Clarkson. This way he can leave without carrying any of the baggage simply quitting the show would have given him.

Jeremy will be fine. He knows that every other channel has been trying for years to poach him away from the BBC and once he sold his interest in the show to the BBC a year or so ago his income was no longer tied to how well Top Gear itself did.

Comment Re:like benghazi (Score 1) 609

The Logan act wouldn't apply to Senators anyway since it does not differentiate between any of the co-equal branches of government. Thus, a senator is just a permitted to speak on international relations as the President and the reason Pelosi wasn't charged with violating it when she flew to Iran during Bush's tenure directly against the executives wishes.

Comment Re:like benghazi (Score 1) 609

Nancy Pelosi flew to Iran directly against State dept. (President Bush's) request.
Ted Kennedy was in contact with the USSR requesting and offering aid to oust a sitting President (Reagan).

And according the the constitution, Senators are the only officials in the US government able to actually to codify a treaty between nations into law so not only are they allowed to speak their mind on the subject of international relations, they are uniquely empowered to act on it.

Comment Re:Clear to me (Score 1) 609

Several people, including Rice herself I believe, have already stated she doesn't like email and never used it. She did have a .gov address though.

Powell used a personal account but claims to have cc'd state on every work related email. A terrible archiving system but one that was listed as acceptable at the time.

Comment Re:Clear to me (Score 1) 609

You know, the whole fact that she knows she must turn over all those communications eventually?

That's the problem isn't it, she knows she doesn't have to turn them all over. No one outside of the Clinton camp has ever had access to the server(s) or their contents, and investigators only get bits and pieces given to them by the Hillary's team and even then only in physical form and not even the original digital copy with header information. From what's been received thus far there are already reports of months long gaps.

She's already admitted to deleting tens of thousands of email but claimed they were all personal, a number between her and Bill. One problem is Bill is on record just recently stating he never uses email and has only ever sent 2 in his life, both while President.

Comment Re:No it doesn't. (Score 1) 609

While the Bush email was a problem and dealt with at the time, Senators, Congressman, Governors and all other state level politicians are not subject to a Federal law about Federal employees so there is no reason to bring them up except to try and create political cover for Hillary.

Jeb Bush, Sarah Palin, Scott Walker etc.. did not violate the federal laws requiring them to archive their official records because there is no federal law concerning them on that matter. There is one for the Secretary of State however.

Comment Re:It's not a "moral dilemma" to a Clinton (Score 2) 609

The was no law restricting her from using a private email as long as she NEVER sent or received classified emails on it (a separate law prevents that) although State dept. guidelines in place before Obama even took office strictly prohibited it.

There is and always has been a law requiring all federal records (her emails as SoS are by definition federal records) be sent to national archives. The 2014 amendment didn't add or change that requirement in any meaningful way (except change the time limit you had to comply). We only have her word she complied with that law and then it was only under subpoena, but large gaps in her email chains make that highly doubtful.

Powell claims to have cc'd people at State on all of his official emails. While a terrible way to do things at the time that was considered an acceptable means of archiving.

Comment Re:In other news (Score 1) 609

It's always been illegal (since the 50's or so). Changes to the law have been more about imposing timelines and clarification (under Obama a 20 day time limit before outside records had to be submitted was added) but not about the requirement for archiving of federal records (which all SoS emails are by legal definition).

She was legally allowed to have a private server and legally allowed to use it for work (as long an no classified information was ever stored there - different law) but she was never legally allowed to withhold those emails from the national archives.

Comment Re:In other news (Score 1) 609

We don't preserve other communication media completely, I see no reason why email should somehow be special.

In the US you do and it isn't.

All federal records must be archived for later FOIA requests of retrieval for other reasons. A federal record is essentially anything that someone does while working at a federal level job for the purposes of that job.. The form of the archive isn't important (hence why it was not illegal for HIllary to send over 55,000 pages of email instead of a simple thumb drive with the digital copies) but the fact they must be preserved is.

There are guidelines within the law that allows for some records to be destroyed but they are clearly spelt out and generally are done by the archivist and not the subject/creator of the record.

Comment Re:In other news (Score 1) 609

Try not to conflate the two issues at play here:

1) It is NOT against the law to use external email for official purposes. It's is against federal guidelines but those don't carry the same weight as an actual law and usually only involve workplace sanctions, not legal ones.

2) It is against the law to store classified information on external servers.

3) It is against the law to hid or destroy federal documents which all SoS email are. Violation of this law carries a 3 year sentence and is one of the only laws I've ever heard of that also specifically states that violators can never hold public office in the US ever again.

Her defense for #2 is she claims that as SoS she never handled any classified emails ever, an almost impossible tasked but at least its a claim.
She is most certainly in violation of the retention laws for #3 however but depending on whether they can show she is only in violation of the hiding/withholding portion vs the destruction portion will most likely determine if anyone bothers to actually charge her or not.

They already have emails from other sources showing her having email discussions about semi-work related intel gathering with non-state employees. They may skirt the definition of official record enough for her to get away with not having retained those but if they find anything else on some third party server (say any foreign diplomat she exchanged emails with) but cannot find a corresponding copy on her server then she's done for.

Comment Re:In other news (Score 1) 609

Her use of private email was perfectly legal during her tenure but has been against State dept guidlines that existed before Obama even took office.

That being said, it's not really her use of private email that makes this a legal case, it's her failure to transfer over her emails to the national archives. Regardless of the medium used to create, transmit or store federal records (which all SoS emails are according to the legal definition) since the 1950's all records MUST legally be sent to the national archives for storage.

There have been several changes to the original act to clarify storage methods and timelines (the latest under Obama set a 20 day max on when records had to be sent to archives) but the general purpose of the original act has always been the same.

Comment Re:In other news (Score 1) 609

Just to clarify:

Colin Powell admitted to using private email (not one on a server he owned and controlled) but claims to have cc'd a State department address on all his correspondence. At the time that was considered an adequate policy with regards to federal retention laws.

Through hacks of other peoples emails we already know of some emails between Clinton and outside persons concerning some work at least somewhat related to her work as SoS. Those emails had no cc's to other state dept. officials so only exist on Clintons server as well as the server used by the other person.
Also,at least 2 of her direct underlings also have accounts on her server meaning any communication between the 3 of them would be wholly contained on Clinton's server.

Republicans did no got to Iran to undermine anything (you might be confusing them with Nancy Pelosi who actually DID travel to Iran against executive wishes or possible Ted Kennedy who actually did write letters to the Soviets asking for help to oust a sitting president). 47 (not 57) senators wrote a letter (effectively a press release) about potential treaties with Iran. As a co-equal branch of government and the ONLY branch that can pass international treaties into US law that was well within not only their legal right but was effectively exercising a right granted only to them by the constitution.

Inviting a sitting head of state to speak to congress might be rare but became a large poke in the White House eye mostly because of the reaction of the White House and fellow legislators. Their refusal to meet with the PM or attend his speech made it an event. If the President had just made an appointment to meet with the Israeli PM and Dem legislators just went to the speech it would have hardly been a blip on the news radar.

Slashdot Top Deals

"And remember: Evil will always prevail, because Good is dumb." -- Spaceballs

Working...