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Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law scholar, and George Washington University professor, recently called out Hillary Clinton for trying to play the victim.
In an article for The Hill, Turley noted that Clinton is not a victim and in fact “repeatedly avoided criminal charges even as close associates were charged.”
Turley was referring to a recent interview Clinton gave to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell in which she claimed that she was “the victim” of a “double standard.”
When it comes to her handling of classified information, Hillary Clinton has long been accused of hypocrisy. The Department of Justice’s inspector general discovered “81 email chains including nearly 193 individual emails” that were “classified from the CONFIDENTIAL to TOP SECRET levels at the time.”
“This is a very serious offense,” Turley wrote. “Yet, Clinton was never indicted and many believe that she benefited from a double standard.”
Turley went on to say that Clinton’s “history of avoiding criminal charges shows she’s anything but a victim.”
“Indeed, her record of repeatedly playing with the rules and then escaping accountability only fuels the anger of those who believe that she received preferential treatment,” he concluded.
“Clinton is echoing her allies’ recent spin that there were only three documents with classification markings among 33,000 emails. It is utter nonsense. The Clinton email scandal is a scandal because these were emails. There is no classification automatically stamped on the text being typed out and sent within minutes.
“While attachments can have classification markings, the whole point of using secure servers is that emails are created at the moment with inevitable slips in referencing classified material.
“Nevertheless, the emails had classified information, including top-secret information tied to “Special Access Programs.”
“Yet some allies emphasize the inspector general also noted that in some cases there was “conscious effort to avoid sending classified information, by writing around the most sensitive material.” It failed. The emails still contained classified information.
“That’s why she was reckless to use her server: Such mistakes on private servers are more vulnerable to capture by foreign intelligence services.
“Indeed, according to the FBI, “hostile actors gained access” to some of the information through the emails of Clinton’s associates and aides.
“It’s not clear what Hillary is referencing here. But Comey never said there was no classified information in her emails — he said the opposite. He condemned her handling of the classified material while saying it didn’t warrant prosecution.
“Comey did backtrack later, but not on this point. He said his “mistake” was in how he described her conduct: “I should’ve worked harder to find a way to convey that it’s more than just the ordinary mistake, but it’s not criminal behavior, and find different words to describe that.
Turley concluded by saying that Clinton “is not the victim she portrays” and that her “record of escaping justice is as clear as it is unseemly.”
“No one has been more shielded or benefited more from our justice system than Hillary Clinton,” he wrote. “She is not the victim she portrays.”
