Clinton family loyalists and their partners in the mainstream press have resurrected the once-familiar chant of “lock her up!” this week, accusing conservatives of ignoring what they believe is rank hypocrisy. Democrats are raking First Daughter Ivanka Trump over the coals for using a personal email account to send and receive dozens of work-related messages, arguing that her security breach is no different than Hillary Clinton’s own use of a private email server to transmit highly classified information.
Although Democrats would love to see the president’s daughter investigated for failing to protect classified information, Trump’s carelessness with her emails pales in comparison to Clinton’s obscene criminality.
Much ado about nothingburger
For starters, the first daughter never attempted to destroy evidence or cover up her misdeeds. After Congress subpoenaed her emails, Clinton scrubbed her unauthorized server with sophisticated bleachbit software, and she had several blackberries and iPads expunged the old-fashioned way — with hammers.
Alternatively, as soon as the Trump family heiress realized that she had run afoul of White House procedure, she notified her attorney and forwarded work-related emails to her government email address for archiving. There was no subsequent cover-up, and no attempt to obscure her tracks.
“There was no deleting like Hillary Clinton did,” President Trump informed reporters as he left the White House for his Thanksgiving weekend at his Mar-a-lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
As Barack Obama’s secretary of State, Clinton used a homebrew server that she kept in her basement to collect more than 60,000 emails. When FBI investigators began sniffing around for her correspondence, Clinton panicked and deleted some 33,000 emails under the pretense that they were all personal.
After conducting this self-audit, Clinton assured Americans that she had “absolute confidence that everything that could be in any way connected to work is now in the possession of the State Department.” Yet, following a meticulous, year-long review by FBI investigators, 17,000 emails were uncovered that Clinton deleted or otherwise attempted to hide, and many of them were work-related.
“Ivanka Trump, meanwhile, wasn’t using an unauthorized server hidden in the catacombs of Trump Tower. “There was no servers in the basement, like Hillary Clinton had, you’re talking about all fake news,” the president told reporters.
Career bureaucrat versus government rookie
Ivanka Trump only “occasionally used her private email,” and this was “before she was briefed on the rules,” explained Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman representing Trump’s legal team. In total, Trump had fewer than 1,000 mostly personal emails on her account.
“While transitioning into government, after she was given an official account but until the White House provided her the same guidance they had given others who started before she did, Ms. Trump sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family,” Mirijanian added in a statement.
Compared to the thousands of emails that Clinton recklessly stored, which discussed drone strikes and other military secrets, Trump discussed “government policies and official business” less than 100 times. This included mundane issues of work scheduling and travel details — nothing considered classified.
As it happened, investigators found 110 classified emails on Clinton’s server discussing sensitive state secrets. Although she claimed to not understand what the letter “C” for “classified” meant on official government documents, Clinton often boasted of her nearly 50 years of government experience as a former first lady, senator and senior cabinet official.
Ivanka Trump had no history of government service, and it turns out she never received the regular, mandatory briefings regarding the use of email and classified correspondences required for government employees.
“After she told White House lawyers she was unaware that she was breaking any email rules, they discovered that she had not been receiving White House updates and reminders to all staffers about prohibited use of private email,” The Washington Post reported.
Odd job
In fact, many of Trump’s emails under scrutiny occurred before March 30, when she pledged to comply “with all ethics rules” as an unpaid White House advisor, a non-traditional position without any formal role in the administration. Before then, Trump was simply acting in her capacity as the president’s daughter.
“Throughout this process I have been working closely and in good faith with the White House counsel and my personal counsel to address the unprecedented nature of my role,” she said at the time in response to complaints that her voluntary, informal role could give her all of the access and perks of the White House without any oversight.
Therefore, it is unclear if the first daughter is even subject to the Presidential Records Act or any other rules requiring that her emails are safeguarded and archived. In fact, leftist calls to “lock her up” are petty and undeserved, an unsubstantiated whataboutism certain to rile Clinton defenders and convince liberals that the Trump family are criminal offenders of the nastiest variety.
Nothing could be further from the truth — but don’t expect the mainstream media to report on this.
No comments: