There has been a lot of news stories about Hillary Clinton’s use of her personal email while serving as the Secretary of State. The law is quite clear what happens when an employee of the government disclosures classified information.

18 U.S.C.
United States Code, 2011 Edition
Title 18 – CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I – CRIMES
CHAPTER 37 – ESPIONAGE AND CENSORSHIP
Sec. 798 – Disclosure of classified information
From the U.S. Government Printing Office

Section 798, Title 18
Disclosure of classified information
(a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information—
(1) concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or
(2) concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any foreign government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; or
(3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or
(4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

If the every day Joe were to use his personal email to send SECRET classified information, he would have lost his security clearance by now and most likely been jailed like Wen Ho Lee. No security clearance, no job.

In Lee’s case, he was charged with improper handling of classified information. The documents in Lee’s case were classified as PROTECT AS RESTRICTED DATA initially and later were reclassified as SECRET to allow the government to charge him with a crime. Once charged, Lee was jailed while the investigation continued. When the political dust cleared in his case, Lee pleaded guilty to one felony count of illegal retention of classified information and released from jail.

With Clinton’s email, the State Department has already discovered she sent 1,340 classified emails using her personal email account with seven of those emails classified as SECRET. That would equate to more felony charges than those ever filed against Wen Ho Lee that allowed the government to have him jailed during the investigation into his mishandling of classified information. Keep in mind, in Lee’s case the information was still on a government computer system. That is not the case with Clinton.

I can’t help but think that Hillary Clinton, as a former First Lady, former Senator of New York, former Secretary of State, and now Presidential candidate, is being granted a free pass to break the law due to her being part of the political elite.