Will Attorneys Now Raise the "Hillary Defense" on Classified Information?
United States President Barack Obama talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Wikimedia Commons/Pete Souza
Sean M. Bigley
“Deliberate or negligent failure to comply with rules and regulations for protecting classified or other sensitive information raises doubt about an individual's trustworthiness, judgment, reliability, or willingness and ability to safeguard such information, and is a serious security concern.” — Guideline K: Handling Protected Information. National Adjudicative Guidelines for Security Clearances.
When Hillary Clinton decided to perform the public’s business on a private email server, hide that fact for years and then subsequently delete thirty thousand purportedly personal emails, she probably never anticipated that a consequence of those actions would be to place the obscure world of security clearance law squarely into the national spotlight.
It is a field that was perhaps otherwise destined to remain in the shadows. After all, the denial or revocation of a security clearance usually portends a rather embarrassing issue for the accused. Examples I see with regularity include infidelity, addiction, bizarre fetishes and—yes—reckless disregard for the rules and regulations designed to protect classified information from falling into the wrong hands. Questions about judgment, character and blackmail potential naturally arise as a result.
Source URL (retrieved on October 14, 2016):
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/will-attorneys-now-raise-the-hillary-defense-classified-18023
