3. Even if she’s guilty of criminal behavior, you probably are too
In his book Three Felonies a Day, Harvey Silvergate shows how a myriad of federal laws, which are technically complex and vague, create the possibility of criminal charges for even innocuous behavior. He estimates that the average American commits three felonies a day. He illustrates this through several examples of people who believed they were just going about their business, but ended up ensnared in criminal trials. It is the politically-charged DOJ that decides when to make it a federal case, and they can make a case over just about anything.
The failure of Loretta Lynch to indict Hillary Clinton over her private email server enraged many. James Comey made the recommendation not to indict, but she didn’t need his permission, either. Comey made the call that he needed criminal intent, while many other former prosecutors, such as Rudolph Giulliani and Jeanine Pirro, howled that the applicable statute did not require intent, and even if it did, they could prove it.
It’s important to realize that every decision to bring criminal charges is, by and large, discretionary, and any criminal proceedings against Hillary Clinton would be viewed entirely through the prism of politics, the same way that the failure to indict her is seen as political.
6 comments