Let's put our heads together on the Clinton e-mail scandal [View all]
Right now, I think Sanders is only a longshot to catch up to Clinton in the pledged delegate count. And even if he doesn't, she'll still have most of the superdelegates, and she might take a "win at any cost" approach at the convention, even if that means tearing the Democratic Party apart. So things are looking grim...
EXCEPT for the Clinton e-mail scandal. At first, I thought that was a bogus right-wing smear, like Benghazi, but the more I hear about it, the more I've come to believe it actually has serious substance. I think that scandal will blow up in the next couple of months, completely transforming the race.
Here are the likely options:
A) she could get indicted. It's been reported that the FBI is going to make that decision by mid-May, perhaps earlier.
B) some of her top aides could get indicted, but not her. That would bring out a lot more damning information and still leave open the possibility of her getting indicted later.
C) perhaps no indictments, but for blatantly political reasons. However, the vast majority of intelligence agency employees are Republican and thus aren't friends to Clinton. So under this option, there will be all kinds of leaks from disgruntled FBI agents outraged at the lack of indictments. If so, the exposure of a cover-up could end up being even worse than the original crime(s).
D) pro-Clinton forces try to run out of the clock, pushing off a decision on indicting until after Clinton is nominated. But see the above point about disgruntled leakers. There have been lots of leaks already and I'm sure that's going to continue, so Clinton could be dragged down by the drip drip of leaks alone.
E) Clinton is properly investigated and it just turns out she did nothing wrong, so there's no need for any indictments. I'm 100% convinced this is not the case. To cite just one example, in a 2011 e-mail, Clinton advisor Jacob Sullivan told Clinton that "They say they’ve had issues sending secure fax. They’re working on it." Clinton hersef responded, "If they can’t, turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure." That right there is a smoking gun! She was being sent classified information, she knew it, and she tried to disguise it by removing the classified heading.
But one doesn't even have to prove a motive of criminal intent. The mere possession of classified material in an unsecured manner is a crime, and there's absolutely no doubt she did that. So any failure to indict is clearly a political decision, because less powerful officials doing the same thing would get nailed to the wall.
Given all that, this race is far from over! However, what matters most is public perception. With so much of the establishment media blatantly supporting Clinton, there's going to be tons of pro-Clinton spin no matter what comes out. As Sanders supporters, we should do all we can to prepare and have the evidence is easily digestible form to get the truth out.
The problem is, I've been following the DU primary forum for a couple of months now, and I've seen this or that e-mail scandal tidbit, but nothing that's brought all the best evidence together and presented it in a succinct and clear manner. I say we should use this thread right here to "crowdsource" this, and pool our talents and knowledge to make some kind of article, FAQ, and/or list of talking points about the scandal.
I'm a professional author, with my book The Terror Timeline published by Harper Collins, and I'm good at compiling news articles to present lots of data in a compelling way (which I did for years with the Complete 9/11 Timeline). I'd be willing to do all I can to help with this. But the problem is, I haven't saved any articles whatsoever relating to the e-mail scandal, nor have I seen any website or resource that has presented this information effectively. So I think the first step is to gather up the raw data from links to articles and the like. Then we can work together on shaping it and then spreading it far and wide.
Sanders' best chance to win the nomination by far is if Clinton's e-mail scandal catches up with her. Nobody wants a general election nominee who's been indicted or has the cloud of a serious scandal hanging over her head! So I can't emphasize enough how important it is to master the factual evidence, in order to be ready to win the battle of public opinion when this scandal blows up.
Who's with me on this?! If you are, please start posting links in this thread.
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