Hillary’s email angles

Washington attorney Shannen Coffin updates his running commentary on Madam Hillary’s email scandal in the NR column “Hillary knew the dangers of private email but didn’t let that stop her.” Taking a look at yesterday’s tranche of emails released by the State Department under the Freedom of Information Act, and considering the major phishing scheme discussed in them, Shannen writes:

Clinton and her senior staff were well aware of the security risks posed by the widespread use of personal e-mail during her tenure. They understood the target of opportunity they would present if that use were broadcast. This wouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone familiar with State Department regulations at the time, which required that the “normal day-to-day” business of the department be conducted on official e-mail servers. Those official servers, the State Department Foreign Affairs Manual states, have “the proper level of security control to provide nonrepudiation, authentication and encryption, to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the resident information.” Clinton and her senior staff violated these regulations as a matter of convenience and with apparent regularity.

Yet the State Department did not tolerate the same personal e-mail practices among career employees. A mere three weeks after this e-mail exchange [set forth earlier in the column], a cable signed by Hillary Clinton went out to diplomatic and consular officials serving overseas, alerting them to the security risks brought to light by the Gmail hack and warning those officials to “avoid conducting official Department business from your personal e-mail accounts.” A year later, Mrs. Clinton accepted the resignation of the U.S. ambassador to Kenya after an inspector-general report criticized the ambassador for using commercial e-mail systems to conduct official business.

Private e-mail for me, but not for thee…

Whole thing here.