Above Top Secret

"What Hillary Clinton did in how she cavalierly handled Top Secret and above material is not short of criminal. She really does need to serve time for this one."

Back in the day when I was in the Navy, I had a high level clearance. There were a few specialties within the service which required one. Once I agreed to go through the anal exam of getting this clearance, it took almost a year for the government to vet me. Once I received it, I had this clearance for the rest of the time I was in the Navy, right up until retirement.

Anyone who has ever had a clearance will tell you this - there are puts and takes to having one. First off, it is an incredible honor that the nation trusts you enough to handle some of its most sensitive information. I never lost focus on that honor. However, there are many restrictions on what you could do and where you could go (like certain countries). Also, should you mishandle classified material either on purpose or by accident, the government was willing and ready to throw the book at you. The fines and prison time for failure to comply with classified material safeguarding were (and still are), enormous.

It has recently been discovered Hillary Clinton stored sensitive information on her personal server. Information going all the way up to "above top secret". First a point of clarity - "above top secret" is just jargon. There is no such term. Top Secret is the highest classification we have. There are degrees of Top Secret which will "compartmentalize" information. And those degrees of compartmentalization require an even more specialized clearance.

A legal expert on a cable show said something very interesting earlier in the week. United States law is very clear on the safeguarding of classified information. The higher the classification, the more severe the penalty for mishandling it. Hillary broke the law. In spades. So much so, she will probably need to do some kind of a "perp walk". And she WILL NEVER be allowed to have any type of government clearance again.

The legal expert went on to say this is a pivotal moment for the FBI and Justice Department. If they turn the other cheek, turn a blind eye and ignore it, they will never be taken serious again. They will never been taken serious as the keeper and defender of our laws. They will only be thought of as corrupt organizations. Just like the IRS currently is.

Hillary is dirty on many things. Her past is catching up with her, and fast. For the sake of this country, she needs to suspend her campaign and make herself available to the FBI for questioning. She does not have a good excuse for what she did - other than thinking she was above the rules the "little people" need to follow.

This grievous error will follow her the rest of her life. In the unlikely event she ever did become President, she would have no legal standing. Plus she could never have a Presidential Clearance. She is forever tainted. Flawed. She is done in government.

This story has long legs on it. It is not going away. The longer she hangs around, the more is going to be discovered. Time to go Hillary. Your fifteen minutes of fame ended a very long time ago.