I am appalled that there are high-level policymakers in this country who still fail to recognize the serious national security implications of the use of a personal email server by Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State. They brush it off as though it were just some other political controversy; as if it has no implications whatsoever on our national security or the future conduct of government employees.
I was in the CIA for nine years. I am intimately familiar with the information classification system. I used it every day on the job. Like every other one of my colleagues at the agency, I approached the handling of classified information with immense care because I understand the ramifications.
One of the primary reasons our government developed the information classification system was to provide the most highly sensitive operations of the federal government with extra protection from foreign actors who could use that information against the United States. It is a matter of national security that we keep our plans and intentions private. I asked FBI Director James Comey during his testimony in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee if Secretary Clintonâs personal email server setup made Americaâs secrets vulnerable to hostile elements. He answered yesâunequivocally. He also confirmed that nothing was protecting that information and could not answer how it is not a crime to store classified information with nothing in place to protect it.