Rod St. Aubyn: Hillary Clinton Email Scandal A Smoking Gun Or A Strategic Plan?

We are all following with great interest the news on the Hillary Email Saga.  The New York Times broke the story that Hillary was not using the government’s email system, instead using her own server at her residence.  Speculation has run wild on this story and continues to bring more and more “news” and “speculation.”

One story that I read on Sunday states that the leak originated from Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s Senior Advisor, who was very careful to have the news come from others further downstream so that her fingerprints were not on the issue.  The story alleges that there is and has been an on-going feud between the Clintons and Obama and they are doing this at a time when Hillary is just about to announce her intention of running for President.  Jarrett and Obama allegedly want a more liberal Democrat to run, so they are privately supporting Sen. Elizabeth Warren or former Maryland Governor O’Malley.

[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#000000″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]I am not typically a conspiracy theorist, but on this issue I tend to be very skeptical.  If Hillary was using her own server instead of the government system, do you honestly think that this was just discovered now?  I have to believe thousands of people already knew about that.[/mks_pullquote]

Also in the news are reports that Clinton may have committed a felony if she completed the separation form OF-109 which she would have to certify that she has turned over all “classified or administratively controlled” materials, as well as all “unclassified documents and papers” relating to official government business.

All of this creates great drama.  What will the next breaking news be in this story?  Who has even more “new information” about this alleged scandal?  This will certainly lead to numerous congressional hearings to get down to the bottom of the story.  Congress will have these hearings and promise to investigate this fully.  Remember the IRS scandal and the ongoing Benghazi hearings?  Has anything substantive occurred in those hearings.  Has anyone been prosecuted in either of those congressional hearings?

I recognize that Congressman Trey Gowdy is still working on his hearings and I am quite impressed with the man.  However, I am extremely doubtful that anything will happen in the end.

So we can expect that new congressional hearings will be commenced.  Hillary Clinton will be asked to appear to provide testimony and Republicans will attempt to tarnish her armor before her run as President.

I am not typically a conspiracy theorist, but on this issue I tend to be very skeptical.  If Hillary was using her own server instead of the government system, do you honestly think that this was just discovered now?  I have to believe thousands of people already knew about that.

Could it be that Hillary knew that this may be problematic so her handlers took the time to make sure damaging information was somehow removed before she finally turned over those records?  Yes, this information could be damaging, but announcing this now may give her plenty to time to participate in the hearings and display how Republicans are doing this to her to just get at her during her run for president.  The American people really get “hearing fatigue”.  Unless there is any really new information that is discovered through these hearings, people will ignore it.  My proof is just look at the IRS and Benghazi hearings.  Do people really care anymore about those two issues?

Though I don’t know any more than any of you what the truth will be, I do know that the Clinton’s are very politically smart people.  This could be a smart strategic move on their part  to get the political baggage exposed, get even more exposure to the public through the hearings, and potentially create a sympathetic environment so the public will be angry that the Republicans are doing this for only political reasons.  If it were up to me, I would push for an independent counsel to investigate this rather than having hearings give the appearance that Republicans want to attack Hillary Clinton.  In my mind that would be a smarter move.

Let the Independent Counsel separate the truth from the political “gotchas”.  Then we will avoid the political pitfalls if this is a Clinton strategic move.  Time will tell if this is a smoking gun or a smart strategic move.