Scruggs, Vassallo Debate: Could Hillary Clinton Be Prosecuted?
Dickie Scruggs: Hillary Clinton and her predecessors cannot be prosecuted over emails containing retrospectively classified information.
Neither Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell nor Condoleezza Rice could (or should) be prosecuted for privately possessing emails that contain information later determined to be classified. It is a criminal violation only to privately possess information or materials that have already been classified. None of the emails possessed by these recent Secretaries of State were classified when sent or received.
The timing of the classification is the fundamental difference between the case against Gen. David Petraeus and the cases of the Secretaries of State. General Petraeus was prosecuted because he possessed numerous documents that were classified when he took them into his private possession, as his public plea agreement makes clear.
Hotty Toddy
2/10/16
