Americans have a fascination with the suffix "gate" to describe scandals or controversies in various fields, including politics. In politics, the suffix "gate" has been used to describe major political scandals following the burglaries in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex in Washington that eventually led to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974. In fact, "Watergate" is considered the original "gate" scandal in the USA and all major political scandals have since used the suffix "gate" as a trademark.
A new "gate" scandal is developing in US politics against Hillary Rodham Clinton who at this stage appears likely to become the Democratic candidate for the 2016 US presidential election. As Secretary of State in President Barack Obama's first term, Hillary used a private email server over which she had received and sent nearly 63,200 emails of which approximately half were official. That she had used a private email server for official communication became a matter of concern for both her opponents as well as many others because "she made her communications on sensitive national security issues more susceptible to hackers and foreign intelligence services." The media has named this potential political scandal as "emailgate."
The Republicans and the conservative media are doing their best to turn "emailgate" into something like "Watergate" ever since it came into public knowledge following investigations into the terrorist attack on the US Mission in Benghazi that killed Ambassador J Christopher Evans by the House Select Committee and FBI that Hillary had used private email server instead of the secured government server. In fact, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton did not even have a government email account maintained on Federal Government servers and secured by the government.
Later, the government watchdog group, Judicial Watch, used the Freedom of Information Act and lawsuits under it to expose the nature and extent of legal infringement that occurred as a result of Hillary's use of the private server and how seriously national security was exposed to the enemies of America. The political objective of those involved in making Hillary Clinton's private server affair into "emailgate" is to establish that someone who had put national security into jeopardy by using a private email server to transmit and receive sensitive matters related to national security cannot be trusted to become the President of the United States.
The law in "emailgate" is in the grey area. The opponents are insisting that as Secretary of State, Hillary's use of the private server for official communication was a clear infringement of the law. They have used the risks to national security that such use of private server has caused the country to underline the gravity of the violation of the law. Nevertheless, thus far it has not come to light that her private server, clintonmail.com, has been compromised. In addition, other Secretaries of State and government officials have used private email/private servers for official actions that federal law permits in case of emergencies.
A former head of litigation in the National Archives and Records Administration, someone who knows the law in the matter, said that Hillary did not violate the law but nevertheless did what was "highly unusual" - something someone in her position would not be expected to do only except in a "nuclear winter" scenario. That she did so over the entire four years of her stint at the State Department makes the matter difficult to explain.
Hillary Clinton in the House hearing explained that she continued to use the private server as the Secretary because she had little knowledge about digital technology. She also explained that she had used a private server while challenging President Obama for the Democratic ticket in the 2008 presidential election. When she became the Secretary she continued to use the same private server that was managed by her staffers until 2013. After she left the State Department, a private technology services company has been managing her server at a private data centre in New Jersey.
All emails in Hillary's private server will be released by end of January 2016. A 4th round was released last week of which 125 have been held back as classified. With the last round released, one/fourth of the total have thus far been made public. So far no eyebrows have been raised from the contents. Most released emails are not potentially damaging to Hillry; some even brought laughter in the media. In the last bunch released, 300 related to those with Dr. Yunus and mostly on matters related to Grameen Bank. These emails did not reveal any conspiracy but merely requests to use the Secretary's good offices to resolve Dr. Yunus' problems with the Prime Minister to tide over her views and objections about Grameen Bank.
Hillary's aides have said that this being election season, the politics surrounding "emailgate" will not fully recede until the election is over. They said confidently that they are prepared for it. What these aides feel notwithstanding, "emailgate" is adversely affecting Hillary's presidential ambitions. In the most recent CNN poll, 56 per cent Americans think she did something wrong using the private email server, up from 51 per cent in March, while 39 per cent think she did not do anything wrong. Among Democrats, 63 per cent now think she did not do anything wrong, down from 71 per cent in March, and 37 per cent independent Americans think she did nothing wrong.
The dipping numbers on account of "emailgate" is not yet any worry for Hillary Clinton because she still has a dominant lead among the few that have entered the race for the Democratic ticket. Against the probable Republicans to face her eventually in the presidential election like Jeb Bush, Donald Trump and Scott Walker, she has very healthy leads. This underlines that voters generally, much to the disappointment of the Republicans, do not care much about Hillary's emails to turn it into a "Watergate". At this stage, where "emailgate" is following strictly party lines, the "scandal", according to David Ignatius of Washington Post, is "overstated". He thinks - and his view is widely shared - is that "using the server was a self-inflicted wound by Clinton, but it's not something a prosecutor would take to court."
Nevertheless, "emailgate" will have to run its full course before the extent of damage it can cause to Hillary Clinton could be assessed. The voters will have to decide whether she used the private server without any ill intention such as to hide facts from the government or to mislead it. In other words, she would have to prove to the voters that in using the private server, she had not done anything wilfully that had compromised the trust placed upon her as the Secretary of State.
If the emails to come out in the months ahead were like those released so far, then Hillary would be able to argue that use of the private server had not put national security at risk. She would further be able to argue that if there had been mistakes, those were inadvertent and that she has become wiser as a result that would make her a better President if elected.
The writer is a retired Ambassador.
ambserajulislam@gmail.com
Hillary Clinton\\\'s \\\"emailgate\\\"
M. Serajul Islam | Published: September 04, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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