Let's say you're a Clinton conspiracy theorist and you're desperate to single out Hillary Clinton (and no other national security officials, past or present) for microscopic scrutiny as a means to confirm you're long-held bias that she's both a sneaky-Pete and a ruthless criminal. You've been osmotically absorbing all of the news coverage of "Emailgate" or "Emailghazi" or whatever childish title has been applied to the news that Hillary Clinton used a private email address while serving as Secretary of State. You're so amped up by the news that you're desperate to read her allegedly double-super-secret emails, convinced that she used a private address as a means of keeping you personally in the dark about her evil escapades.
Here's how you can get your hands on Hillary Clinton's emails.
Before we get into it, you should be aware that Clinton was telling the truth when she said federal employees can delete non-official emails from their accounts, and they can do so without additional oversight or an "independent arbiter," to quote one of the reporters from Tuesday's press conference. If we look at the regulations in the Foreign Affairs Manual Volume 5 issued to State Department employees, specifically section 5 FAM 443, which covers "ELECTRONIC MAIL (E-MAIL) RECORDS," we find that it not only allows the usage of a private email addresses, but it also leaves deletions up to the discretion of the employee.
First, there's section 443.2(a), defining what is considered to be a federal record that must be kept and archived. Federal records:
--are made or received by an agency under Federal law or in connection
with public business; and--are preserved or are appropriate for preservation as evidence of the
organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or
other activities of the Government, or because of the informational
value of the data in them.
Then, section 443.2(b), which clearly states:
The intention of this guidance is not to require the preservation of every E-mail message. Its purpose is to direct the preservation of those messages that contain information that is necessary to ensure that departmental policies, programs, and activities are adequately documented.
Indeed, any archivist...CONTINUE READING