Hillary's E-Mail (Breaking News: Smoking Gun Officially Announced)

This ain't even new. This particular federal judge has written a book exposing corruption in the Justice department and he seems to be up to his old tricks, ordering Justice and now the State Department to explain email classifications to his satisfaction a week or so ago.

And now he says that the Secretary of State may have broken a State Department policy. So what? Has he charged her with a crime? Well, why hasn't he? Because he is not investigating her, he is investigating the classification of emails. or perhaps he is just back to his old "exposing corruption in government" agenda.

Asked about the judge’s remarks, Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said there was nothing improper about Clinton’s email arrangement. ”Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account was consistent with the practice of other Secretaries of State, and permissible under the Department’s policy at the time,” Fallon said.​

Even the New York Times said "there has never been any legal prohibition" against the practice and that "Members of President Obama's cabinet" use a "wide variety of strategies" to handle their emails.

"There's not any blanket prohibition on any federal employee from using a personal email account to conduct government business," said Potomac Law Group partner Neil Koslowe, a former Justice Department special litigation counsel who has worked on cases involving the Federal Records Act.

If it turns out that Clinton destroyed documents or mishandled classified information, that would be another story -- such violations can be criminal. However, the State Department has said there are "no indications" that Clinton improperly used her email for classified information.​

National Archives and Records Administration regulations require emails to be "preserved in the appropriate agency recordkeeping system," but when Clinton was in government there was no specified deadline for turning them over.

In 2013, David Ferriero, who heads the archives, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the agency "discourages the use of private email accounts to conduct federal business, but understands that there are situations where such use does occur."

Following that hearing, according to a statement from the archives, Congress amended the Federal Records Act and the Presidential Records Act in November 2014 -- 21 months after Clinton left government -- to "prohibit the use of private email accounts by government officials unless they copy or forward any such emails into their government account within 20 days." [The National Law Journal, 3/9/15]​

State Department rules seem to have allowed Clinton to use her own Email account.

Citing a State Department source, CNN reported that "Clinton was not automatically in violation of State Department policy when she exclusively used a private email during her four years as America's top diplomat." CNN further reported that 2005 guidelines insisting that employees use government-provided email "were filled with exemptions that could allow Clinton to use a private account." [CNN, 3/6/15]​