Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct State Department business between 2009 and 2013 is not a political grievance manufactured after the fact. It is a documented violation of federal records law under 44 U.S.C.

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct State Department business between 2009 and 2013 is not a political grievance manufactured after the fact. It is a documented violation of federal records law under 44 U.S.C. Chapter 29 and potentially of 18 U.S.C. Section 793, the Espionage Act's gross negligence provision, which does not require intent to prosecute. FBI Director James Comey's July 2016 press conference was historically unprecedented: he publicly outlined evidence that met the legal standard for prosecution, confirmed that classified information had been transmitted through an unsecured private server, and then recommended no charges, citing the absence of "intent," a standard that does not appear in the gross negligence statute he was supposedly applying.
The reason this story refuses to die is not because of partisan obsession. It is because Comey's decision created a documented two-tiered legal standard that has been cited in dozens of subsequent cases where ordinary military and government personnel were prosecuted for far lesser handling violations of classified material. Reality Winner was sentenced to five years. John Kiriakou served two and a half years. Bryan Nishimura was convicted and fined for retaining classified information on personal devices. All of them lacked Clinton's political stature and connections. When the law applies to some people and not others based on who they know and what office they hold, the rule of law is not weakened. It is replaced by something else entirely.