It was common for high ranking government officials to set up a server in their home and register a domain name for email? Do you have a source?
It was common practice.
link
Sorry folks, not true.
The Counsels for the defense (Jimmy, NS, and Ravensky) are, like their notorious client, far too pleased with inventing dodges, excuses, and red herring arguments, rather than giving sustained attention to facts. So once more, lets review:
The issue has never been over anyone having a private email account. Nor has it been over official business occasionally done over a private email account. Nor is it an issue of someone having their own server for personal business. And there has not been an issue over practices and events before 2007 - before the federal rules, applicable State Department policy, and the laws were developed and implemented.
The issues, ethical and legal, are over Hillary Clinton's intentional actions and her motives during her tenure as Secretary of State. As previously demonstrated, the federal code effective October of 2009 is more than sufficient to demonstrate that Hillary Clinton intentionally and substantially violated the law, and is, therefore, subject to criminal prosecution. Here are the key federal codes on that date:
44 US Code Section 3101 - During her employment, she had a general duty to make and preserve records on the policies, decisions, and transactions of the agency, and to make sure records retention furnished the information necessary to protect the legal and financial rights of the Government and of persons directly affected by the agency’s activities.
Moreover, §1236.20 specifically defined the appropriate agency recordkeeping system for electronic records. It designated that record-keeping can be electronic stored on a DoD-5015.2 STD-certified product, one that must provide the capture of records, the ability to import records from other sources, and the ability to manually enter records into the system, or link records to other systems.
The system must also maintain records security. It must prevent the unauthorized access, modification, or deletion of declared records, and ensure that appropriate audit trails are in place to track use of the records, and preserve records as long as needed to conduct agency business and to meet NARA-approved (national records act) dispositions. "Agencies must develop procedures to enable the migration of records and their associated metadata to new storage media or formats in order to avoid loss due to media decay or technology obsolescence."
...
§1236.22 requires that agencies that allow employees to send and receive official electronic mail messages using a system not operated by the agency must ensure that Federal records sent or received on such systems are preserved in the appropriate agency recordkeeping system.
It also also explicitly says that agencies must not use an electronic mail system to store the recordkeeping copy of electronic mail messages identified as Federal records unless that system has all of the features specified in §1236.20(b) of this part.
And §1236.24 requires agencies ensure that the records are filed in a recordkeeping system that meets the requirements in §1236.10.
Yet during her employment she intentionally ignored her general duties of record-keeping. (Section 3101). As agency head she
intentionally refused to follow the numerous requirements for an appropriate and certified recordkeeping system for state department records that she generated (and received).
Instead she used her own unvetted 'home-brewed' system as the exclusive keeper of all of her State Department email records. (see Section 1236.20).
And as head of the agency she ignored the additional legal and procedural requirements for managing her e-mail records, in particular by not preserving the record in the appropriate agency recordkeeping system.(see 1236.22 (b)).
She did so in order to conceal ALL her electronic federal records on a home system, and for her to exclusively retain the option to remove or destroy records at will, during AND after her employment.
Having ignored or violated the above provisions, be reminded that under 18 U.S. Code § 2071 - Concealment, removal, or mutilation
(a) Whoever willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, or destroys, or attempts to do so, or, with intent to do so takes and carries away any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States, or in any public office, or with any judicial or public officer of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
(b) Whoever, having the custody of any such record, proceeding, map, book, document, paper, or other thing, willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates, falsifies, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; and shall forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States. As used in this subsection, the term “office” does not include the office held by any person as a retired officer of the Armed Forces of the United States.
Therefore:
During her tenure, and for two years afterward, Hillary Clinton willfully and unlawfully concealed, and attempted to conceal, her State Department records by intentionally using her exclusive and private email server for all her official email business, routing her government records through her private email server, and not complying with contemporaneous record-keeping law. She intentionally did not follow procedure to provide copies of private emails to the State Department while she was head of the agency (and had to be subpoenaed before she admitted her concealment.).
Ms. Clinton's concealment and conspiracy to conceal State Department records requires her arrest and trial. Upon conviction she should spend not less than 1 year in prison, and barred from future office.
Sad but necessary.
PS All this was true in March, before recent revelations. Since then, it has become clear that some of her department email records are missing and were concealed, and that she sent and/or house classified material.
One or two additional years at Leavenworth might be warranted.
