Eli Lake, Columnist

The Conservative Case for Letting Clinton Skate

Sure, she sent secrets through her personal e-mail server. But why should the government have so many secrets anyway?

July 5, 2016 at 7:54 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Presidents carry a lot of secrets. Probably too many.
Photographer: Aude Guerrucci - Pool/Getty Images

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Conservatives are -- to put it mildly -- disappointed by FBI Director James Comey's decision not to recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over her use of a personal server for classified State Department e-mails. The National Review's Jonah Goldberg blogged, "I don't get it." Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, the nonprofit that helped bring Clinton's e-mails to light, said there was a "disconnect between Comey's devastating findings and his weak recommendation." Right-wing Twitter is a flutter with indignation.

And the disappointment is understandable. Comey said it was quite possible that hostile powers had breached her e-mail server. What's more, he put the lie to Clinton's claim that she never knowingly sent classified information through her private server.