Friday, June 15, 2018

(E)xperts say Hillary arguably could be charged until March 2025





...prosecutors favor the more severe 18 U.S. Code § 793, which is part of the notoriously tough Espionage Act. The law restricts possession or retention of information “relating to the national defense" and carries a possible 10 years in prison, with a 10-year statute of limitations....

Because of the passage of time, it’s possible Clinton cannot be charged under the gentler statute. She left office in February 2013, and the law’s specific wording covers when someone "knowingly removes such documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain" them — written in such a way that the clock may begin when removal happens.

“I think that under this statute, the proscription is on the removal and it would run from removal,” prominent defense attorney Barry Pollack told the Washington Examiner.

But under the harsher law, the 10-year countdown arguably started in late March 2015, when tech aide Paul Combetta had what he told the FBI was an “oh shit” moment and deleted stored emails using the software BleachBit, after forgetting to do so months earlier.

Under the tougher law, "I would think its statute [of limitations] would not start to run as long as the person has the documents,” Pollack said. “It has a ten-year limitations period, not five.”...