After reviewing Hillary Clinton's careless handling of classified emails, FBI Director James Comey concluded that "any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position . . . should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation."
He might have added that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton's position should have known not to skip her mandatory training in the handling of classified material–which Clinton appears to have done.
President Obama issued an executive order on December 29, 2009 explaining who has the authority to decide what is and isn't classified. On the list were the president, the vice president, agency heads, "officials designated by the president" and "officials delegated this authority."
President Obama also stipulated that those thus authorized had to "receive training in proper classification … at least once a calendar year."
Investors Business Daily points out:
The training, the order goes on to state, "must include instruction on the proper safeguarding of classified information."
What's more, Obama's order says that "original classification authorities who do not receive such mandatory training at least once within a calendar year shall have their classification authority suspended … until such training has taken place."
So, per that order, Clinton should have taken those training classes four times while she was secretary of state.
When the Daily Caller asked the State Department for paperwork indicating that Mrs. Clinton had received the required training, State replied that though it could find no documentation, Clinton must have received the training.
IBD concludes:
In her remarks on Fox News, Clinton absolved herself of any responsibility for the fact that thousands of emails she sent and received contained classified information, saying that that "I relied on and had every reason to rely on the judgments of the professionals with whom I worked."
But the Obama executive order makes it clear that Clinton herself, not her underlings, was responsible for understanding and upholding the administration's rules and procedures on handling classified materials.
The fact that Clinton didn't bother to follow Obama's order on training strongly suggests that she did not, in fact, take that responsibility in the least bit seriously.
This is just more evidence that, regardless of the legal outcome of this scandal, Clinton lacks the judgment to be the nation's commander in chief.
It also makes you wonder what, if Mrs. Clinton couldn't be bothered to attend to something as basic as training in handling of classified documents, she did with her time as secretary of state.
If you read the emails that have been published from Clinton's State office, you know that a lot of time was spent by aides complimenting Clinton on media appearances and generally flattering her on her all around brilliance.
She may have regarded such briefings as for little people–beneath the dignity of a celebrity secretary who was preoccupied the number of countries she visited (110 I think, but I'm not counting)?
One might also ask if Mrs. Clinton had already made up her mind on how she would handle sensitive emails and didn't want to listen to the training course.