David Johnson guest col: Hillary campaign teetering on scandals

Hillary’s campaign is teetering close to disaster in spite of her ignoring and denying her own apparent criminal behavior. Even though the Benghazi scandal didn’t demonstrate much more than we already knew about Hillary, it did accidentally reveal her secret, unsecured and illegal server she had used as Secretary of State and which she also lied about and then tried to scrub, once it was discovered. This, of course, caught the attention of the State Department and Department of Justice and initiated an investigation by the FBI which mainly has focused on her violation of the Espionage Act. This has recently been expanded to look into whether there is a possible “intersection” of the Clinton Foundation activities and State Department business that violated the public corruption laws, and there are now reportedly about 150 agents assigned to the entire investigation!

No matter how this self-inflicted wound will work out, it will conclude with a political fall for Hillary Clinton. Since publishing under court order the thousands of classified emails (so far), a few top secret and top secret/SAP emails that were received on Hillary’s unlawful secret server and also sent from that server — sometimes to other unsecured servers and to people without any security clearance whatsoever — it has become obvious to most observers Hillary broke multiple laws on numerous occasions for years and is still covering it up. So what are the possible scenarios in consequence of the current criminal investigation?

The FBI could suddenly break off the investigation and the outcry would be deafening and the credibility of the bureau would be damaged for many years as it becomes embroiled in the corruption it has been investigating.

The FBI could completely change course compared to its past releases and revelations and start suggesting there really isn’t anything to see here and the results would be the same as (1).

The FBI could continue to compile volumes of Hillary violations of various laws and then the Justice Department could decide not to follow up and make any charges. Her corruption and crimes would then engulf the Justice Department and Obama administration and just further everyone’s suspicion concerning Washington corruption and cripple everything that even appears to be establishment in the election.

The Justice Department could indict Hillary with multiple crimes and then just prolong the process, or her trial, beyond the general election (see all of the above). The House might appoint a special prosecutor in this case.

The Justice Department could quickly indict and convict Hillary of just one of the most obvious and egregious charges and that would immediately disqualify her from running for president — except there might be some sort of appeal concocted that would carry on beyond the general election (again, see all of the above). And let us not even consider what would happen if Hillary was convicted and Obama just pardoned her! Whoa.

The Justice Department could indict Hillary and conduct a quick trial, wherein it’s so incompetent Hillary miraculously gets off despite all of the published evidence. This would not pass any smell test by the public or media and would become Obama’s lasting shady legacy; or, a slimy plea bargain might be arranged. Uh, oh.

Hillary could withdraw her candidacy for the good of her party and the nation — not! She could also plead guilty and then withdraw! Sure she could.

The Democrat establishment could pressure Hillary into withdrawing her candidacy for the good of her party and the nation; but since she’s at the core of the establishment and the rot that has infected Washington — it just isn’t going to happen.

Hillary could be cleared of hundreds or thousands of violations of many different laws on a legal technicality or some clerical error. Wow!

Take your pick; under any of these scenarios, Hillary is done. All of the Republican candidates and related PACs and media would have a field day like no other. Hillary will likely single-handedly fuel the anti-establishment and anti-corruption sentiment already gripping our nation and give the Republicans an easier victory than they would otherwise have gotten. Will the Democrats dump her then for a cleaner candidate? I doubt it.

David Johnson is a Carson City businessman.