Hill on defense until FBI’s email endgame
Bill-AG meeting gives Trump more ammo
WASHINGTON — The imminent conclusion to the drawn-out FBI probe of Hillary Clinton’s private email server use has the Democratic presidential candidate in defense mode — a state she’ll likely stay in if FBI officials recommend charging her with mishandling classified documents.
With the general election just months away and the conventions later this month, the timing of a potential grand jury indictment between now and Election Day will either be awful or worse. Even if she avoids charges, that won’t prevent GOP rival Donald Trump from making claims of unfair treatment. He’s already started.
“The system is rigged!” Trump claimed yesterday on Twitter, pointing to Bill Clinton’s meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which spurred her to retreat from involvement in the case. “Does anybody really believe that Bill Clinton and the U.S.A.G. talked only about ‘grandkids’ and golf for 37 minutes in plane on tarmac?” Trump asked.
If the decision comes in the next few weeks leading up the Democratic convention’s July 25 start, at best it will rob Clinton of a key opportunity to turn the attention away from scandals like email-gate and Benghazi, which have stoked voters’ perception of the former
secretary of state as untrustworthy.
“Historically the post-primary, pre-convention period has been very significant in order for candidates to set an agenda and focus on their narrative,” said Democratic strategist Douglas Herman.
At worst, it could give some superdelegates the jitters, causing potential last-minute efforts to draft U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders or Vice President Joe Biden — though the limited time would likely render such efforts futile.
However, in the event that she is not indicted — if the FBI or Department of Justice concludes there isn’t enough evidence to show she intentionally mishandled classified material — there’s still a political cost, with Trump likely to cast that as another example of the system being rigged.
If a noncharge decision comes before the convention, it will be less costly.
“I don’t think people care or are all that concerned about Hillary Clinton’s emails,” Herman said.
If Clinton is indicted after the convention, it would roil the election and give Trump his best chance to close the lead Clinton has held over him in national polling average since the end of the primaries.
An indictment would not automatically disqualify Clinton from running, and by then Clinton will have the full weight of the Democratic Party’s campaign apparatus behind her, and it will be all but impossible for it to reverse course. If public and political sentiment is such that Clinton is forced to bow out, she could still hand her baton to her vice presidential pick.