so what's this about then, since it's bolded? "or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen"
Yeah, maybe...but only if the emails she destroyed were classified materiel regarding national defense at the time.
She had classified material on an unapproved, unsecured server. Doesn't matter if it was later destroyed, or if the classified was "national defense" information. She committed what is by definition a criminal act.
I thought the Espionage Act specifically said it had to be related to national defense. And what do you mean by "unsecured server"?
I'm guessing it was connected to the internet? Our secure LAN here at work, for instance, is strictly internal. Removing or copying any file from it (ie, putting it on a zip drive or CD to transport to another location for viewing) requires that file to be logged into the document control system, labelled with its classification, and its custody assigned to a person who is then required to control (know where it is) it forever, or until it's destroyed or signed over to another person. Once, a few years ago, an engineer emailed a powerpoint to everyone on a project. He had accidentally included a table with information that was classified as US DoD SECRET. Everyone on the email list was ordered to immediately step away from their computer. IT and security came and confiscated every computer that had received the email. They had to remove and destroy the hard drives. We all got temporary crap PCs until IT could build us new graphics workstations. Since it was an accident and could be purged, the guy who sent the email only drew a scolding.
^I should add, had it been willful negligence, like intentionally keeping secret files on his unclassified server, desktop, file cabinet, taking them home to work on them, etc., he would have undoubtedly been fired. ETA - there may even be fines or jail time for something like that. Can't recall exactly. I just make damn fucking sure to treat secret stuff with great care and attention.
Also, if it's defense-related info on a server with net access, anybody in the world can get to it. That's a potential ITAR violation (international traffic in arms regulations). Last time we had a breach like that here, the company was fined 10 million dollars, and the violator was fired.
Forbin's pretty well covered it. An unsecured server, on the open internet, with classified on it. Might as well have just mailed it to the New York Times . . .
she's above the law - untouchable - Forbin, myself or any other typical mensch handling gub'mint information would be pink-slipped and most likely wearing orange for a few years. Or maybe wearing a pink slip! You get the idea - money talks.
That isn't true anymore. I have to keep telling my mom to stop opening email attachments. I do not get along with iphones and I am tired of fixing her shit. She won't buy an android so now she can go ask the nephew to fix her phone because she cannot stop clicking on the wrong thing. Wouldn't it be great if trump couldn't use Twitter like most elderly men. Weatherbug probably has all the nuclear launch codes by this point anyway.
the e-mails that are "missing" are gone in a manner perfectly in line with government protocol, so was that whole "smashed with hammers" business. It's literally right in the handbooks. Disposing of non-government personal or irrelevant e-mails is not only allowed but recommended.
On a vaguely related aside, I'm responsible for creating the datasheets for some of the company systems. I was Googling around to try to see if there were any older versions of this system photo for a historical timeline viewgraph: https://www.harris.com/solution/analq-214-idecm-fa-18-countermeasure-system (the datasheet is linked at right)... ...when I ran across my own artwork from an earlier datasheet stolen, translated and used on a Russian website,: http://radiocom-review.blogspot.com/2013/03/itt-exelis-analq-214-idecm-rfcm.html Well, the datasheet is indeed available to the public, but that shit would have freaked me the hell out in the 80s or 90s.
I think I've mentioned this before, but some graphics I did back in the 90s wound up in USA Today eventually. That kinda freaked me out, tho they were officially released, not leaked.