The storyline was understood to be this: Some months ago, Congress asked about reports that Bill Clinton's Wife had used a private e-mail server to conduct her business as Secretary of State during her tenure from 2009-2013. It took several months for Mrs. Bill to respond, and when she did, she didn't private access to everything on her server. Instead, she printed copies of the e-mails she felt like sharing and deleted the rest.
But it turns out the story is older than that.
In December 2012, Darrell Issa sent a letter to Hillary asking very specific questions concerning the possible use of private e-mail servers in the conduct of government business. The letter asked if such a server had been used, and to what extent, and if so what the relevant e-mail address was. Now understand that Congress has oversight authority over the State Department. You can't just ignore such a letter, even if you want to.
Or I should say, you can't ignore it unless you're Bill Clinton's Wife and you believe the law doesn't apply to you:
But Mrs. Clinton did not reply to the letter. And when the State Department answered in March 2013, nearly two months after she left office, it ignored the question and provided no response.
The query was posed to Mrs. Clinton in a Dec. 13, 2012, letter from Representative Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Mr. Issa was leading an investigation into how the Obama administration handled its officials’ use of personal email.
Why does this matter now? Why it anything other than ancient trivia? Here's why:
When Hillary gave her trainwreck press conference about this last month at the UN, she feigned disbelief that anyone thought this was a big deal. Why, she said, she just used it for convenience, and it was allowed by the State Department. It had never occurred to her until this hubbub that anyone would see a problem with it.
Now we already know there are several lies just in those statements alone. The whole "convenience of only using one device" thing was total crap because she used two devices. And it was not allowed by State Department rules. Hillary even ousted the ambassador to Kenya in part for doing the same thing she did.
But with the revelation that Congress inquired about it in 2012, and that Hillary ignored the inquiry rather than responding to it, we now know that she recognized more than two years ago this was an issue. She didn't leave office until February 2013, so it can't be said she had one foot out the door and couldn't possibly have time to respond. They were simple enough questions. All she had to do was write a response (or direct someone on her staff to do so).
Why didn't she? You know the answer, of course. She didn't because she didn't want to and because she could see no way she would personally benefit from doing so. She also figured that if Republicans in Congress ever made a stink about it, she could pull the indignant act and the media would cover for her.
They should make a big deal out of this now. I suspect they won't because they work in the service of narratives, and the Hillary e-mail narrative ran its course about two weeks ago in their minds. Now it's on to the Hillary Scooby Van or Hillary's trip to Chipotle.
By the way, even Richard Nixon - crooked as he was - didn't burn the tapes. I guess you could say Hillary learned something from history. Then again, when Nixon was in the midst of his fall, she was there.
