Actually if they've gotten to this point it's been real, and for some time, but this is the strongest indication yet that the FBI is most definitely not just phoning it in with respect to the Hillary e-mail investigation.
Fox News reports that investigators are leaving no ambiguity on the question of whether the content on Hillary's server was classified, and are going directly to the sources of those e-mails to find out:
The FBI is going straight to the source in its investigation of classified emails that crossed Hillary Clinton’s personal server, speaking with the intelligence agencies – and in some cases, the individuals – that generated the information, two intelligence sources familiar with the probe told Fox News.
Investigators are meeting with the agencies and individuals to determine the classification level in the emails. The step speaks to the diligence with which the bureau is handling the investigation, despite the former secretary of state’s claims that the matter boils down to a mere interagency dispute.
"This is not merely a difference of opinion between the State Department and the Department of Justice," one intelligence source, who is not authorized to speak on the record, told Fox News, referring to comments on the Sunday talk shows and by the Clinton campaign downplaying the FBI's investigation. "The bureau will go directly to depose specific individuals in agencies who generated the highly classified materials."
The source added, "At the end of the day it will be a paper case. Emails never disappear because computers never forget.”
Presumably this includes the information Hillary directed Jake Sullivan to "turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading" and then send over a nonsecure server. Hillary's campaign insists that was not classified information, which makes no sense because the senders wouldn't have been wrestling for hours with a secure fax server if it was non-classified and no big deal to send non-secure.
What the FBI's move here means is that they will get a definitive answer to the question of whether the information was classified, and they won't have to depend on people in Hillary's inner-circle to get it.
The reason this development is such a big problem for Hillary is that her story all along has relied on the Clintonesque parsing that the information wasn't "marked classified." That doesn't mean it wasn't classified or that it shouldn't have been classified. The directive she gave to Sullivan illustrates this perfectly. If it's marked classified, then unmark it! That might momentarily get you around security protocols, but it doesn't change the sensitive nature of the content itself. All it shows is that Hillary had such low regard for the security of this material that she was willing to put it as risk rather than use a government e-mail address that would have protected sensitive information, but also subjected her correspondences to public scrutiny.
And that is why this matter of her e-mail server matters in a larger sense. Hillary had a choice to make (well, by rules she really didn't but she doesn't consider herself subject to the rules) between using a secure government server, which was set up with the highest level of protection in mind, or using her own, personal, homebrew server that was much less secure but would give her the opportunity to wipe clean any information she didn't want the outside world to see - about Clinton Foundation solicitations, about her outside dealings with Sid Blumenthal . . . whatever. And the choice Hillary made was to protect her own personal interests rather than follow the procedures set up for the security of the nation.
The fact that she has lied about it makes it worse, but the original judgment she exercised here is bad enough. Hillary's first priority is always Hillary, and she will lie and violate policy if that's what she has to do to put Hillary first.
If the FBI concludes what we all think they will from these original-source interviews, it's hard to see how even her media defenders can run interference for her now. It's also hard to see how Attorney General Loretta Lynch can possibly justify a decision not to convene a grand jury for the purpose of an indictment. I'm sure that's how Obama wants it to go, but such glaring evidence of her guilt just might make it impossible.
And before you start thinking of a Bernie Sanders nomination, I'll just say this: If Hillary is indicted and the continuation of her candidacy becomes implausible, I don't care what Joe Biden has said up to now. He will run.
