Hillary Clinton Should Pull Out of Presidential Race, Obama's Former Intel Chief Says
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former chief of Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration, said Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton should withdraw from the presidential race as the FBI is investigating her use of a private email server for official government communication.
"If it were me, I would have been out the door and probably in jail," Flynn said in an interview with CNN.
The FBI confirmed to U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan earlier this month that an investigation is underway on Clinton's use of a private server at her New York home to conduct business while she was secretary of state.
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"The nation would allow itself to back down a little bit and let this investigation run its course with her not in the limelight and making this such a big, big deal, I really do believe that the severity and the number of resources that are applied, despite what the outcome is, I just think the lack of accountability frankly in a person who should have been much more responsible in her actions as the secretary of state of the United States of America…," Flynn said.
The interviewer, Jake Tapper, remarked, "But she and her supporters say this is an issue of overclassification… It's part of this tug of war over, for instance, if I were to e-mail — if I were an intelligence official and I were to e-mail a wiki leak that was published in 'The New York Times' that is top secret even if it's in 'The New York Times.'"
Flynn responded: "Overclassification or not, if it's classified, it's classified. And she knows better. She knew better in the roles that she has had both as a senator, both as a — even back when she's married to the president of the United States and she's going to have privileged information in that regard, not only as the secretary of state which is part of the National Security Council, so she should know better. This overclassification excuse is not an excuse. If it's classified, it's classified."
Tapper then asked Flynn if he had any evidence that someone took something off the classified server and sent it on the unclassified one.
Flynn said he knows only from what he has seen in the news reporting.
"But the issue is if you are going to have SAP or special access program material on a private — on your BlackBerry or your iPhone, somebody has to physically take that information off of a highly classified system physically and put it onto that unclassified public device …," Flynn said. "I don't have any personal evidence, but it's obvious from the I.G. of the national intelligence committee, as well as some of the other very senior people that have reported about this in government."
