Seeing a grown man nearly in tears begging for mercy was a dispiriting experience I had at the Pentagon, when a mid-level officer was imploring Defense Department officials not to destroy his military career because of his inadvertent mishandling of a single classified document.
Yet, top government officials over several administrations have played fast and loose with national security by intentionally misappropriating highly sensitive government materials for their own purposes.
In 2005, Sandy Berger, former President Clinton’s national security adviser, was caught in the National Archives stuffing into his suit pants documents that apparently contained information damaging to Clinton. He pleaded guilty, paid a $10,000 fine, and served no jail time.
An extensive FBI investigation in 2016 found that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had secreted thousands of pages of classified information onto her unauthorized private server, which was open to foreign hacking. FBI Director James Comey decided not to prosecute.
Former President Donald Trump faces seven criminal charges for willful retention of national defense information, corruptly concealing documents, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements. He initially refused to return the purloined documents to the government, claiming they were now his declassified personal property.
A special prosecutor appointed by the Justice Department to investigate President Joe Biden’s unauthorized possession of secret government documents has found that he “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” and repeatedly rejected staff requests to return daily briefing materials. But Robert Hur assessed that a jury would be unwilling to convict “a sympathetic, elderly man with a poor memory.” He also declined to prosecute because Biden,........