Nobody who knows the status of the investigation into Clinton’s server is talking, and those who are talking as if they do — well, they simply do not know what is truly going on but have some incentive to pretend to do so. They cannot know, in fact, unless they know (1) what has been recovered from the server by the forensic specialists working on the server and (2) the precise details of what Secretary Clinton said in her interview. That is because 18 USC 1001 makes it a crime to make false statements to federal agents. Unless someone was in the room with Secretary Clinton who knew exactly what had been deleted, the CNN “source” would have no idea — none — of whether the investigation is close to wrapping up. CNN’s Perez should never have reported such spin. Either it came very close to tipping his source or it was pure spin and he should have known that.

Similarly, commentators holding forth about what the server did or did not represent in terms of a threat to national security are quickly in over their heads if they have never held security classifications or at least studied deeply the subject of the surveillance and espionage capabilities of foreign governments that we consider enemies — especially Russia, China and Iran. The capabilities of those countries when it comes to hacking and conducting surveillance of unprotected American computer systems are extraordinary. Knowing this simple fact would greatly assist pundits in their assessments of the server’s national security significance, but few in MSM take the time to learn it or think on its significance.