Experts and sources describe the classification process as messy and cumbersome, with far too much information needlessly marked classified. And they complain that when the handful of people at the top of the government mishandle classified information, they’re treated very differently than the (literal) millions of other people with security clearances would be treated if they accidentally misplaced classified material.
“It’s a ridiculous system that’s not fit for purpose anymore,” one State Department official told VICE News.
[How odd that very little of this argument made it into the media’s coverage of the dispute over the records at Mar-a-Lago. Now that it involves Biden, Pence, and likely others, suddenly it’s the system at fault rather than the people who keep taking this material. Vice even goes on to exonerate Hillary Clinton, whose unauthorized home-brew e-mail system was purposefully intended to evade congressional oversight and court demands for her communications as Secretary of State. It’s not just government enforcers that have double standards in these situations. — Ed]
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