The judge said that months of piecemeal revelations to date about Clinton and the State Department’s handling of the email controversy created “at least a ‘reasonable suspicion’ ” that public access to official government records under the federal Freedom of Information Act was undermined. Clinton also confronts an FBI investigation and a State Department inspector’s general probe into whether classified information was mishandled or other federal laws were violated. [Emphasis added.]

The Clinton PR machine, including loyalists in the media, can insist until the cows come home that this is all a partisan witch hunt, but that is flat-out false. The inspector general, the federal court judge and the FBI are not part of any right-wing conspiracy. None of these are spinnable; the facts will come out.

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Clinton might be able to slip by a socialist opponent. The general election is a different matter. For Democrats, the risk is a Republican president, but for the country as a whole the risk is a Donald Trump presidency. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) may be unwilling or unable to exploit fully her legal problems, but Trump, if he is the nominee, will have no such qualms raising these legal issues, assuming, of course, she has not been indicted by then.

No Republican is going to let slide her refusal to release what surely must be syrupy paid speeches to Wall Street moguls. That she has not been able to put this issue to bed is remarkable. Even Sanders is now needling her about that, slyly offering to release his paid speeches (none) to Wall Street if she will release hers. And while she says she won’t do that until Republicans do the same, the eventual GOP nominee may well take her up on the offer. What’s her excuse then?