One of the least noted but most frightening aspects of Hillary Clinton’s scheme to safeguard her official emails and then try to erase thousands of them is the utter contempt she holds for the rules of governing.

The purpose of commandeering all those emails is as self-evident as the agenda of a six-year-old who hides candy under their pillow: She didn’t want anyone to see them.

Nixon was perhaps the most powerful political figure to completely confuse his own personal interests with those of the federal government — until the Clintons came along.

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Such contempt can cause a lot of trouble, because it shows how willing a supremely powerful person is to employ the levers of government for their own purposes — and against their enemies.

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“The way to handle this now is for us to have Walters call Pat Gray and just say, ‘Stay the hell out of this … this is ah, business here we don’t want you to go any further on it.'”

That was White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman said some 44 years ago, on June 23, 1972, as recorded by the Oval Office taping system. Pat Gray was the FBI director. Walters was Vernon Walters, then deputy director of the CIA. And “this … business” was the Watergate break-in.

The recording became what is known as the “smoking gun tape” when President Richard Nixon, to whom the comment was addressed, hopped on Haldeman’s advice to obstruct justice by using the CIA to provide Gray with the pretext to hinder the Watergate investigation.

“Good. Good deal! Play it tough. That’s the way they play it and that’s the way we are going to play it,” Nixon said. “They should call the FBI in and say that we wish for the country, don’t go any further into this case, period!”

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The tape was released Aug. 5, 1974. Nixon resigned four days later.

Nixon was perhaps the most powerful political figure to completely confuse his own personal interests with those of the federal government — until the Clintons came along. Those with so much fear of Donald Trump should consider the potentially horrifying consequences of putting in charge of our law enforcement agencies someone who views the federal government as something subservient to her needs.

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Does anyone not think that in a pinch — particularly an existential pinch — the woman who ignored obvious State Department protocols and stored classified information on a private email server would hesitate to use the FBI against her enemies? To signal the IRS to perform a little auditing work on a political opponent?

Unlike Nixon, we have in place all the evidence of Clinton’s willingness to misuse government agencies before she seizes the reins of power.

Clinton had to know she would have classified information on her server, because secretaries of state deal in classified matters every day of the week, whether they are labeled or not. Her contempt was such that she was willing to potentially jeopardize the lives of U.S. agents and imperil American intelligence operations just so she could hide her emails from the public.

But the emails are only a portion of the evidence that for the Clintons, L’etat, c’est moi.

It had to be obvious to both Bill and Hillary Clinton that the reason those foreign governments were paying Bill all that cash was that his wife was secretary of state, notwithstanding the surpassing wisdom that falls from Bill Clinton’s lips. And that for foreigners who donated to the Clinton Foundation, something in addition to saving the world was on their minds as they forklifted over all that cash.

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That Hillary Clinton, who has grasped so eagerly with both hands for money for so many years, could not help but be at least subtly affected by such largesse had to be self-evident to these foreign donors and Clinton clients.

During Hillary’s tenure as secretary of state, the department approved Bill Clinton speeches — that is, money into Hillary’s pocket — in China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Panama, Turkey, Taiwan, and India, among other nations.

Even if Hillary Clinton could hold herself immune from such corruption — now that’s a stretch, isn’t it? — surely her aides might get the idea that a quo was expected for the quid. And yet, she didn’t care, because what was good for the Clintons came first.

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“It’s impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the State Department begins,” Trump said last month, in one of his least controversial statements on the campaign trail.

Hillary’s contempt for the rules trickled down to her top aides — with her knowledge and approval. Both Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills were permitted under a scandalous arrangement to work for private entities while also serving in the State Department. Mills even negotiated with a foreign country, Abu Dhabi, on behalf of her other employer, New York University.

But of course, when you and the government are one in the same, such obvious conflicts of interest can’t be defined as conflicts at all!

And so don’t be shocked if the FBI comes knocking if Hillary becomes president. It’s just the Clintons calling.