To be clear: Clinton’s use of a private email address for government messaging was not illegal at the time. Why she did it is a matter of interpretation. The Clinton team has tried to imply that she’s a sweet little old lady confused by modern technology – an image undermined by a public complaint she once made about having too many messaging devices. But by storing everything on a private account in this manner, Hillary was certainly able to control access to political, official and private information – perhaps allowing her to bypass future Freedom Of Information requests. A comparison jumps to mind with Richard Nixon’s insistence that the Watergate tapes – produced by listening devices he placed in the White House – were private property and not something he had to surrender to Congress. Again, this is not to imply that Clinton is genuinely guilty of subterfuge and obfuscation. What matters more is that it seems like she is. And that the Republicans are even saying she might have engaged in criminal activity.