The Perfect Storm Circling Hillary Clinton (New at Reason)

Hillary Clinton has had a tough week.

Even though she’s widely expected to win the Democratic nomination for president, she has lost two straight primaries to her rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Worse, the federal investigation over her use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state intensified, as five of her aides were interrogated by the FBI. If that weren’t bad enough, reports surfaced that Russian intelligence had hacked into her server and obtained over 20,000 of her emails. 

In a new column, Andrew Napolitano writes: 

Mrs. Clinton has not been confronted publicly and asked for an explanation of her thoughts about the confluence of these events, but she has been asked if the FBI has reached out to her. It may seem counter-intuitive, but in white collar criminal cases, the FBI gives the targets of its investigations an opportunity to come in and explain why the target should not be indicted.

This is treacherous ground for any target, even a smart lawyer like Mrs. Clinton. She does not know what the feds know about her. She faces a damned-if-she-does and damned-if-she-doesn’t choice here.

Any lie and any materially misleading statement — and she is prone to both — made to the FBI can form the basis for an independent criminal charge against her. This is the environment that trapped Martha Stewart. Hence the standard practice among experienced counsel is to decline interviews by the folks investigating their clients.

View this article.