In the matter of Hillary Rodham Clinton and her secret private e-mail server, there has been a great deal of talk about “mens rea,” the legal doctrine that people generally should not be prosecuted for crimes if they had no criminal intent. These arguments are pretty much 100 percent poppycock, inasmuch as Mrs. Clinton took conscious steps to violate the law, when she either knew or should have known that she was violating it, to achieve an illegal end, that being the evasion of ordinary oversight. Mens rea does not mean, “Well, we don’t think she really meant anything very bad, and she seems a decent sort, so, no prosecution for her.”
The actions by the FBI and the DOJ in this matter are legally and morally indefensible. The fact that these legally and morally indefensible actions come as no real surprise to anybody who has been paying attention indicates the character of the government under which we live.
As I have written on a number of earlier occasions, it is necessary to keep this in mind: We are governed by criminals. The belief that sufficiently powerful political actors are constrained by statute or Constitution is a fiction, one that we would do well to liberate ourselves from immediately. It isn’t that “the system is broken.” “The system” didn’t give us this administration, this Congress, these federal agencies; the people chose them, either directly or indirectly.
We are governed by criminals because we consent to be governed by criminals.
Hillary Clinton Email Scanal: Mens Rea Doctrine Doesn't Apply