Marine to Cite Hillary Clinton Standard in His Defense in Classified Info Case

Jason Brezler (Facebook)
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A decorated U.S. Marine who is being discharged for sending classified information on his personal e-mail account plans to cite the Hillary Clinton precedent set by FBI director James Comey in his upcoming defense, his lawyer said on Thursday.

Marine Reserves Major Jason Brezler sent an email from his personal account to a base in Afghanistan warning that a dangerous Afghan individual had been allowed onto the facility. His warning was ignored and soldiers died as a result.

Hillary Clinton sent or received over 100 emails with classified information, including several emails marked as classified.

Although Comey found all the elements of the crime of mis-handling classified information, as defined by statute, he said that there was insufficient evidence of intent to prosecute Clinton, referring to the Department of Justice’s policy in such cases.

Now, Brezler’s lawyers are planning to use that precedent to defend their client.

According to the Washington Post:

An attorney for Brezler, Michael J. Bowe, said that he intends to cite the treatment of Clinton “as one of the many, and most egregious examples” of how severely Brezler was punished. FBI Director James B. Comey announced Tuesday that he would not recommend the U.S. government pursue federal charges against Clinton, but he rebuked her “extremely careless” use of a private, unclassified email server while serving as secretary of state. The FBI found that 110 of her emails contained classified information.

Bowe said it is impossible to reconcile President Obama’s statement that Clinton’s intentional act of setting up a secret, unsecured email server did not detract “from her excellent ability to carry out her duties” while Brezler received a “completely opposite finding… involving infinitely less sensitive and limited information.”

Breitbart News predicted this defense (not in Brezler’s case but in general), earlier this week:

On Thursday, as Comey testified before the House Oversight Committee, Republicans raised their concern that the failure to prosecute Clinton would set a bad precedent that would endanger national security.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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