Posted on 03/24/2016 7:53:20 PM PDT by Mariner
Bottom Line Up Front: Any data transmitted via the Internet is copied, stored, and archived in multiple locations for a very long time.
To my knowledge, no one has published the source version (with the headers containing Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, domain names, transmit and receive times, and routing) of Hillary's emails.
Yet, given what has been published, the FBI and Intelligence Community (along with most of the other governments of the world) obviously have it.
Fundamentally, computers perform two functions; they add and they remember.
Most, if not all of the devices with the IP addresses and domain names listed in those email headers routinely made and permanently stored one or more backups of those emails as routing of IP data is probabilistic, not deterministic, there is no a priori means of determining the actual route of transmission, or if the data was successfully received, and there is a significant chance some or all of the data may have to be transmitted more than once.
This is a rather long-winded way of saying that those email headers are ultimately going to be the forensic provenance of Hillary's crimes, as well as the criminal activities of those she corresponded with.
Except for significant cases, the Intelligence Community is reluctant to prosecute espionage cases, because the legal proceedings often involve the compromise of their classified sources and methods.
In Hillary's case, as a direct result of her criminal (lack of) security activities, there is no need to use classified sources and methods, because the evidence is widely available from multiple commercial, open, unclassified sources. No evidence will be required that is not already widely compromised to this nation's enemies.
If the Justice Department refuses to prosecute, the document dump from this investigation will destroy the careers and reputations of a lot of people, and leave them wide open to civil lawsuits, with the heavy lifting of electronic discovery already done by the government for the plaintiffs' lawyers.
Under the Law of Untended Consequences, this is likely to cause the Democrats to become absolute zealots for tort reform at a speed and to an extent far beyond what any rock-ribbed conservative has dared to dream.
When they got emails from Hillary that ended with anything other than .gov they should have known. Who are we kidding? They knew! But the Clintons never lost any power.
Somebody in her circle did and with him in place, who is to say he wasn't also able to set up some sort of email wiretap that would secretly copy every email that went thru that server.....
Imagine the potential blackmail of a seated president if that were true........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.