When news breaks, you need to understand what matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today? The State Department report on Hillary Clinton's email; a prisoner swap in Ukraine; the next challenge to journalism: rich dudes with really thin skin. The State Department's inspector general released its report on Hillary Clinton's use of private email servers Wednesday.
The report is pretty harsh on Clinton. It says her method of preserving her emails was not appropriate and against department rules. But it doesn't unearth any newly damning details, which means the people who already think Clinton's email scandal is criminal and those who don't will both feel validated.
The official finding regarding criminality won't come from State. It'll come from the FBI, which is still wrapping up its inquiry. One of the problems with the Clinton email scandal is that it was theoretically a security risk, but her server never appears to have been hacked. A guy who claimed to have hacked into her private server pleaded guilty today to hacking other people, but there's no evidence he actually got Clinton.
The other problem is that the emails at least those released so far don't reveal anything devious. At worst, they're kind of sad. Ultimately, the lesson the Post's Philip Bump takes from the scandal is probably the most important one: When it comes to IT, the US government is just way, way behind.
Ukrainian fighter pilot and national hero Nadiya Savchenko was released in a prisoner swap today, after two years in a Russian prison as a prisoner of war. Technically, Savchenko was charged with targeting two journalists who died the day she was captured. Since they died after her capture, however, the charges were pretty obviously pretextual. This did not stop Vladimir Putin from issuing a "pardon" to Savchenko implying she was guilty but had been mercifully spared before releasing her Wednesday, in exchange for two Russian prisoners.
