James Comey (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)James Comey, director of the FBI, called Hillary Clinton's use of her personal email to ferry classified material "extremely careless."
She has said the same: "In hindsight, it would have been better to just have two accounts," she said months ago, adding that she thought one email was more convenient.
Comey said she has never given the public a full explanation.
What more explanation is there than an acknowledgement that she messed up and chose convenience over common-sense red tape?
But Comey, who also served as deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush, was equally blunt and clear in his announcement that the FBI would not recommend criminal charges against her.
Why? Because there was no evidence Clinton, who had top secret clearance, or her colleagues who received the emails and also had top-secret clearance (and who responded to her personal email account) had intentionally broken any federal laws on classified information. Comey said no reasonable prosecutor would pursue an indictment in the case.
He went on to say that Clinton did little to improve the security culture of the State Department in general, which he said was "generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information found elsewhere in the government.
Note the phrase "did little to improve" the security.
So the most qualified candidate ever to run for president inherited a system with flaws and continued to use it, tweaking it with some flaws of her own. She also said she turned over all of her work-related emails and that no classified emails were involved. It turns out she was incorrect. Still Comey - a trained and trusted investigator for two presidents - finds no intent to violate the law.
Hindsight becomes a lesson. Both in politics and in security.
Give Clinton the benefit of this lesson. Give the State Department the benefit of this lesson. And move on.
This country has problems far greater and of far more danger every day in every neighborhood in every school in every workplace.
It's time to focus not on yesterday, but on tomorrow.