Why isn’t Melania Trump responsible for her husband?

[Dill]

(11-01-2016, 12:16 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Because the law says not to do something that she did. That's breaking the law. If you go 70 MPH in a 55 MPH zone, you're speeding and you're breaking the law. Whether you get pulled over or not does not mitigate the fact that you broke the law. 
But, don't take my word for it, take FBI Director James Comey's: "[i]... there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information..." And the reason the FBI recommended no charges? Not that she didn't break the law, but that she didn't INTEND to break the law.

Here is where you may be missing the point. If you accidently kill someone with your automobile, you are not charged with 1st degree murder because you did not intend to kill the person.  "Intention" is built into the definition of the crime. You may be charged with a degree of manslaughter, but if not at fault, you won't be charged with anything. So your intention absolutely "mitigates" the case, for it is decisive in determining whether you broke a law. Baking "intentionality" into legal definitions of crime is one of the signal achievements of civilized law.

Disclosing classified information isn't always illegal. Intentionally passing "national defense" information to foreign governments or civilians without clearance is clearly a felony, prosecutable by the FBI. But in this case, there is no evidence Clinton "intended" to pass such information to foreign governments or civilians without clearance. And there is no evidence that her handling actually exposed such information to illegal parties. That is the distinction between her case and, say, that of Petraeus. She is guilty of mishandling information, which usually means administrative punishment (like a reprimand or reduction in rank, and/or loss of clearance), not an felony indictment from the FBI. 

Normally, the FBI states its reasons for not prosecuting such cases and shuts up. But in this case, a different standard is applied to Clinton who gets an unprecedented public scolding.

The public scolding then becomes fodder for Trumpsters, who dimly grasp Clinton was accused of something and "got caught" but was not prosecuted. Conspiracy!!! Look what happened to Petraeus! The system is RIGGED !!!!