The editorial board of a major publication in Wisconsin warned voters about Hillary Clinton’s poor record on transparency just days before the crucial primary in the state.
"Her horrible track record on transparency raises serious concerns for open government under a Clinton administration--so serious we believe they may disqualify her from public office," The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board wrote Wednesday, encouraging voters in the state to consider the issue when heading to the polls next Tuesday.
The editorial board cited the ongoing FBI investigation into Clinton’s unsecured, private email server that she used to conduct government business at the State Department. The FBI has nearly 150 agents working the case, according to a Washington Post report earlier this week, and could move to interview Clinton as the probe comes to a close.
"Clinton may have violated national security laws by making top secret documents vulnerable to hackers and available to people without proper security clearance," the editorial board wrote. "The FBI and Justice Department must be free to fully investigate and, if warranted, prosecute Clinton in this matter without any political interference from the Obama administration."
"In addition, regardless of Clinton’s excuses, the only believable reason for the private server in her basement was to keep her emails out of the public eye by willfully avoiding freedom of information laws. No president, no secretary of state, no public official at any level is above the law. She chose to ignore it, and must face the consequences," the editorial board continued.
Clinton has insisted that she used the private system out of convenience and that she never sent nor received information marked classified on her personal email. Still, thousands of messages have been upgraded to classified status by the federal government, and some of them assessed as "top secret." Voters have increasingly rated Clinton as untrustworthy as the email controversy has unfolded.
The editorial also recalled previous instances in which Clinton has attempted to skirt public scrutiny, such as the Clinton Foundation’s failure to disclose donations from foreign governments and her refusal to release transcripts of closed-door speeches she delivered to Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), her opponent for the Democratic presidential nomination, and other critics have called on Clinton to release the transcripts of the speeches, for which she was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece.
"Clinton has a long track record of public service but an equally long record of obfuscation, secrecy and working in the shadows to boost her power and further her ambition," the editorial concluded. "We encourage voters to think long and hard about that record when choosing the next president."
The piece was published six days before the Democratic primary contest in Wisconsin, in which 96 delegates are up for grabs. Clinton and Sanders are locked in a tight battle in the state.
According to an average of polls provided by Real Clear Politics, Clinton and Sanders are separated by a single percentage point among likely Democratic voters in the state, with the former secretary of state holding a slight lead over her competitor.