You Can't Leak Information You Don't Have

The press correctly, but deceptively report that Susan Rice did nothing illegal by asking for the names of American citizens whose identities had been redacted from intelligence reports. It is legal for her to make the request.

It is illegal for that information to be divulged to the public. We do not know if she did this or not, but here is the thing: She couldn't have done it if she didn't know the names in the first place.

We ought to be able to trust public officials, but part of the reason for that trust is that they need to be held accountable when they abuse that trust. Ms Rice remained in the Obama administration after going on all the Sunday political talk shows claiming a film was the cause of "protests" in Benghazi. Nobody was charged in the IRS abuse scandal--they persecuted Tea Party groups. Why should we trust people like Rice to have not leaked the names? She has given us no reason to trust her at all.