The Week

• Bob Dylan is to literature as Barack Obama is to peace.

• “How is that not classified?” That was the stunned reaction of Clinton confidante Huma Abedin upon learning that her boss’s e-mails over a private e-mail system included exchanges with the president of the United States, who was using an alias. Abedin knew an insurance policy when she saw one: She quickly asked the agents whether she could have a copy, doubtless realizing that if Obama was recklessly communicating about sensitive matters through a non-secure channel, no one was going to be prosecuted for doing so. And, of course, no one was. Subsequent disclosures of FBI reports and the hacked e-mails of Clinton-Obama operative John Podesta prove that the White House and the Clinton campaign fretted over the Obama–Clinton communications from the moment Clinton’s “private” e-mails were subpoenaed by the House Benghazi committee. Nevertheless, Obama first falsely denied even knowing about the Clinton e-mail address, then invoked executive privilege to shield his e-mails with Clinton from Congress and the public. A post hoc acknowledgment that they were classified would have made it embarrassingly clear that he’d engaged in the same criminal conduct she had. Indeed, his e-mails would have been admissible evidence at her trial. That’s why, in short, there was never going to be such a trial.