Former Director of the CIA and NSA, General Michael Hayden stated stated on Wednesday “the original sin [of Hillary Clinton] is actually co-mingling the two accounts [private and work] and not using a government e-mail server.”

Hayden, appearing on “Morning Joe,” added the “NSA does this all the time against, I would suggest better defended targets” then where Hillary Clinton had her server.

Joe Scarborough: It’s been your job to protect classified material for a very long time. This morning you wake up and you find out that the Secretary of State, for several years, had classified documents going through a server that was in an apartment loft bathroom in Denver, Colorado. Can you even begin to tell us what you would have done if you found out someone working with you while you’re at the CIA had done this?

Michael Hayden: Well, let me turn that around, Joe and ask a slightly different question. What would I have done as the director of NSA against a foreign, foreign minister who had done that? I’d move heaven and earth to access the private e-mail account of a foreign minister. And I really go after an e-mail account in which the official and the unofficial e-mails were co-mingled. You put a very juicy target out there.

MSNBC Panel: How easy would that be?

Hayden: Well, frankly, not very difficult if you have the resources and talented people to go people to go after it. NSA does this all the time against, I would suggest better defended targets than we saw in the loft in the apartment in Denver. But Joe, I think the fundamental issue here is the sin here. And Ron, you’ve mentioned this, the sin here is the original sin.  Alright, the original sin is actually co-mingling the two accounts and not using a government e-mail server. Look, there’s a big gray area that exists even in the unclassified government e-mail accounts. But you’re fire walled against most wrongdoing there by the fact you’re using a government account that has some protections to it. Once you remove that, I’m stunned that her staff allowed her to do that in 2009 given the unhappy outcome that was guaranteed once you started doing that.

Scarborough: Are you stunned that the State..

Mika Brzezinski: She said it was legal and that everything was above board.

Hayden: Number one, put legality aside just for a second, it’s stupid and dangerous. And now I would challenge…

Scarborough: Dangerous to whom?

Hayden: Dangerous to her and to the Republic and to American secrets. But Mika, I don’t even think it was legal. That has to be against policy. Look, most folks like me, I never had a smart phone until I left government because of the sensitivity of the information I would put on there even if it were unclassified.

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