Chris Hayes exercised a few moments of personal privilege to discuss the Trump Administration's "extremely careless" use of outside email servers and Trump's personal use of an unsecure Android device in a segment on All In tonight that was right on the mark.
Recalling Obama's first few months in office and his frustration that he couldn't get a phone to text or listen to music on, Hayes explained why it's important that the president not use unsecure devices to tweet, text or email.
"Security as in protection from hackers isn't the only reason a president needs a special phone," Hayes warned. "There is a law known as the Presidential Records Act which mandates that non-personal communications involving the president are owned by the public, by we, the people, and must be archived and that includes electronic communications such as e-mails and tweets."
He continued, "If Trump is, in fact, using his old unsecured phone, it means, a, he potentially is violating the law as we speak right now. Remember, his texts and e-mails must be archived," he continued. "And, b, he potentially doesn't have any security in his communications which are thus vulnerable to hackers and we've seen recent examples of how that could happen."
As for emails, Hayes referred back to the Newsweek article we reported on earlier today.
"Meanwhile...senior Trump administration staffers who are also subject to the Presidential Records Act, I should note, have active accounts on a Republican National Committee e-mail system which, according to U.S. Intelligence, was hacked during the 2016 race."
He also noted that when contacted for comment, the White House had no response.
"Now, this is the sort of thing that tends to get lost in a week where the president is defending torture and lying about voter fraud to name a couple examples but President Trump now appears to be doing the very same thing that he lambasted Hillary Clinton for during the campaign. The thing that may well have cost Hillary Clinton the election." Hayes reminded.
Oh, and then a trip down memory lane. Judicial Watch and the FBI were ON IT, weren't they?
Hayes reminded, "Remember, the e-mail story was about Secretary Clinton simply using her private device, the one she had before she became Secretary, to continue conducting her work after she became Secretary."
Hayes concluded, "Trump in this case may actually be violating federal law and almost nobody has noticed it or is talking about it. If the president is, in fact, using an unsecure phone, at the very least, to borrow a phrase from FBI director James Comey, his behavior is extremely careless and we, of course, look forward to Comey's investigation."
