Hillary Clinton faced backlash on social media Friday after she appeared to make light of her own classified material scandal in a sardonic response to former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment.
Clinton tweeted out a link hawking hats with the phrase “But Her Emails” — a reference to a rally cry of sorts used by Trump during the 2016 presidential election over the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server during her time in the Obama administration.
The email server fiasco led to a federal probe, but unlike Trump, Clinton was never charged.
“Bringing this back in light of recent news: Get a limited-edition But Her Emails hat and support [Onward Together] groups working to strengthen our democracy,” Clinton wrote in a tweet on Friday, including a link to buy the $32 “unstructured dad hat.”
The former 2016 presidential candidate posted the tweet a day after Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on 37 counts over his alleged mishandling of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
While running against each other in the 2016 White House run, Trump hammered Clinton on her private email server scandal, leading to chants of “Lock her up” at his political rallies.
In July 2016, former FBI Director James Comey announced that Clinton would not be charged after an investigation into her use of several private email servers during her time as secretary of state.
The FBI investigation was sparked by a referral from the Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough III, who had concerns that classified information was transmitted on the personal servers.
The probe found that Clinton stored tens of thousands of emails from her time at the State Department on several different unsecured private servers – including seven email chains discussing classified material determined to be at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level.
In total, Comey’s investigation found 113 emails in 52 email chains that contained classified information.
“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” Comey said when he announced that no charges would be brought against Clinton.
Several Twitter users on Friday were put off by Clinton’s apparent mocking of Trump despite her own classified materials scandal.
“Gloating that there is a different standard of justice and that you are above the law, is next level bulls—t,” Rep Nancy Mace (R-SC) wrote in a tweet.
“My God. You’re not helping anyone or anything. Sit out a few plays, ffs,” conservative commentator Jonah Goldberg implored Clinton on the social media site.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald observed that “James Comey all but admitted Hillary committed felonies by mishandling classified information: setting up a private server in her home.”
“They didn’t prosecute her because – as Comey revealed – he hated Trump and was desperate to see him lose. Now she thinks it’s funny,” Greenwald added in his Twitter post.
Former Trump administration Acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Richard Grenell tweeted, “Hillary Clinton gloats about getting away with taking, hiding and destroying classified information. cc: Aileen Cannon [the judge expected to oversee the Trump document case].”
Clinton made a similar push to sell “But Her Emails” hats last year after the New York Times reported that Trump would sometimes dispose of White House documents as president by flushing them down the toilet.
The former 2016 presidential candidate posted the tweet hawking “But Her Emails” hats a day after former President Donald Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on 37 counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice, willful retention of national defense information, withholding a document, false statements and related offenses that carry prison terms totaling hundreds of years.
