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Fresh in her new job as Secretary of State back in 2009, Hillary Clinton wrote to the man who was tasked with building a dodgy case for invading Iraq in the same role in the early 2000s in order to seek advice on IT restrictions.

Colin Powell replied that he did not use a Blackberry, but instead used a ‘personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line’ so as not to have his communications monitored on a governmental server. He even brazenly admits to using it in order to ‘do business with some foreign leaders’.

Of course, Hillary Clinton would go on to experience endless investigations into her use of a private server over the following years. 33,000 emails relayed on the personal server were deleted after the House Select Committee on Benghazi subpoenaed Clinton’s communications, and remain missing to this day. She maintains that the deleted emails were personal in nature, and not related to the House Select Committee’s investigation; the FBI ruled that there was no evidence to prove otherwise.

Though the technology and methodology may have changed, this casual exchange between two political high-rollers suggests that the practice of communicating outside of Government-monitored networks to organise covert business off the official records is commonplace.

Whatever Hillary’s deleted emails may contain could only be the tip of the iceberg; the continuation of a tactic common to officials of executive government, rather than an isolated act of individual recklessness.

I wonder if Rex Tillerson is also communicating off-the-books? The existence of high-quality encrypted messengers such as Telegram would make this task a lot easier for Tillerson compared to his predecessors.

Until the extent of the problem is clear, the subpoena of governmental communications is effectively useless. And more importantly, what exactly is the point of the NSA and their $10 billion-a-year surveillance setup if 33,000 emails relating to a vital investigation can just go missing, and Colin Powell was able to bypass accountability simply by using a private phone line?

As to date, no one has been punished for the crime of using a private communication channel to relay classified government information. All Hillary got was a slap on the wrist from James Comey, who claimed she was ‘reckless’.

Well, surely this email has enough evidence to get the ball rolling at least? Or are we not bothering to apply the law to those enjoying the perks of the highest echelons of government?