Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has long been plagued by negative public perceptions of her honesty and transparency.

The FBI’s finding that Clinton sent and received classified emails on a private email server demolished months of public assurances by the former secretary of state that she had done no such thing. 

FBI Director James Comey characterized Clinton and some of her staff’s handing of classified information as “extremely careless.”

During his 15-minute news conference Tuesday, Comey demolished with facts and numbers a year of lies Clinton had told about her use of a private email server kept at her home for State Department work. 

One of the most damaging revelations to come out of the conference was the revelation that seven emails had a top secret classification, meaning they contained some of our nation’s most closely guarded secrets. 

We may never know what covert plans may have been compromised or how many lives of foreign nationals working with our government were put at risk by her carelessness and indifference. 

These are real possibilities as the director said that Clinton used her email extensively while traveling in nations hostile to us and that “hostile actors” may have hacked into her system. 

All of these bad consequences are the result of putting convenience and other considerations that only she knows ahead of the national security interests of our country. 

Mrs. Clinton had been warned by State Department personnel that her emails could be hacked, however, it seems she believed she was above the rules other State Department underlings were expected to abide by. 

With Comey’s decision not to recommend charges against Clinton, she has now escaped accountability. We will leave the debate about the appropriateness of that decision to others. 

Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness have been suspect among many Americans for years, but the even larger question raised by her use of this unsecured server is one of judgment. 

Does someone who puts convenience and privacy ahead of the nation’s security and then lies about it the person we want as our commander in chief?

On the campaign trail Wednesday with President Barack Obama, the media reported that Clinton wasn’t taking questions about the investigation. Who could blame her for wanting to change the subject?

If she did respond, would she ask “what difference at this point, does it make?”