Senator Tom Cotton fielded an explosive charge this weekend:  that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exposed one of America’s spies and got him killed.  Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri was hanged by the Iranian regime after a secret trial.  His original sentence was reported to be ten years, although it was not officially proclaimed as the Iranian regime often issues secret sentences.  Secretary Clinton’s emails discussed, in an unclassified and unsecure format, the fact that he had provided “useful information” to the United States.

Speaking in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation, the Arkansas Senator said, “I’m not going to comment on what he may or may not have done for the United States government, but in the emails that were on Hillary Clinton’s private server, there were conversations among her senior advisers about this gentleman,” Cotton said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

“That goes to show just how reckless and careless her decision was to put that kind of highly classified information on a private server and I think her judgment is not suited to keep this country safe,” he added….  Clinton has come under fire for using a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state in US President Barack Obama’s first term.

FBI Director James Comey said last month that the FBI had found evidence that “the security culture of the State Department in general, and with respect to use of unclassified systems in particular, was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information that’s found elsewhere in the US government.”

It appears that Iran used his young son to lure Shahram back into the country.  Threats against the child seem to have persuaded him to cooperate with Iranian security services in returning to their jurisdiction.  According to the New York Times, they compelled him to claim that he had been abducted by the CIA on a videotape, and then used that to create a cover story for his return.  Once in Iran, he received a hero’s welcome — at first.  Later, there came the knock at the door.

Iran’s government in exile, the National Council of Resistance — Iran, proclaimed that his execution was intended to intimidate others in the country who might feel inclined to reach out to the United States.  They also claim to have received his final message before his execution, in which he alleged tortures including electric shocks.

It is a dangerous moment for anyone in Iran with ties to the United States.  Ever since the so-called nuclear deal of last summer, Iran’s hardliners have been on a “witch-hunt” for American spies.  The fear is that the deal might send a signal to the Iranian people that the regime was intending to become more open and connected to the rest of the world.  Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has been at pains to send the opposite message through repression.  He has warned of American subversion, especially through sex and money.  He has also resorted to increased rates of kidnapping Iranian-Americans, partially because the Obama administration has proven willing to pay large ransoms for their return.  Former Federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy says that these payments were a felony committed by President Obama, although no one expects the law to apply to any member of this administration.

Clinton’s success in dodging her own felony charges has had numerous negative effects on America’s national security, but this is the first time we can confirm a body count from her reckless handling of secrets.  It will likely not be the last, given the probability of her emails having been hacked by enemy regimes.