After the flap about Russia passing on internal emails and communiques from the DNC to Wikileaks which made public — on the eve of the DNC convention — documents that showed that the fix had been in on Bernie Sanders, all hell broke loose a few days later on Wednesday when Donald Trump dropped his bombshell. “Russia—if you are listening,” said Trump, “I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing [and] I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” Naturally, the press jumped on Trump, accusing him of encouraging the Russians not only to intrude in U.S. politics but also to hack into Hillary’s server.

But they all missed the point. The real risk is not interference with the U.S. political process. Rather it is the potential blackmail of candidate Hillary Clinton should she become president. The likelihood that the Russians hacked into Hillary’s server while she was secretary of state and stole some or most of those 30,000 emails that Hillary later deleted and destroyed was alluded to by FBI Director James Comey when he reported his findings to the nation on July 5. While acknowledging there was no “direct evidence” that Hillary Clinton’s email account had been “successfully hacked,” Comey inferred that it was very likely her server had been breached by adversaries of the U.S. far too skilled to leave evidence of their clandestine entry and theft of everything stored there, which may include some or most of the 30,000 emails that Hillary later deleted.

Since blackmail is the stock and trade of hardball adversarial politics, voters must now face the possibility that Hillary Clinton’s email scandal has legs with lasting consequences. She is uniquely positioned as perhaps the only presidential candidate who may be compromised even before getting elected.