At this point it’s difficult to gauge if Hillary Clinton is more afraid of losing to Bernie Sanders and seeing the nomination snatched once again from her hands — or of losing to Uncle Sam, and going to prison for mishandling classified information.

Clinton personally authored over 100 emails containing classified information on her private server, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. This news came soon after it was revealed that former State Department staffer, Brian Pagliano, had been granted immunity by the FBI in return for cooperation in their investigation.

“The standard method for DOJ [Department of Justice] to go after higher ups in any criminal organization or corruption investigation is to grant immunity to participants at a low level who can be used as witnesses to help indict folks above them,” said Hans von Spakovsky, legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

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“This is an indication that the department is after higher level individuals — except we don’t know if that means Hillary Clinton or her staff or both,” he said.

It’s also a strong indication that a grand jury is being convened, said Joe diGenova, former U.S. Attorney and founding partner of the Washington, D.C., law firm diGenova & Toensing. Former and current government officials said FBI agents will likely interview Clinton, as well as her former staff, about the private server, the Washington Post also reported.

Given that the cooperating witness, Pagliano, worked on Clinton’s 2008 campaign and was personally responsible for setting up the private email server in her home in 2009, those could be tense interviews for Clinton indeed. Coupled with the fact that Clinton personally violated the law over 100 times, it seems hard to imagine the FBI won’t recommend an indictment.

“The new administration could indict Clinton based on the referral from the FBI, since we would still be within the statute of limitations.”

However, “Eric Holder politicized the Justice Department to an extent never seen before, and Loretta Lynch has not changed that or tried to clean up the Department,” noted Spakovsky, who has “serious doubts that Lynch will take an objective, nonpartisan look at any referral from FBI or will not allow political considerations to drive her decision.”

But even if Lynch does indeed decide not to indict Clinton, she could still be indicted if a Republican wins the White House in 2016. “The new administration could indict Clinton based on the referral from the FBI since we would still be within the statute of limitations for violations of the laws governing handling of classified materials,” Spakovsky said.

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The only way she could avoid that outcome is if Lynch grants her immunity for cooperating in the current investigation. She could also receive a preemptive pardon from President Obama, suggested both von Spakovsky and diGenova.

“A pardon can be issued for possible violations of federal law even before any indictment has occurred,” noted von Spakovsky. “Remember that Gerald Ford did that for Richard Nixon.”

However, if Clinton — who surely is the Nixon of our time when it comes to ethics — is granted immunity by Lynch or pardoned by Obama, it could pose serious PR issues for her presidential campaign, should she secure the Democratic nomination

“I have immunity” and “I was pardoned” are by no means the same thing as “I didn’t do it.” And none of those phrases make a very good campaign bumper sticker.