There's illegal, and then there's "illegal". You'd think with what we see in the news today you wouldn't have as many people saying public officials can't do something because it's illegal.
The problem is that law and rules may constrain officials in unexpected ways, leading to "illegal" but maybe not so bad. Officials may have "the root password" so to speak.
In this case, I think it probably would be bad, but its a haul to say that this applies here. "Maintaining access to bond markets" requires less lifting so I'd start looking there.
The current email server controversy highlights this - an appointed cabinet official may actually be subject to slightly different rules than other people. Of course this is perceived as unfair, but it might just be inherent in the system design - I don't actually know. There is emerging in security and safety culture a Fundamentalist "no exceptions" mentality. But formal systems have holes - we know this.
