Let's make it easier:

Suppose a John McCain staffer (or an employee of his Internet vendor), in his spare time, put together a devastating, funny YouTube video attacking Clinton for the scandals in her husband's White House.

He gets caught.  But he says, "Oh, I wasn't directed to do that; it was all on me."

Wouldn't we, as Dems, demand that he be fired, because we'd believe that he was in fact directed to do it but the "voluntary" thing was a ruse?