FoxNews.com Several dozen pages of documents released Friday from the FBI’s Hillary Clinton email probe show the former secretary of state repeatedly claimed to have little training or understanding about the classification process – despite leading the department that handled such information on a regular basis and having a security clearance.
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Hillary Clinton used at least eight different mobile devices to send private e-mail during her tenure as secretary of state – none of which were recovered by the FBI as part of its investigation into her communications practices as the nation’s top diplomat.
Journalists and onlookers watch live television as FBI Director James Comey speaks about U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while U.S. Secretary of State, in Charlotte, North Carolina July 5, 2016. “She relied on State officials to use their judgment when emailing her and could not recall anyone raising concerns with her regarding the sensitivity of the information she received at her email address”. Appropriate redactions have been made for classified information or other material exempt from disclosure under FOIA, it said. The first scenario plays into Republican arguments and voter concerns about her trustworthiness and transparency, while the second casts doubt on her pitch as a hyper-competent, detail-driven executive. But Comey told reporters, “We found no evidence that any of the additional work-related emails were intentionally deleted in an effort to hide them”. However, he refused to comment on whether Clinton had lied to the public. Powell has disputed that he provided much guidance, saying in an interview with a People Magazine reporter that: “Her people have been trying to pin it on me”. Previous government reviews of the 55,000 pages of emails Clinton returned to the State Department found that about 110 contained classified information.
CARRIE JOHNSON: Recall, Hari, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, James Comey, has said that Hillary Clinton and closest aides were extremely careless with government secrets, but he didn’t find enough evidence to prosecute anyone for wrongdoing. I think we can put that up.
However, Comey later acknowledged that all the three emails were not properly marked, which may lead to the impression that they were not classified. The FBI investigation notes indicate Clinton had multiple mobile devices, rather than the one she initially said she used and suggest those working for her took extra measures to permanently delete emails, which sources familiar with the case previously said she didn’t.
“The Trump campaign will draw a very powerful picture of a secretary of state who failed at every turn for her audition for the presidency”, Appell said. “Was that true?” Gowdy, who also chaired a congressional panel investigating the 2012 deadly attack on US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, asked at one point. Abedin said such an arrangement wouldn’t make sense for Clinton.
The FBI documents reveal that she had 13 mobile devices, as well as five iPads.
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Though she denied it again to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, her goal throughout was plainly to evade the Freedom of Information laws: Whenever anyone else – from Colin Powell to techies at State – noted that a course of action would mean leaving records that might become public, she chose a different path. “I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal emails, instead of two”. He also said that this revelation casts “further doubt on the justice department’s decision to avoid prosecuting what is a clear violation of the law”.
