And at the debate, she suggested investigators are going too far in their handling of the “absurd situation of retroactive classification”. The officials said that the messages, in which officials from the State Department and other agencies made indirect references to undercover officers, have since been classified in State’s review of Clinton’s emails.
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Asked Wednesday if Clinton sent or received the emails in question, Stewart said, “Oh, absolutely”.
But the National Journal’s Ron Fournier told Fox News, ‘We’re talking apples and oranges here’.
“We understand that these emails were likely originated on the State Department’s unclassified system before they were ever shared with Secretary Clinton, and they have remained on the department’s unclassified system for years”, he added. In those cases, the original source of information – and its level of classification – can be disputed, and has been, vigorously at times, the officials said.
Hillary Clinton, whose private email server is a point of controversy, listens to speakers during a “Canvass Kick Off Event” in Manchester, New Hampshire, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016.
Same for President Obama: He claims he first learned about Clinton’s private email address from news accounts – but it turns out he and Hillary exchanged at least 18 emails, which State refuses to make public. And the number of emails from the former secretaries and Rice’s staff deemed classified is nowhere near the count against Clinton.
The Clinton campaign has repeatedly characterized leaks about her emails as part of a partisan attempt to damage her presidential campaign. One of those Republicans, Mike Pompeo of Kansas’ Fourth District, told Lake and Rogin, “It’s important, given all the information we now know, that the House of Representatives work alongside the executive branch to determine whether it’s appropriate for Secretary Clinton to continue to hold her security clearances”. Clinton has insisted that she never sent nor received information marked classified on her personal email.
‘Honest to goodness…this just beggars the imagination, ‘ she added.
Still, the comments come less than a week after the State Department confirmed that, as it releases thousands of Clinton emails, it is withholding 22 emails containing information too “top secret” to release.
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“Before it was emails it was Benghazi, and the Republicans were stirring up so much controversy”, Clinton said during the MSNBC Democratic debate on Thursday. She said she’s certain the matter will not derail her campaign.
