In its summary of the interview with Clinton, the agency said she had received no direction on preserving or producing State Department records while transitioning out of her post.
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Throughout the report, descriptions about Clinton include, heavily, the usage of she “did not recall” or she “could not say for sure” or “she did not remember” certain tidbits of information outlined in some allegations.
Citing a book by journalist Joe Conason, the Times also noted that at a dinner party early in her tenure at State, Powell had advised Clinton to use a private email account for non-classified communications.
A slew of details regarding Mrs. Clinton’s secret email server as secretary of state were revealed with a Labor Day weekend document dump. Pagliano secured an immunity agreement from the Justice Department after previously refusing to testify before Congress, invoking his constitutional right against self-incrimination.
Following FBI investigations and interviews, Comey recommended against prosecuting Clinton for the mishandling or removal of classified information in July.
“Shown copies of emails marked “Confidential” and ‘Top Secret/SAP, ‘ Mrs Clinton said she didn’t believe those e-mails contained classified information”. “This report gives new details on how Clinton’s emails were deleted or kept, writing that initially a single staffer sorted through tens of thousands of emails on her laptop by looking for those which came from a “.gov” or “.mil” address.
The individual then deleted an archive Clinton emails and used a program known as BleachBit, open source software that lets users shred files, clear Internet history and wipe free space on a hard drive.
The transcript also says Mrs Clinton’s “immediate staff” used their personal email accounts to conduct official State business, too.
But Trump’s campaign pounced, charging that the notes “reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty”.
Friday’s release of documents involving the Democratic presidential nominee was a highly unusual step, but one that reflects extraordinary public interest in the investigation into Clinton’s server.
Yet on January 22, 2009, State records show, she signed a “Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement” that included a briefing by a diplomatic security officer covering the “retention” and “handling of classified information”.
At one point in the interview, she was presented with a 2012 email that included a “c” marking before one of the paragraphs.
But Fitton said it was significant that Clinton acknowledged to the Federal Bureau of Investigation she had “Original Classification Authority”, which he said shows she knew and understood her individual obligations to police everything she was getting at the State Department. In addition, the classification determination process administered by the US Department of State (State) in connection with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation identified approximately 2,000 additional emails now classified CONFIDENTIAL and 1 email now classified SECRET, which FBI investigation determined were transmitted and stored on at least two of Clinton’s personal server systems. “CLINTON believed the email amounted to “condolence call” and questioned the classification level”.
Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey has described her handling of classified information as “extremely careless” but has said there was not sufficient evidence to merit a prosecution.
FBI Director James Comey has also said foreign government hackers were so sophisticated – and the server would be such a high-value target – that it was unlikely they would leave evidence of a break-in.
Clinton told agents there were never so many suspicious emails to cause concerns. In a later email exchange, a State official warned a top Clinton aide, Huma Abedin, that if Clinton had an official State Department email account, all the emails on it would be subject to public requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
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Clinton received a routine message from a State Department computer staffer who clearly didn’t know that [email protected] was the Secretary’s email address The message had told Clinton that some of the HDR22 messages were being flagged with “fatal errors”.
