Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the FBI she “did not pay attention to the ‘level’ of classified information,” claiming she took it all seriously.
In pages released Friday of notes on the FBI interview of Clinton on July 2, she was presented with a specific email with the subject line “Call to President Banda.” That email was among several marked classified as denoted by the “C” appearing on them.
“After reviewing an email dated April 9, 2012, with the subject line “Call to President Banda,” CLINTON stated she did not remember the email specifically,” read a portion of the text in the FBI documentation of the interview.
When asked if she knew what that “C” meant, Clinton claimed she did not know. the FBI documentation continued:
When asked what the parenthetical “C” meant before a paragraph within the captioned email, CLINTON state she did not know and could only speculate it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order. CLINTON could not say for sure if the parenthetical “C” is used for portion marking classified documents. CLINTON understood the top of the email is marked “Confidential” and asked the interviewing Agents if that was what “C” referenced. [Agent note: Email was marked as classified at the Confidential level by the FBI based on a determination by the OCA]
In July the State Department strongly suggested that the Banda email was marked classified in error, according to Politico. However, the FBI agent notes that the email was marked at the determination of the OCA (Original Classification Authority).
Clinton was further questioned as to whether she knew the difference between varying levels of classified information. Clinton dismissed the levels, claiming she treated them all seriously. This statement was made in spite of her then attempting to refute the classification of the Banda email.
“When asked of her knowledge regarding Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential classification levels of US government information, CLINTON responded that she did not pay attention to the ‘level’ of classified information and took all classified information seriously. CLINTON was not concerned the displayed email contained classified information. CLINTON believed the email amounted to a ‘condolence call”’and questioned the classification level.”
The FBI found that, of 30,000 Clinton emails that the State Department did hand over, “110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification,” according to comments made by FBI Director James Comey on July 5.
Comey further stated in his July statement that three classified emails were found among those the FBI recovered, but they were not included in the 30,000 provided to them by the State Department. Those emails were classified at the time they were sent or received according to Comey, “one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level.”
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