Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Fact Checker: Bill Clinton's misleading claim about 'marked classified' information in Hillary Clinton's emails

Fact Checker: Bill Clinton's misleading claim about 'marked classified' information in Hillary Clinton's emails
The Providence Journal8 hours ago
On July 8, Clinton's language over emails changed again: "I certainly did not believe... received or sent any material that was classified, and, indeed, any of the documents ...

Excerpt:

Bill Clinton is correct that Comey "amended" his statement in the hearing, to provide more details about what the FBI had found. But Comey did not say Hillary Clinton "had never received any emails marked classified." Two of three emails that had portion markings were call sheets that were improperly marked, and State Department considers the markings no longer necessary or appropriate at the time they were sent. Comey acknowledged that Clinton may not have known what the little-C marking meant.
The whole dispute over the little "c" versus big "C," portion markings versus header, and so on, is the political equivalent of three-card monte. Democrats, like Bill Clinton, have cherry-picked Comey's comments from the five-hour hearing to declare Hillary Clinton vindicated. But what they conveniently sweep under the rug are the 110 emails - which were not a part of the 2,000 that were retroactively classified - that were found to "contain classified information at the time they were sent or received."
Moreover, the diversion to "little-C" markings is an effort to distract the public from the disturbing finding by the FBI that Clinton was "extremely careless" in handling her emails, and should have protected the information whether or not it had a classification marking. And it distracts voters from the fact that for more than a year, Clinton modified her excuse over and over to position herself in a way she can declare she was technically right in some form or another.