Hillary Clinton denied two things on Friday that are clearly true: that the FBI is investigating the existence of classified information on her private email server and that she and her aides were “sloppy” with said information.
The Democratic presidential candidate issued the latest denial during an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood on Friday, days after it was reported that Bryan Pagliano, the IT technician who managed her private server, had been granted immunity by the FBI.
Asked by Harwood if her supporters should be tempted to conclude that Pagliano’s immunity suggests that she could be prosecuted, Clinton laughed and said that they should not.
“No, not at all,” she scoffed. “This is the same security review that has been going on since last spring.”
But despite that claim, the FBI’s probe is more than a security review. Investigators seized Clinton’s server and have interviewed witnesses, including Pagliano, to determine whether the classified information contained on the device got there illegally. There are more than 2,000 emails of the 30,000 that Clinton turned over to the State Department in Dec. 2014 that contain classified information. Of those, 22 contain “Top Secret” information. And the information in at least one of those was classified at the time it was sent.
A majority of the sensitive messages were forwarded to Clinton from a small group of her State Department aides. The FBI is reportedly interested in interviewing them.
Clinton was then asked if she would at least concede that she and her aides were “sloppy” in the way they handled classified information.
But Clinton said she is pleased that Pagliano, who had worked on her 2008 presidential campaign before moving to the State Department, is cooperating with the FBI.
“No, no, let’s be clear about this,” she said. “There was not a single one of those that was marked classified, either sent or received.”
Clinton’s assertion that the classified emails not being marked as such is a non-starter, however. When she started at the State Department she signed a classified information nondisclosure agreement which required her to acknowledge that classified information is classified whether it is marked or unmarked. Oral communications, which, by nature, cannot be marked, are also governed by that document.
During the interview, Clinton insisted that she is glad that Pagliano, who was up until recently still working as a contractor with the State Department, has started talking to the FBI.
“I’m happy that everybody now has been cooperating and giving information because I think that will finally end this and show that only appropriate steps were taken,” Clinton said, asserting that Republicans “are engaging in a lot of wishful thinking.”
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