Hillary Clinton email controversy
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifying before the House Select Committee on Benghazi
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In March 2015, it became publicly known that Hillary Clinton, during her tenure as United States Secretary of State, had used her family's private email server for official communications, rather than official State Department email accounts maintained on federal servers. Those official communications included thousands of emails that would retroactively be marked classified by the State Department.
The controversy unfolded against the backdrop of Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign and hearings held by the United States House Select Committee on Benghazi. Some experts, officials, and members of Congress have contended that her use of private messaging system software and a private server violated State Department protocols and procedures, as well as federal laws and regulations governing recordkeeping. In response, Clinton has said that her use of personal email was in compliance with federal laws and State Department regulations, and that former secretaries of state had also maintained personal email accounts, though not their own private email servers.
After allegations were raised that some of the emails in question contained classified information, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated an investigation regarding the origin and handling of classified emails on Clinton's server. The FBI Report found that some of the emails originated in five other intelligence agencies. The FBI found that all classified emails on Clinton's server were stored and sent from "unclassified systems", violating the same policies as those on Clinton's personal server.
FBI Director James Comey identified 110 emails as containing information that was classified at the time it was sent, including 65 emails deemed "Secret" and 22 deemed "Top Secret". None of these had classification markings. However, as noted in Clinton's non-disclosure agreement, unmarked classified information should be treated the same as marked classified information.[citation needed] An additional three email chains contained "portion markings", simply a "(C)" indicating "Confidential" in front of one or more paragraphs. These were not included in Comey's list of 110 because the State Department failed to confirm they were classified at the time they were sent. Clinton told the FBI she did not know the meaning of "(C)". Nearly 2,100 emails on the server were retroactively marked as classified by the State Department.
In May 2016, the State Department's Office of the Inspector General released an 83-page report about the State Department's email practices, including Clinton's. On July 5, 2016, Comey announced that the FBI's investigation had concluded that Clinton was "extremely careless" in handling her email system but recommended that no charges be filed against her. On July 6, 2016, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that no charges would be filed.
On July 7, the State Department reopened its probe into the email controversy. On October 28, 2016, Comey notified Congress that the FBI has started looking into newly discovered emails that may be pertinent to the case. Law enforcement officials stated the emails were found on a laptop belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin's husband, Anthony Weiner, during an investigation of his sexting scandals). On November 6, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had not changed its conclusion reached in July, regarding Clinton's emails.[1]
