Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton told FBI agents that she could not recall issues related to her email server at least 26 times, according to an 11-page document released by the FBI on Friday.


Clinton's memory lapses are frequent during the interview, marked often by agents as "could not recall" and "did not remember." But the "could not recall" remarks are often related not to long-distant emails, but things she should perhaps definitely recall.
At least 26 times, Clinton couldn't recall issues raised by the FBI. Clinton told FBI agents she couldn't even remember any briefing or training by State "related to the retention of federal records or handling of classified information."
And Clinton told the FBI she could not recall any briefing after her December 2012 fall that left her with a concussion, an admission that will surely stoke concerns about Clinton's health and physical fitness to serve in the job of president.

Most surprisingly perhaps: Clinton said she "did not recall receiving any emails she thought should not be on an unclassified system." Clinton said she relied on employees' judgment in sending her emails.


Comment: Clinton told FBI she thought classified markings were alphabetical paragraphs
Hillary Clinton told FBI agents in July that she thought the classified "C" markings on emails recovered from her private emails were just a way to put paragraphs in alphabetical order.

FBI Director James Comey had said his agents pulled three emails marked classified off her server system in the course of their year-long investigation.

"When asked what the parenthetical 'C' meant before a paragraph ... Clinton stated she did not know and could only speculate it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order," the FBI wrote in notes from its interview with her.

The FBI released an 11-page summary of the interview alongside 58 pages of notes from the investigation.

The notes indicate Clinton told agents she had a limited understanding of why documents are classified and could not recall ever receiving training on how to handle sensitive material.

But Clinton's memory doesn't just fall short on email servers, vital procedures and possible security problems. When asked by the FBI to give an example of how a federal document arrives at classification, Clinton couldn't. The FBI document is sure to raise issues about how Clinton and President Obama's State Department handled secure papers and emails.


Comment: FBI: Clinton withheld 17,500 emails
FBI agents said they recovered 17,448 "unique work-related and personal" emails from Hillary Clinton's private server that were not provided by her legal team.

The revelation came in notes released Friday by the FBI related to the investigation of Clinton's email system.

Agents said 81 email chains discovered in the course of their year-long probe should have been considered classified at the time they were written, contrary to Clinton's claims that everything sensitive was retroactively classified.

Clinton accessed her emails on 13 different mobile devices, raising questions about her March 2015 claim that she used a private server to consolidate all her communications on just one device.

Clinton could not even recall when she got her security clearance. She told FBI agents she wasn't sure if she carried it over from the U.S. Senate or if she got it from State. But perhaps even worse, Clinton told FBI agents she couldn't even remember any briefing or training by State "related to the retention of federal records or handling of classified information."


Comment: Hillary Signed She Received Briefing on Classified Info, But Told FBI She Hadn't
Either Hillary Clinton lied to the FBI or she lied on a State Department form as she began her tenure as Secretary of State. This conclusion appears inescapable after Friday's FBI document release related to the Clinton email investigation.

As revealed by those FBI documents, Clinton told agents that she could not recall "any briefing or training by State related to the retention of federal records of handling of classified information".

But the second paragraph of the Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement—which she signed on January 22, 2009—states that "I hereby acknowledge that I have received a security indoctrination concerning the nature and protection of classified information." A composite of the FBI documents and the nondisclosure agreement is shown below:
FBI document on Clinton
© FBI
The form also notes that classified information is not always so marked, but is still regulated by the agreement.

Several times during her tenure, Clinton acknowledged the importance of handling classified information and the rules at the State Department regarding its protection, as THE WEEKLY STANDARD has noted.

That admission could raise the question if Clinton was ever trained at all in handling secret information.

Below is the list of things Clinton could not recall in the FBI interview:
  • When she received security clearance
  • Being briefed on how to handle classified material
  • How many times she used her authority to designate items classified
  • Any briefing on how to handle very top-secret "Special Access Program" material
  • How to select a target for a drone strike
  • How the data from her mobile devices was destroyed when she switched devices
  • The number of times her staff was given a secure phone
  • Why she didn't get a secure Blackberry
  • Receiving any emails she thought should not be on the private system
  • Did not remember giving staff direction to create private email account
  • Getting guidance from state on email policy
  • Who had access to her Blackberry account
  • The process for deleting her emails
  • Ever getting a message that her storage was almost full
  • Anyone besides Huma Abedin being offered an account on the private server
  • Being sent information on state government private emails being hacked
  • Receiving cable on State Dept personnel securing personal email accounts
  • Receiving cable on Bryan Pagliano upgrading her server
  • Using an iPad mini
  • An Oct. 13, 2012, email on Egypt with Clinton pal Sidney Blumenthal
  • Jacob Sullivan using personal email
  • State Department protocol for confirming classified information in media reports
  • Every briefing she received after suffering concussions
  • Being notified of a FOIA request on Dec. 11, 2012
  • Being read out of her clearance
  • Any further access to her private email account from her State Department tenure after switching to her HRCoffice.com account
It is a "time-honored tradition in Washington scandals" to claim one doesn't recall as they were busy being busy Washington officials, The Associated Press said in a 2005 report on common criminal defenses inside the Beltway.

The Trump campaign leaped on the disclosure.

"Hillary Clinton is applying for a job that begins each day with a Top Secret intelligence briefing, and the notes from her FBI interview reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty," the Trump campaign said in a statement to LifeZette. "Clinton's secret email server was an end-run around government transparency laws that wound up jeopardizing our national security and sensitive diplomatic efforts. On more than 2,000 occasions classified material was exposed on her private server, including highly sensitive Top Secret information and intelligence."