Today, the FBI released the documents from its interview with Hillary Clinton over her private email server, and they show a woman with little to no technical skills, a poor understanding of classified materials, and suffering serious memory issues. The documents and interview notes display Clinton repeatedly claiming to have little knowledge or grasp of technical or classification details, despite running a department that handled this type of information daily. The FBI also didn’t ask Clinton what her ‘intent’ was when she set up the private email server and address.
The FBI also notes the chain of custody with all the thousands of emails and documents was extremely loose, disorganized, and unprotected. She also had 13 mobile devices that the FBI couldn’t access. And two iPads gone missing. And she answered many questions like a seasoned lawyer would, repeatedly saying “I can’t recall,” “I didn’t think about it,” or “I didn’t know.”
Clinton cited her 2012 concussion as one reason she couldn’t remember so many details. Yet she maintains she’s healthy enough for what President Obama has called 'the toughest job in the world.'
Clinton email investigation: part 1 https://t.co/hpJLuwCYlL
— Share This News (@ShareThisNews) September 2, 2016
Poor judgment, timeline gaps, redacted sections
The FBI interview reveals serious timeline gaps that still remain, with entire sections and pages redacted from the media and the public.
What could be gleaned was a four-year tenure of “extremely reckless behavior” and a secretary of state who didn’t have the most basic knowledge of email or classified documents. The documents also show former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned her about the perils of email and FOIA requests.
She made repeated declarations that she didn’t grasp the classification process, which is part and parcel in her capacity as secretary of state and as a future president of the United States.
When asked if she knew what the "C" meant next to a paragraph in an email marked “Confidential,” they wrote, "she did not know and could only speculate it was referencing paragraphs in alphabetical order." The FBI agents that interviewed her did not record her three-and-a-half-hour interview and only took notes.
FBI documents regarding Hillary Clinton interview just went live.
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) September 2, 2016
Part 1: https://t.co/TSEewSOFmK
Part 2: https://t.co/e9ljz8P8QW
Significant memory issues
The documents also reveal that Clinton couldn’t remember State Department training or briefings retaining, categorizing, or storing information marked classified. FBI Director James Comey told congress that he “didn’t think Clinton was sophisticated enough” to understand classified markings.
Comey told Congress that Clinton did send classified emails from an unsecured server and that it was “quite likely that hostile actors had hacked her server or mobile devices.” Despite Clinton’s claims she had only one server, she had multiple email servers over the course of her tenure.
But she had the presence of mind to use a program that wipes emails so that “God couldn’t view them.”
Donald Trump’s response
Donald Trump released a statement saying, in part, the FBI files “reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty.” And while Clinton told the American people in numerous interviews over the past year that her private server was allowed and everyone knew about it, she did not get permission for it or a private email address. How all this affects her flailing campaign remains to be seen.
Everyone knew
Clinton also said that everyone at State knew she was using a private email address but no one told her that it was a reckless security breach. Subsequent emails from her chief of staff Huma Abedin show her warning Clinton that her mobile device was not secure and should be left on the plane when visiting foreign governments.