Oversight panel chair vows investigation of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago document stash

LTC David Brown - "As shown in an FBI photo of some of the documents seized from Trump, many have clear markings indicating they contained highly sensitive classified information. Clinton, in her tweet, suggests none of her emails were marked classified. That’s technically correct. Whether those emails contained classified information was a major focus of the investigation, but a review of the recent investigations, including new information obtained by the Fact Checker, shows Clinton has good reason for making a distinction with Trump."

"What Comey said
At a July 5, 2016, news conference, Comey said: “From the group of 30,000 emails returned to the State Department, 110 emails in 52 email chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received.” He added that out of “thousands of emails we found that were not among those produced to State, agencies have concluded that three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received, one at the Secret level and two at the Confidential level.” Separately, he said 2,000 additional emails were “up-classified” so redactions could be made to make them suitable for public disclosure."

"This statement has generally been translated in news reports as the FBI determining that 113 emails contained classified information."

"Referring to seven email chains that concerned issues classified at the “Top Secret/Special Access Program” level, Comey said: “There is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton’s position, or in the position of those government employees with whom she was corresponding about these matters, should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.”

The classification dispute
Note that Comey said this assessment was “determined by the owning agency.” That meant an intelligence agency, such as the CIA, had decided information in the email was classified, even if the email itself had not been marked classified. As the Fact Checker disclosed in 2016, intelligence officials believed there were serious shortcomings in how the State Department handled sensitive communications."

The State Department has both classified and unclassified systems — known informally as the “high side” and the “low side.” The classified system has tight controls, often housed in what is known as a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF); it is not possible to “cut and paste” from the classified system into the unclassified system. Clinton’s private email system was designed to deal with the unclassified communications, similar to the unclassified state.gov email account.

But sometimes classified information seeped into email exchanges. In one instance, a State Department official forwarded a newspaper article; then in subsequent exchanges, aides revealed sensitive details of a secret program as they discussed the shortcomings of that public report. Ultimately, the email chain ended up in Clinton’s inbox.

“The senders used unclassified emails because of ‘operational tempo,’ that is, the need to get information quickly to senior State Department officials at times when the recipients lacked access to classified systems,” said a nearly 600-page Justice Department inspector general report released in June 2018 that critically examined Comey’s decision to announce the results of the Clinton probe himself. “To accomplish this, senders often refrained from using specific classified facts or terms in emails and worded emails carefully in an attempt to avoid transmitting classified information.”

Many of the emails in question were sent late at night or on weekends, the report said. One prosecutor who worked on the case told the IG: “The problem was the State Department was so screwed up in the way they treated classified information that if you wanted to prosecute Hillary Clinton, you would have had to prosecute 150 State Department people.”

“There was no evidence that the senders or former Secretary Clinton believed or were aware at the time that the emails contained classified information,” the Justice IG report said. “The emails in question were sent to other government officials in furtherance of the senders’ official duties. There was no evidence that the senders or former Secretary Clinton intended that classified information be sent to unauthorized recipients, or that they intentionally sought to store classified information on unauthorized systems.”

David Kendall, an attorney for Clinton, told the Fact Checker: “The State Department personnel who originated the emails did not think their content merited classification, and not a single one of the over 33,000 emails bore classification markings.”

In his news conference, Comey said “three of those were classified at the time they were sent or received.” At the time, he said one was marked “secret” and two “confidential,” but at a congressional hearing two days later, he said all were marked “confidential,” the lowest form of classification. Moreover, he acknowledged that markings — a (C) — were contained in the body of the text and, contrary to standard practice, there was no header at the top alerting someone that this was classified material. He told lawmakers that without a header, it was “a reasonable inference” that this material was not classified.

So - what it sounds like is that the State Department had a fucked up security management system and that no one was properly marking things that got sent out. So she technically didn't have any emails that were marked with classifications in the headers - there was one email marked as confidential with portion markings.

It sounds like what has happened in different units I've been an S2 in is that someone thinks they can take something unclass from a classified email and put it in a NIPR email. Or one time had a soldier think they could write notes for a secret brief on an unclass computer thinking he could 'declassify' it. Luckily that didn't get too far and he got remedial training (since the schoolhouses don't want to seem to teach 35 series anything about classifications).

So no she didn't break any laws hence why she wasn't prosecuted after multiple investigations - even Republican led ones. The State Dept was negligent and had been for years yes. But she did nothing like Trump did. At all. Not even close. No one has at that level. Have a day!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/08/hillary-clintons-claim-that-zero-emails-were-marked-classified/

SFC (Join to see) - I hope you realize that Hillary thought the “c” on documents was for “copy”. Here is Comey’s report. Pretty damning. Please read the whole thing. The reason Comey had to reopen the case was because classified material was found on Wiener’s lap top the his wife gave him and NYPD officers were cleared to deal with. Here is Comey’s findings. https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system

LTC David Brown - Here is an article when the State Department released classified material on Weiner’s lap top, the one he was using to send pictures of his junk to underaged girls.

LTC David Brown - Yeah as stated the State Dept was fucked up in its security program and I have no clue where there security manager was.

Look I don't particularly care for Hillary if that's what you think. Yes I heard about what she thought the portion marking was but don't be surprised, a lot of people don't know classification markings and don't properly classify things. I've seen it a lot as a security manager.

Again multiple investigations, including Republican led ones, found that she did not violate any laws. But Trump 100% did. In fact he violated a law HE signed in. He thinks he can declassify with his mind. That all he has to do is "think it" and poof, declassified. So be realistic...they are not similar cases at all. He stole classified to use as a security blanket to get out of trouble. She and the entire State Dept were just negligent like 99% of the DoD is with handling classified.

SFC Kurt Brunken - Hmm weird since you guys still bring up Clinton's emails to which two administrations couldn't find any laws she broke with that. But sure "TDS..." Smh.

2 things...when discussing Sec Clinton's email situation, Trump demonstrated a thorough understanding of the law in regard to public records.....there is no bite in the records law, ie no punishment for not following it. For the record, I excuse neither the Secretary nor the former President.

SP5 Dennis Loberger I don't excuse any politician breaking the law or profiting from their office... Dem. or Rep. Thanks for the comments about the no teeth. Sounds like it was just PR @ CYA law when it was passed after Nixon's situation. Confession time... I voted for Nixon... the 1st & last time I voted for a Republican running for POTUS. I've voted for other Rep. as well... depends on the candidate.

SFC (Join to see) Exactly!

LOL... what a dufass