Years ago, before he was a failed presidential candidate and a Donald Trump supporter, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie earned his place on the national stage by claiming to “tell it like it is.” However, it does not matter if you are going to tell it like it is if you do not tell the truth. During his speech before the GOP Convention tonight, Christie repeatedly accused Hillary Clinton of lying about emailing information marked classified. In fact, FBI Director James Comey testified there was no evidence that she knew she was receiving classified information, which was not properly marked and could be reasonably judged as not classified.
ATTACKS:
Attack: #1: Christie: Hillary Clinton lied when “she said there was no marked classified information on her server.” “Lets face it: Hillary Clinton cared more about protecting her own secrets than she did about protecting America’s secrets. Then she lied about it over and over again. She said there was no marked classified information on her server.”
Attack: #2: Christie: Clinton lied when “She said that she did not email any classified information.”
THE TRUTH:
FBI Director Comey testified that three documents in question were not properly marked if they were meant to indicate classified information. “Second, Director Comey testified that the classification markings on these three documents were not proper and did not comply with federal guidelines or manuals. The emails did not have classified headers, and they did not identify the original classifier, agency, office of origin, reason for classification, or date for declassification. Instead, they had only a ‘c’ for ‘confidential’ next to a paragraph further down in the email. Third, Director Comey testified that, based on these facts, it would be a ‘reasonable inference’ fore Secretary Clinton to have ‘immediately’ concluded that these documents were not classified.” [Rep. Cummings letter to Rep. Chaffetz, 7/7/16]
FBI Director Comey testified that the improperly marked emails could be reasonably judged as not classified. “MATT CARTWRIGHT: If Secretary Clinton were an expert about what’s classified and not classified and we’re following the manual, the absence of a header would tell her immediately that those three documents were not classified. Am I correct in that? COMEY: That would be a reasonable inference.” [FBI Director James Comey Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 7/7/16]
FBI Director Comey: There was not evidence to show “that she knew she was receiving classified information.” “I do not believe there’s evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew she was receiving classified information in violation of the requirements… She did in fact — there is, in my view, not evidence beyond certainly probable cause. There’s not evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that she knew she was receiving classified information or that she intended to retain it on her server.” [FBI Director James Comey Testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 7/7/16]
FBI Director Comey said there was not evidence to show that “she knew she was sending classified information” or that she was doing so with intent. “But on Thursday, his careful explanation that the FBI ‘did not find evidence sufficient to establish that she knew she was sending classified information beyond a reasonable doubt to meet the intent standard’ brought them a measure of relief.” [Politico, 7/7/16]