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Hillary Clinton still denied in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday that she ever sent or received classified information on her private email server, despite FBI Director James Comey’s recent statements to the contrary. Blitzer pointed out that Comey did say there were 110 emails that contained classified information on her server. “But, the FBI director did say about 110 emails were classified, various forms of classification,” Blitzer said. “Even if they had not been marked, he said someone in your position as Secretary of State should have known better. Here is the question– should you have known better?” Clinton did not give a straight answer and shifted the focus to the people she was communicating with over email. She said that since they did not think the information was classified, she had no reason to believe it was.
“I just believe that the material that was being communicated by professionals, many with years of handling sensitive classified material, they did not believe that it was,” Clinton said. “I did not have a basis for second guessing their conclusion.” Clinton defended her email practices, echoing past statements she has made on the issue. “These were not marked,” Clinton said. “They were not marked and in retrospect some have said, ‘well, they should have been,’ but they were not at the time.” Comey disputed these claims in his testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Thursday.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R., S.C.) directly asked Comey during the hearing if any of the emails on Clinton’s server were marked classified. “Secretary Clinton said there was not anything marked,” Gowdy said. “That’s not true,” Comey said. “There were a small number of portion markings on, I think, three of the documents.”