Hillary Clinton

== Email controversy ==
{{Main|Hillary Clinton email controversy}}
[[File:2015 03 10 Hillary Clinton by Voice of America (cropped to collar).jpg|thumb|Clinton addressing the email controversy in 2015]]

During her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton conducted official business exclusively through her private email server, as opposed to her government email account.{{Sfn|Allen|Parnes|2017|pp=53-57}} Some experts, officials, members of Congress and political opponents contended that her use of private [[Message transfer agent|messaging system]] software and a private server violated State Department protocols and procedures, and federal laws and regulations governing [[Records management|recordkeeping requirements]]. The controversy occurred against the backdrop of Clinton's 2016 presidential election campaign and hearings held by the House Select Committee on Benghazi.<ref>{{cite news |author=Schmidt, Michael S. |author2=Chozick, Amy |date=March 3, 2015 |title=Using Private Email, Hillary Clinton Thwarted Record Requests |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/us/politics/using-private-email-hillary-clinton-thwarted-record-requests.html}}</ref><ref name="wapo-email">{{cite news |author=Leonnig, Carol D. |author2=Helderman, Rosalind S. |author3=Gearan, Anne |date=March 6, 2015 |title=Clinton email review could find security issues |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/state-department-reviewing-whether-clinton-e-mail-violated-security-rules/2015/03/05/16d1547e-c378-11e4-9271-610273846239_story.html}}</ref>

In a joint statement released on July 15, 2015, the inspector general of the State Department and the inspector general of the intelligence community said their review of the emails found information that was classified when sent, remained so at the time of their inspection and "never should have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system". They also stated unequivocally this classified information should never have been stored outside of secure government computer systems. Clinton had said over a period of months that she kept no classified information on the private server that she set up in her house.<ref name="NYT72415">{{cite news |author=Schmidt, Michael S. |author2=Apuzzo, Matt |date=July 24, 2015 |title=Hillary Clinton Emails Said to Contain Classified Data |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/us/politics/hillary-clinton-email-classified-information-inspector-general-intelligence-community.html}}</ref> Government policy, reiterated in the nondisclosure agreement signed by Clinton as part of gaining her security clearance, is that sensitive information can be considered as classified even if not marked as such.<ref>{{cite news |last=Dilanian |first=Ken |date=February 4, 2016 |title=Clinton Emails Held Indirect References to Undercover CIA Officers |work=[[NBC News]] |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/clinton-emails-held-indirect-references-undercover-cia-officers-n510741 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310104304/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/clinton-emails-held-indirect-references-undercover-cia-officers-n510741 |archive-date=March 10, 2016}}</ref> After allegations were raised that some of the emails in question fell into the so-called "born classified" category, an FBI probe was initiated regarding how classified information was handled on the Clinton server.<ref name="NYT8815">{{cite news |author=Schmidt, Michael S. |author2=Apuzzo, Matt |date=August 8, 2015 |title=Hillary Clinton Emails Take Long Path to Controversy |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/us/hillary-clinton-emails-take-long-path-to-controversy.html}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' reported in February 2016 that nearly 2,100 emails stored on Clinton's server were retroactively marked classified by the State Department. Additionally, the intelligence community's inspector general wrote Congress to say that some of the emails "contained classified State Department information when originated".<ref>{{cite news |author=Kessler, Glenn |date=March 9, 2016 |title=Fact checking the Hillary Clinton email controversy |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/03/09/fact-checking-the-hillary-clinton-email-controversy/}}</ref> In May 2016, the inspector general of the State Department criticized her use of a private email server while secretary of state, stating that she had not requested permission for this and would not have received it if she had asked.<ref>{{cite news |last=Myers |first=Steven Lee |date=May 25, 2016 |title=Hillary Clinton Is Criticized for Private Emails in State Dept. Review |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/26/us/politics/state-department-hillary-clinton-emails.html}}</ref>

Clinton maintained she did not send or receive any emails from her personal server that were confidential at the time they were sent. In a Democratic debate with [[Bernie Sanders]] on February 4, 2016, Clinton said, "I never sent or received any classified material—they are retroactively classifying it." On July 2, 2016, Clinton stated: "Let me repeat what I have repeated for many months now, I never received nor sent any material that was marked classified."<ref>{{cite web |date=July 5, 2016 |title=FBI Probe Contradicts Clinton's Claim She Never Sent Classified Emails |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fbi-investigation-sheds-light-hillary-clintons-past-email/story?id=40350589 |access-date=July 12, 2016 |work=[[ABC News]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Kessler |first=Glenn |date=August 27, 2015 |title=Clinton's claims about receiving or sending 'classified material' on her private e-mail system |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/08/27/clintons-claims-about-receiving-or-sending-classified-material-on-her-private-email-system/ |access-date=July 12, 2016}}</ref>

On July 5, 2016, the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] concluded its investigation. In a statement, FBI director [[James Comey]] said:

<blockquote>110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were "up-classified" to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.<ref name="fbi.gov">{{cite web |date=July 5, 2016 |title=Statement by FBI Director James B. Comey on the Investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton's Use of a Personal E-Mail System |url=https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b.-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clintons-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160717123318/https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system |archive-date=July 17, 2016 |access-date=July 12, 2016 |publisher=Fbi.gov}}</ref><ref name="Kiely">{{cite web |last=Kiely |first=Eugene |date=July 7, 2016 |title=Revisiting Clinton and Classified Information |url=http://www.factcheck.org/2016/07/revisiting-clinton-and-classified-information/ |access-date=July 22, 2016 |publisher=Factcheck.org}}</ref></blockquote>

Out of 30,000, three emails were found to be marked as classified, although they lacked classified headers and were marked only with a small "c" in parentheses, described as "portion markings" by Comey. He also said it was possible Clinton was not "technically sophisticated" enough to understand what the three classified markings meant.<ref name="Kiely" /> The probe found Clinton used her personal email extensively while outside the United States, both sending and receiving work-related emails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Comey acknowledged that it was "possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton's personal email account". He added that "[although] we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information". Nevertheless, Comey asserted that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring criminal charges in this case, despite the existence of "potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information". The FBI recommended that the Justice Department decline to prosecute.<ref name="fbi.gov" /> On July 6, 2016, U.S. Attorney General [[Loretta Lynch]] confirmed that the probe into Clinton's use of private email servers would be closed without criminal charges.<ref>{{cite news |last=Zapotosky |first=Matt |date=December 14, 2012 |title=Justice Department closes Clinton email probe without charges |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-closes-clinton-email-probe-without-charges/2016/07/06/0ad8feda-43c2-11e6-88d0-6adee48be8bc_story.html |access-date=July 12, 2016}}</ref>

Two weeks before the election, on October 28, 2016, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had begun looking into newly discovered Clinton emails. On November 6, Comey notified Congress that the FBI had not changed the conclusion it had reached in July.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Schouten |first1=Fredreka |last2=Johnson |first2=Kevin |last3=Przybyla |first3=Heidi |date=November 6, 2016 |title=FBI declares it is finally done investigating Hillary Clinton's email |work=[[USA Today]] |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/11/06/fbi-not-recommending-charges-over-new-clinton-emails/93395808/}}</ref> The notification was later cited by Clinton as a factor in her loss in the [[#2016 presidential campaign|2016 presidential election]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Chozick |first=Amy |date=November 12, 2016 |title=Hillary Clinton Blames F.B.I. Director for Election Loss |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/us/politics/hillary-clinton-james-comey.html}}</ref> The emails controversy received more media coverage than any other topic during the 2016 presidential election.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |title=Don't blame the election on fake news. Blame it on the media. |language=en |work=Columbia Journalism Review |url=https://www.cjr.org/analysis/fake-news-media-election-trump.php |access-date=December 7, 2017}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=September 21, 2016 |title=News Coverage of the 2016 National Conventions: Negative News, Lacking Context |language=en-US |work=Shorenstein Center |url=https://shorensteincenter.org/news-coverage-2016-national-conventions/ |access-date=December 7, 2017}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election {{!}} Berkman Klein Center |url=https://cyber.harvard.edu/publications/2017/08/mediacloud |access-date=December 7, 2017 |website=cyber.harvard.edu |language=en}}</ref>

The State Department finished its internal review in September 2019. It found that Clinton's use of a personal email server increased the risk of information being compromised, but concluded there was no evidence of "systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Matthew |last2=Jalonick |first2=Mary Clare |date=October 19, 2019 |title=38 people cited for violations in Clinton email probe |work=The Associated Press |url=https://www.apnews.com/14b14afc5d8647858489a2cf5385c28d}}</ref>