Hillary Clinton sent emails ‘stamped’ Top Secret No government reviews paint a different picture politifact com factchecks 2025 mar 28 markwayne-mullin hillary-clinton-sent-emails-stamped-top-secret-no Madison Czopek If Your Time is short As secretary of state Hillary Clinton used a personal email address which meant its data was housed on private servers in her New York home The emails were the subject of FBI and congressional scrutiny but none of the investigations determined that Clinton sent emails that were marked top secret A 2019 State Department report said none of the emails reviewed in the Clinton case were marked as classified A 2018 Justice Department report said that the emails lacked proper classification markings See the sources for this fact-check After top U S national security leaders erroneously messaged a journalist sensitive operational details about impending military action political figures on both sides of the aisle called to mind other classified documents incidents   Sen Markwayne Mullin R-Okla posted a video on X asserting that the Trump administration’s use of the commercial messaging app Signal to discuss bombing Yemen was incomparable to Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email and private email server when she was President Barack Obama’s secretary of state   To compare the two between Hillary Clinton and what President Donald Trump’s cabinet members were doing is absolutely absurd Mullin said March 26 Hillary Clinton was sending classified documents that were stamped TS or TSSCI   The acronyms are intelligence shorthand for top secret and top secret sensitive compartmented information On the contrary in the Signal conversation among Trump administration officials Mullin said no classified information was shared Signal contained no classified information For years Hillary Clinton shared classified national security secrets from her personal email Forget about apples to oranges this is like comparing apples to a steak pic twitter com dobUV1cDnx — Markwayne Mullin @SenMullin March 25 2025 1 5 That Clinton emailed information marked TS or TSSCI was not borne out in any of the investigations into her emails Although FBI and State Department reports found that some classified material was included among some Clinton emails none of them were clearly marked as classified or top secret as Mullin said As secretary of state Clinton used a personal email address ending in @clintonemail com which meant its data was housed on private servers in her New York home The emails have been the subject of FBI and congressional scrutiny for years   A 2019 State Department report rebuts Mullin’s statement that Clinton sent classified information In 2016 the FBI reported that 113 of the approximately 30 000 emails it reviewed contained information that was classified at the time they were sent or received Of the emails the FBI reported that a very small number of emails containing classified information were duly marked signaling their classification   The State Department report said instances of classified information being deliberately transmitted via unclassified email were rare There was no persuasive evidence of systemic deliberate mishandling of classified information it said Thomas Blanton the director of George Washington University’s National Security Archive said the National Security Archive team has reviewed thousands of the now-public emails from Clinton’s private server   None of them were stamped TS Top Secret or TSSCI Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information at the time they were sent or received Blanton told PolitiFact None of them were even marked as classified at the time she sent or received them   He added that the State Department concluded the same thing after reviewing all the emails We emailed Mullin’s spokesperson and received no response   State Department review didn’t show Clinton sending emails ‘marked as classified’ From July 2016 to September 2019 the State Department’s Office of Information Security reviewed tens of thousands of documents gathered statements from hundreds of past and current State Department employees and conducted dozens of interviews   The State Department team concluded that Clinton’s use of a private email system to conduct official business added an increased degree of risk of compromise because a private system lacked the security capabilities of State Department networks For the sake of speed classified information was in some instances inappropriately introduced into an unclassified system but the people involved were aware of security policies and did their best to implement them in their operations the report said   2 5 The State Department report also said that a typical security violation involves pre-marked classified information discovered at the time of the incident none of which was found   None of the emails at issue in this review were marked as classified it said What did the FBI and Justice Department reviews find   In 2016 the then-FBI Director James Comey said that of the approximately 30 000 emails the agency analyzed eight email chains — containing an unspecified number of individual emails — contained information classified top secret at the time they were sent or received Other email chains contained information classified at levels below top secret Comey did not specify how many emails containing classified information Clinton sent compared to how many she received But Comey said that emails containing classified information weren’t properly labeled   Featured Fact-check Only a very small number of the e-mails containing classified information bore markings indicating the presence of classified information he said without providing the number of emails marked appropriately   Comey testified on July 7 2016 that classified documents come with headers signaling their classification level and acknowledged that the documents in Clinton’s emails had no headers He also said that three of the approximately 30 000 emails had classification markings When asked whether emails lacking headers would have told Clinton that the material wasn’t classified Comey replied That would be a reasonable inference   The Justice Department’s 2018 report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation said prosecutors found no evidence that Clinton or her aides intended to communicate classified information on unclassified systems The 2018 report also said that the classified emails weren’t appropriately marked The emails in question lacked proper classification markings it said The senders often refrained from using specific classified facts or terms in emails and worded emails carefully in an attempt to ‘talk around’ classified information The 2018 report said prosecutors recommended against prosecuting because none of the emails contained clear classification markings as required Three email chains included paragraphs marked C for confidential But that’s not a complete or sufficient classification 3 5 marking Our ruling  Mullin said Hillary Clinton was sending classified documents that were stamped TS or TSSCI Mullin provided no information supporting his statement and FBI and government reviews contradict him   In 2016 Comey testified that three of the approximately 30 000 emails reviewed had any classification markings at all and those markings did not signal the documents were top secret or TSSCI A 2018 Justice Department report reiterated that the emails lacked proper classification markings And a 2019 State Department report said none of the emails reviewed were marked as classified   We rate this claim False Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter Our Sources U S Sen Markwayne Mullin X post March 25 2025 Email interview with Thomas Blanton the director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University March 27 2025 PolitiFact Clinton exaggerates absence of classified information in her emails Sept 13 2022 PolitiFact Comparing Hillary Clinton’s emails and Donald Trump’s boxes of files Aug 9 2022 PolitiFact Could Donald Trump declassify documents with just a thought Three legal precedents say no The Atlantic The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans March 24 2025 The Atlantic Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal March 26 2026 4 5 Office of the Inspector General U S Department of Justice A Review of Various Actions by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Justice in Advance of the 2016 Election June 2018 Technology Transformation Services Handbook Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information TS SCI Clearance accessed March 27 2025 FBI Statement by FBI Director James B Comey on the Investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Use of a Personal E-Mail System July 5 2016 US House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform Hearing Comey testimony July 7 2016 Politico State Dept finds no ‘systemic’ classified violation in Hillary Clinton private-server emails Oct 18 2019 The Washington Post Hillary Clinton’s claim that ‘zero emails’ were marked classified Sept 8 2022 Army Information Security Classification Levels accessed March 28 2025 slide 4 to 6 of 15 5 5