Hillary on Instructing Staffer to Delete Classified Heading: This Is 'Common Practice'

[Martha Stewart Went To Jail For Much Less]

Hillary Clinton today defended a 2011 e-mail instructing her
staffer at the State Department, Jacob Sullivan, to remove a
document’s classified marking and send it over an unsecured
line. “Headings are not classification notices and so oftentimes
we’re trying to get the best information we can,” she told John
Dickerson on Face the Nation. “Obviously what I’m asking for is
whatever can be transmitted, if it doesn’t come through secure
to be transmitted on the unclassified system,” Clinton said.
”So, no, there is nothing to that, like so much else that has
been talked about in the last year.”

Dickerson said the e-mail showed she was “very facile” in how to
navigate around classification laws and asked, “You’re saying
there was never an instance, any other instance in which you did
that?” Clinton replied that her instructions to Sullivan reflect
“common practice” and then pivoted to attacking Republicans for
throwing things “against the wall … to see what sticks.”

Dickerson followed with a question about another e-mail in which
Clinton expressed bewilderment another staffer was using private
e-mail to conduct government business — “which is what you were
doing.” Clinton answered that this e-mail showed how she tried
recording all government business on “the government system.”

Here’s the full exchange:

DICKERSON: Aren’t you ordering him to violate the laws on
handling classified material there?

CLINTON: No. Not at all. As the State Department said just this
week, that did not happen. It never would have happened because
that’s just not the way I treated classified information.
Headings are not classification notices and so oftentimes we’re
trying to get the best information we can. Obviously what I’m
asking for is whatever can be transmitted, if it doesn’t come
through secure to be transmitted on the unclassified system. So,
no, there is nothing to that, like so much else that has been
talked about in the last year.

DICKERSON: So, in no instance — what’s striking about that
particular e-mail suggests you were very facile with how to do
this, this process, you knew the instructions how to get around
the restrictions for sending classified information. So you’re
saying there was never an instance, any other instance in which
you did that?

CLINTON: No. And it wasn’t sent. I think this is another
instance where, what is common practice, namely, look, I needed
information, I had points I had to make. I was waiting for a
secure fax that could give me the whole picture. But oftentimes
there’s a lot of information that isn’t at all classified. So
whatever information can be appropriately transmitted
unclassified often was — that’s true for every agency in the
government and everybody that does business with the government.
But the important point here is, I had great confidence because
I worked with Jake Sullivan for years.

He is the most meticulous, careful person you could possibly do
business with. And he knew exactly what was and wasn’t
appropriate. And in fact the State Department has said there was
no transmission of any classified information. It’s another
effort by people looking for something to throw against the
wall, as you said in the beginning of the program, to see what
sticks. But there’s no there there.

DICKERSON: Well this one is a little different since FBI is
investigating this specific question of whether a classification
was meddled with. Let me ask you about another e-mail in this
batch, which was one in which you seemed to express surprise
that somebody e-mailed on non-State Department personal e-mail,
which is what you were doing. Why was that a surprise to you?

CLINTON: Well, I e-mailed two people on their government
accounts because I knew that all of that would be part of the
government system. Indeed the vast majority of all my e-mails
are in the government system. That’s how I conducted the
business. I was very clear about e-mailing anything having to do
with business to people on their government accounts.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/429520/hillary-instructing-
staffer-delete-classified-heading-common-practice