Bill Clinton is well known for “Clinton Speak”; the legalese parsing of the English language to avoid answering or to provide misleading answers to questions. Remember “It depends upon what your definition of “is” is.” Hillary Clinton is using the same Clinton Speak to mislead the American people about her illegal home-brew server.

1. Hillary’s first statement on her now notorious email server was:

“There is no classified material. So I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements.”March 10, 2015. My Blog from 15 March 2015 clearly dispelled this claim.

2. Next, her campaign said that none of the materials were classified at the time she received them. More Clinton Speak that is legally irrelevant, but that sounds reasonable if you don’t understand what’s required to protect our Nations information.

This statement came in response to the F.B.I. disclosing in July 2015 that Mrs. Clinton had received Classified information in her home email server account. I’ve shown that it doesn’t matter when the information became classified; she should have expected that at the SECSTATE level, the aggregate of information sent to her would inevitably become classified.

3. In a 7 September 2015 interview with The A.P., she stated: “I did not send or receive any information marked classified. I take the responsibilities of handling classified materials very seriously and did so”.

This statement was intended to mislead following an IG’s review, which found that some contents of emails that Mrs. Clinton received were in fact classified at the time she received them, though not clearly marked as classified. If her staff illegally removed classified markings, then the statement would be technically correct, though illegal. It’s clear that Mrs. Clinton did not take handling classified materials seriously.

Note: In addition, the IG’s review that two of her emails containing TOP-SECRET information were confirmed by the CIA and NGIA (Central Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency).

4. Now, the revelation comes that Hillary instructed her staff to wipe the classification markings off of a classified document, and to then send the “nonpaper”to her “nonsecure”. (Actual Emails)

If she did this once, it’s likely that she did it multiple times. Only time and the FBI will tell. If her orders were complied with, it’s a felony for Mrs. Clinton and whoever stripped the markings. No doubt this is now an element of the FBI investigation into her server.

So now, let’s return to Hillary’s original statement, that she never sent classified information. In Clinton Speak, that means that she may well have received classified information, but just didn’t send any herself. The FBI won’t likely be fooled.

Related:

• The Missing Question In The Hillary Email Scandal