Hillary Clinton appears to have perjured herself before the House Select Committee on Benghazi in at least three ways: first, by stating that she had turned over “all my work related emails” from her private email server to the government; second, by insisting there was “nothing marked classified on my e-mails”; and third, by telling the committee that her attorneys “went through every single e-mail.” FBI director James Comey’s statement Tuesday suggests none of those statements were true.
On Tuesday, Breitbart News published the relevant portion of the transcript of Clinton’s testimony dealing with the question of whether she had turned over her work-related emails. The other two instances in which Clinton perjured herself arose in her statements to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) [emphasis added]:
JORDAN: This is — and it has everything to do, because we want the record, so we can get to the truth, and maybe if the gentleman — if the gentleman from Washington would have shown up for more than just one hour of one interview, he might know a little more about the situation as well, and the lack of getting the record.
Of course, this second statement, the revised statement, was after this committee had contacted Huma Abedin, Jake Sullivan, Philippe Reines, asking for their personal accounts, which of course you knew would mean we would get their e-mails.
And that first statement in March was not accurate. In March, you said no classified information was sent or received on your personal accounts. You later revised your statement and said no information marked classified was sent or received on your personal account.
And once again, your revised statement was after the inspector general for the intelligence community had examined your e-mails and determined that, yes, some indeed were classified.
Secretary Clinton, seems like there’s a pattern, pattern of changing your story. In March you say one thing, the truth comes out, weeks and months later, you say something else.
That’s not being the most transparent person ever. That’s not even being transparent.
So if your story about your e-mails keeps changing, then how can we accept your statement that you’ve turned over all work related e- mails and all e-mails about Libya?
CLINTON: Well, Congressman, I have said repeatedly that I take responsibility for my use of personal e-mail. I’ve said it was a mistake. I’ve said that it was allowed, but it was not a good choice.
When I got to the department, we were faced with a global financial crisis, major troop decisions on Afghanistan, the imperative to rebuild our alliances in Europe and Asia, an ongoing war in Iraq, and so much else.
E-mail was not my primary means of communication, as I have said earlier. I did not have a computer on my desk. I’ve described how I did work: in meetings, secure and unsecured phone calls, reviewing many, many pages of materials every day, attending…
JORDAN: I — I — I appreciate (inaudible).
HILLARY: …a great deal of meetings, and I provided the department, which has been providing you, with all of my work-related e-mails, all that I had. Approximately 55,000 pages. And they are being publicly released. JORDAN: I appreciate — let — and let’s get into that.
Those 55,000 pages, there were 62,00 e-mails — total e-mails, on your system. You have stated that you used a multi-step process to determine which ones were private, which ones were public, which ones belonged to you and your family, which ones belonged to the taxpayer.
Who oversaw this multi-step process in making that determination which ones we might get and which ones that were personal?
CLINTON: That was overseen by my attorneys and they conducted a rigorous review of my e-mails and…
JORDAN: These are the folks sitting behind you there, Mr. Kendall, Ms. Mills…
CLINTON: Yes, that’s right.
JORDAN: …Ms. Danielsen (ph)? All right.
And you said rigorous. What does that mean?
CLINTON: It means that they were asked to provide anything that could be possibly construed as work related. In fact, in my opinion — and that’s been confirmed by both the State Department…
JORDAN: But I’m asking how — I’m asking how it was done. Was — did someone physically look at the 62,000 e-mails, or did you use search terms, date parameters? I want to know the specifics.
CLINTON: They did all of that, and I did not look over their shoulders, because I thought it would be appropriate for them to conduct that search, and they did.
JORDAN: Will you provide this committee — or can you answer today, what were the search terms?
CLINTON: The search terms were everything you could imagine that might be related to anything, but they also went through every single e-mail.
JORDAN: That’s not answering the question. Search terms means “terms”. What terms did you use…
CLINTON: I did — I did not…
JORDAN: And what were the date parameters? What — what date did you start, what was the end date, and the e-mails in between that we’re going to look at?
CLINTON: Well, Congressman, I asked my attorneys to oversee the process. I did not look over their shoulder. I did not dictate how they would do it. I did not ask what they were doing and how they made their determinations (ph).
JORDAN: So you don’t know? You don’t know what terms they used to determine which ones were your e-mails and which ones the State Department got, and therefore we might get?
CLINTON: You know, The State Department had between 90 and 95 percent of all the ones that were work related. They were already on the system. In fact, this committee got e-mails…
JORDAN: I’m not asking about those. I’m asking about the 62,000 that were exclusively on your system.
CLINTON: …90 to 95 percent of all work-related e-mails were already in the State Department’s system.
JORDAN: We — we know the National Archive has — Secretary Clinton, we know the National Archive has said 1,250 were clearly personal. No way we should have — no way you should have sent them to the State Department.
And then we also know that 15, you missed, because we got those from Mr. Blumenthal when he came in — was — was — for his deposition.
CLINTON: Thank you.
JORDAN: So if you — you missed 15 you should have given us, and you gave us 1,250 that — not we say, but the national archivist says — you never should have turned over. You erred on both sides. So again, that’s why we want to know the terms. Because if you’ve made a mistake both ways, you may to made — might have made more mistakes. We don’t know.
CLINTON: Well, first of all, you had nine hours with one of my attorneys. And since I think the Democrats just finally released the transcript, I haven’t had a chance…
JORDAN: And I — and I specifically asked Ms. Mills. I did.
CLINTON: …well…
JORDAN: I did. I asked her about this and she gave me the — basically the same kind of answer you’re giving me.
CLINTON: Well, she’ll be happy to supplement the record if (inaudible).
JORDAN: But she’s not on the witness stand today. You are, and I’m asking you.
CLINTON: Well, but I — I asked my attorneys to do it. I thought that was the appropriate way to proceed.
JORDAN: Let me do one other statement. Let me do one other statement, because it sounds like we’re — I — I hope you’ll turn those — I hope we’ll know the terms.
I think the American people would like to know what terms you used to determine what we might get so that we could get all information on Libya and find out what happened, where these four Americans gave their lives. I think that’s — that’s critical.
In March, you also said this: your server was physically located on your property, which is protected by the Secret Service. I’m having a hard time figuring this out, because this story’s been all over the place.
But — there was one server on your property in New York, and a second server hosted by a Colorado company in — housed in New Jersey. Is that right? There were two servers?
CLINTON: No.
JORDAN: OK.
CLINTON: There was a — there was a server…
JORDAN: Just one?
CLINTON: …that was already being used by my husband’s team. An existing system in our home that I used, and then later, again, my husband’s office decided that they wanted to change their arrangements, and that’s when they contracted with the company in Colorado.
JORDAN: And so there’s only one server? Is that what you’re telling me? And it’s the one server that the FBI has?
CLINTON: The FBI has the server that was used during the tenure of my State Department service.
JORDAN: OK. In your statement, you said, “which is protected by the Secret Service.” Why did you mention the Secret Service?
CLINTON: Well, because…
JORDAN: And — here’s what — could a Secret Service agent standing at the back door of your house protect someone in Russia or China from hacking into your system? Why did you mention the Secret Service agent?
CLINTON: Out of just an abundance of being transparent.
JORDAN: Transparent. I — how — what’s the relevance to protecting from (ph) classified information?
CLINTON: There was nothing marked classified on my e-mails, either sent or received. And I want to respond…
JORDAN: You used the write term there. Used “marked”. That’s the one — that’s what you — you used the revised statement there.
CLINTON: …well — but that’s — well, Congressman, there was a lot of confusion because many — many Americans have no idea how the classification process works. And therefore I wanted to make it clear that there is a system within our government, certainly within the State Department…
It is a crime to lie under oath, and to lie to Congress.
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Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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