Clinton said FBI director called her answers "truthful" -- were they?
On Sunday morning, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton told "Fox News Sunday" that FBI Director James Comey said she was "truthful" when discussing her handling of classified information and her private email server.
"Director Comey said my answers were truthful, and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people," she said. "That there were decisions discussed and made to classify retroactively certain of the emails."
Clinton was responding to a question from host Chris Wallace, in which he asked her about her previous assertions that she "never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time," or anything that was "marked classified."
"After a long investigation, FBI Director James Comey said none of those things that you told the American public were true," Wallace said.
Clinton's comments here are getting some attention for stretching what Comey actually said--and would likely be getting more on Monday, were it not for the controversy over Donald Trump's very public fight with the Muslim family of a fallen U.S. soldier.
Comey announced in July that after its investigation into Clinton's email practices, the FBI was not recommending charges against her. Still, he said Clinton and her colleagues at the State Department had been "extremely careless" in their handling of "very sensitive, highly classified information."
Comey also said there were seven e-mail threads included on her server, and in which Clinton herself participated, that "concern matters that were classified at the Top Secret/Special Access Program level when they were sent and received."
When Comey testified on the issue in front of the House Oversight Committee in July, he told chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) that "we have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI."
But when Chaffetz followed up, asking whether she lied to the public, Comey replied: "That's a question I'm not qualified to answer. I can speak about what she said to the FBI."
Comey said that there were three emails with classified markings. Later, the State Department said two of them were marked that way in error. But there were also a number of emails that had classified information, although they weren't marked "classified."
And still, during that hearing Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked Comey whether Clinton was correct in saying there was no information sent or received that was marked classified. "That's not true," Comey said. "There was classified material emailed."
In other words, Comey said Clinton did not lie to the FBI--but has not given an answer either way when it comes to whether she's lied to the American people. Clinton has publicly insisted that she did not send material classified at the time it was sent, but Comey's testimony in July indicates that was not true.