During NBC’s “Commandr-in-Chief Forum” on Sept. 7, Hillary Clinton said: “Classified material has a header which says ‘top-secret, secret, confidential.’ Nothing, and I will repeat this and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice, none of the emails sent or received by me had such a header.”
Our ruling
Clinton said, “Classified material has a header which says ‘top secret, secret, confidential.’ Nothing, and I will repeat this, and this is verified in the reports by the Department of Justice, none of the emails sent or received by me had such a header.”
For information to be considered properly marked classified, it must contain a header. Clinton is correct that nothing in her email had a header signifying its classification status. Three email chains had a “(C)” indicating “confidential” information, but that is not enough to consider the emails properly marked classified.
But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t any classified information in her email. If someone has determined information to be classified, it is still technically classified even if someone neglects to label it down the line. The FBI found 81 email chains that contained information determined to be classified, though none of the information was appropriately labeled, so it wasn’t necessarily obvious to the recipients.
Clinton’s carefully worded statement is partially accurate but leaves out important context.
For that, we rate her claim Mostly True.
To read the full fact check, go to politifact.com.