Benghazi Docs Obtained by JW Belie Hillary’s No Classified Emails Claim

Though Hillary Clinton asserts that she didn’t send any classified material on her secret email account, Benghazi documents obtained by Judicial Watch show classified information was indeed circulated among top State Department officials via electronic mail.

It’s hard to believe that the Secretary of State was completely out of the loop on this material, which was disseminated among her top aides as Islamic terrorists attacked the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the first diplomat to be killed overseas in decades, and three other Americans were murdered in the violent ambush. The Obama administration initially blamed the attack on a demonstration ignited by an anti-Muslim internet video but JW has uncovered droves of documents that show the administration knew in real time that it was carried out by armed assailants tied to a terrorist group.

In fact, last month JW obtained State Department files that include a chain of internal emails tracking the events surrounding the terrorist attack as it developed beginning immediately upon its inception. The exchange includes emails between Clinton’s top aides and advisors, including Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, Special Assistant Maria Sand, Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Jacob Sullivan and Executive Assistant Joseph McManus. Last year JW forced the release of an internal State Department email showing top White House officials attempting to orchestrate a campaign to “reinforce” President Obama and portray the Benghazi terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.”

That brings us to the secret email account scandal initially exposed by a mainstream newspaper. “Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that she didn’t send classified information is belied by productions in our Benghazi lawsuits,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “A review of the documents shows material sent to Susan Rice and other top State Department officials was withheld under exemptions for classified material. None of these emails (or any similar emails) were ever received or sent by Hillary Clinton?”

The scenario is highly unlikely, despite claims made by Clinton this week during her United Nations news conference. “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,” the former Secretary of State assured. “I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.” So, we’re supposed to believe that the nation’s top foreign diplomat managed to exclude classified information in more than 30,000 emails? Highly unlikely, according to experts, including a former State Department official’s assessment in a mainstream newspaper article: “I would assume that more than 50 percent of what the secretary of state dealt with was classified.”

Judicial Watch has filed dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, a Mandatory Declassification Review and eight lawsuits against the Obama administration relating to Benghazi. JW is the only non-governmental organization in the nation currently litigating in federal court to uncover information withheld by the Obama administration about the events that transpired before, during, and following the Benghazi massacre. JW has also published two in-depth special reports on the September 11, 2012 ambush and continues to investigate Clinton’s role in the scandal. Read JW’s Benghazi reports here and here.