Subject: Draft surrogate TPs on emails
From: Brian Fallon <[email-masked]>
To: Heather Samuelson <[email-masked]>, Cheryl Mills <[email-masked]>, Huma Abedin <[email-masked]>, John Podesta <[email-masked]>, Jennifer Palmieri <[email-masked]>, HRCRR <[email-masked]>, Kristina Schake <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 May 2015 15:44:06 -0400

Below is a draft of a document for Adrienne to give out to allies going out
on shows this weekend. Please review and send any feedback. Thanks

*TALKING POINTS ON DEVELOPMENTS RELATED TO HILLARY CLINTON’S EMAILS*

*GENERAL*

·      As she said in New Hampshire Friday, Hillary Clinton is glad to
see the nearly of her 300 emails sought by the Select Committee released to
the public.

·      The State Department first turned these emails over to the committee
last November. And Clinton has been urging the swift, public release of
these emails – along with the rest of the emails from her tenure as
Secretary of State – for some time now.

·      Clinton is rightly proud of the work that she and the career
diplomats at the State Department performed during her tenure, and the
emails make that work clear to the American public. So she has been as
eager as anyone to see them released.

·      Now that this first batch of emails has been made available, the
public can see for themselves there is nothing new here. None of the emails
released Friday change any of the facts known to the Accountability Review
Board and several Congressional committees about the tragic events in
Benghazi for over two years.

·      To the extent the Committee has any remaining questions for Hillary
Clinton, she has repeatedly said she is willing to appear at a public
hearing. Despite this, the committee has yet to schedule an appearance.

·      So it is clear that some in Congress intend to seek to politicize
this terrible tragedy by dragging out the Select Committee’s inquiry in
order to influence the 2016 election. This is inappropriate and wrong.

*ON THE FBI’S DECISION TO CLASSIFY PORTIONS OF ONE EMAIL SENT TO CLINTON *

·      The information transmitted in the email in question was
unclassified at the time the email was sent. It remained unclassified
during Clinton’s tenure at the State Department and was still unclassified
at the time Clinton’s emails were provided to Congress in February.

·      It was only upon the Department's review for FOIA that the FBI asked
for certain information within the sender's email to be classified.

·      As the Department shared, classification of unclassified information
happens on occasion as situations change with issues addressed in the
emails.

*ON SID BLUMENTHAL’S EMAILS TO CLINTON*

·      As Sid himself has said this week, he provided unsolicited thoughts
and suggestions to the Secretary on a variety of topics as a private
citizen. He was not a U.S. government employee nor asked by the Secretary
to do so.

·      The Secretary forwarded his emails to staff to the extent they may
be helpful to the Department, but did not accept as fact or take it at face
value.

*ON STATE DEPARTMENT’S PROPOSED TIMELINE FOR RELEASING CLINTON’S EMAILS IN
JANUARY 2016*

·      As Hillary Clinton said herself this week in Iowa, she would like
her work emails released as soon as possible.  She knows they will show how
hard the Department and Administration worked on behalf of our country.

·      So no one has as much interest in seeing them made public as her.

·      But obviously, she does not control the process the Department must
follow, as much as she would like them out now. So she will continue to
respect that process, while urging that every possible step be taken to
review and release the emails quickly.