In his recent testimony before the House Oversight Committee, FBI Director James Comey said that three of the many thousands of emails that Hillary Clinton sent or received when she was secretary of state contained classified markings.

On the basis of this statement, Donald Trump and his supporters are now accusing Secretary Clinton of lying when she said that she had not sent or received any emails marked classified.

What Trump and his supporters conveniently fail to mention is that Comey’s answers to extremely important follow-up questions by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-PA) make it very clear that Clinton was telling the truth.

Cartwright asked Comey if the three documents had been properly marked as classified, according to the State Department classification manual. Comey answered, “no”.

Cartwright then asked, “according to the manual, if you’re going to classify something there has to be a (classified) header on the document, right?”

Comey affirmed that statement and then went on to say there were no such headers on the three documents in question.

Cartwright asked if the absence of a classified header would indicate to anyone familiar with state department policies that “those three documents were not classified.”

Comey answered, “that would be a reasonable inference.”

This exchange clearly indicates that Clinton has been telling the truth about not having sent or received any emails marked classified. She was familiar with the state department’s classification policies and reacted accordingly.

Clinton is an extremely qualified candidate who will bring a wealth of experience to the office of U.S. president. I will certainly be voting for her in November and I encourage everyone reading this letter to do so as well.

Larry Feldman

Lakeside