House Intelligence Committee member Chris Stewart said Wednesday he has read Hillary Clinton's withheld top secret emails, and he has never "read anything more sensitive than what these emails contained."
Further, the Utah Republican told
Fox News "America's Newsroom" host Martha Raddatz, Clinton "absolutely" sent and received the emails, despite her denials that she did not.
"They do reveal classified sources, and they do reveal human assets," Stewart told Raddatz. "I can't imagine how anyone could be familiar with these emails...and not realize these are highly classified."
He said he was not exactly shocked when he saw the emails, as he had a sense before going in, but there are even more emails withheld by state than the 22 the media has reported, and they leave questions about Clinton's legal status.
"There's a legal process that will play out, but we have to ask ourselves this question," he said. "Did Hillary Clinton demonstrate the judgment and respect for protocol that would allow her to protect national security? When I read these e-mails and see how they expose the most sensitive information or potentially exposed that I don't know."
Stewart called Clinton's assertion that the emails were not marked as classified "ridiculous."
"If I receive any mail saying here are the names and addresses and phone numbers of ten undercover agents, I would know that it was classified," Stewart said, emphasizing that he was only giving an example and that information about undercover agents was not in Clinton's emails.
But still, said Stewart, he would not depend only on an email's heading to know what the message contains.
"She has to understand, she has to demonstrate judgment to say this is clearly classified and she didn't do that," said Stewart. "They were her emails."
Clinton has compared the probe about her use of a private email server to the events surrounding the Benghazi attacks, but Stewart said he hardly understands why she would use that comparison.
"That was hardly a success story," he said. "This is not a vast right-wing conspiracy. Obama administration officials told us these emails were so classified they can't be released. This wasn't something coming from the right. It is coming from the current administration. Her argument is not with me but with the president and his administration."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.