--- title: Donald Trump on Hillary Clinton and Classified Information description: Trump is under fire for reportedly doing the same thing he repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton for: transmitting classified information canonical: https://time.com/4781328/donald-trump-classified-information-hillary-clinton/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-16T20:33:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-06-24T06:56:45.853Z article:section: Politics og:title: A Look Back at Trump's Criticism of Hillary Clinton and Classified Information og:description: The President's words could come back to haunt him og:url: https://time.com/4781328/donald-trump-classified-information-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4808c81d42e3647c/6988cd38cd1bba44297052e7/gettyimages-6823931701.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: First Lady Melania Trump Hosts A Celebration Of MilitaryMothers Event og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Look Back at Trump's Criticism of Hillary Clinton and Classified Information twitter:description: The President's words could come back to haunt him twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4808c81d42e3647c/6988cd38cd1bba44297052e7/gettyimages-6823931701.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Look Back at Donald Trump's Criticism of Hillary Clinton and Classified Information > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. The President's words could come back to haunt him_  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 16, 2017 8:33 PM UTC  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson May 16, 2017 8:33 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4780889/trump-leaks-save-america/) is now under fire for reportedly doing the same thing he repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton for on the campaign trail in 2016: transmitting classified information. [The _Washington_ _Post_ reported](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-revealed-highly-classified-information-to-russian-foreign-minister-and-ambassador/2017/05/15/530c172a-3960-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.3715a66a2d27) on Monday that Trump had shared highly classified information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during their meeting last week, possibly imperiling diplomatic relations with the country who provided it. The President has broad powers to declassify information, so it is unlikely Trump broke the law, according to the _Post,_ but he seems to have contradicted himself. The transmission of classified information was one of the main points Trump often cited about the dangers of [Hillary Clinton’s](http://time.com/4773354/donald-trump-james-comey-fired-hillary-clinton-email-investigation/) private email server. “She was willing to risk our foreign enemies reading her emails as long as the voting American public could not,” [Trump said last July.](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=117815) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/750648675186147328) [Former FBI Director James Comey](http://time.com/4778500/trump-james-comey-fired-poll/) — whom Trump ousted last week — [said last summer](https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/statement-by-fbi-director-james-b-comey-on-the-investigation-of-secretary-hillary-clinton2019s-use-of-a-personal-e-mail-system) that Clinton was “extremely careless” in the way she handled classified information, but she and her associates did not break any law. But this criticism about classified information continued to be a staple of Trump’s campaign speeches. 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