Trump calls for Clinton to be imprisoned over email scandal

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

published 12 October 2016

At a rally in Florida on Wednesday, Donald Trump flat out called for Hillary Clinton to be imprisoned for her email usage. "Hillary Clinton bleached and deleted 33,000 emails after a congressional subpoena," Trump told the crowd. "She deleted the emails — she has to go to jail."

Trump also leveled this claim against Clinton at Sunday's second presidential debate, and told Clinton she "would be in jail" if Trump had been president during her email investigation. Clinton's team has claimed the deleted emails were of a personal nature and has maintained that all work-related emails were transferred to the government, and Clinton herself said at the Sunday debate some 37,000 emails were handed over.

The fact-checking organization PolitiFact rates the content of Trump's accusation only "Half True." While Clinton was served a subpoena for Benghazi-related emails on March 4, 2015, and the emails were deleted in late March, PolitiFact explains: "The FBI found no evidence that the emails were deleted deliberately to avoid the subpoena or other requests. Clinton's team requested for the emails to be deleted months before the subpoena came."