“Because it was on her personal system and the information was classified at the time the emails were sent, that intelligence is now considered to be compromised The standard procedure is that all individuals involved would have their access to classified information suspended pending an investigation.”
Advertisement
There is no evidence she used encryption to shield the emails or her personal server from foreign intelligence services or other potentially prying eyes.
The campaign’s missive seemed aimed not only at making public Clinton’s side of the email story but also arming backers with talking points to defend her from further Republican attacks.
Smith said that of the available choices, turning the server over to the Justice Department “is the best she’s got”.
To date, the two agencies most critical to securing this information (FBI and State Department) have failed to assure the American people that they are taking the necessary steps to protect America’s national security interests.
“The fact that Hillary Clinton sent “Top Secret” information from her personal email address is beyond outrageously illegal, it’s life-threatening to members of our military and every American citizen”.
Clinton has previously said that she regrets using a private email account for business while but only did so she did so only as a matter of “convenience.”
“The reason government officials with security clearances are required to keep their correspondence on the appropriate government server is so the material can be vetted and classified prior to hitting “send” to an uncleared recipient”, the two write. Clinton’s attorney said then the server had been wiped clean and no emails remained on the device.
In March, Clinton said she exchanged about 60,000 emails in her four years in the Obama administration, about half of which were personal and were discarded.
“She directed her team to give her email server that was used during her tenure as secretary to the Department of Justice, as well as a thumb drive containing copies of her emails already provided to the State Department“, Merrill said in a statement.
“Department employees circulated these emails on unclassified systems in 2009 and 2011 and ultimately some were forwarded to Secretary Clinton”, said State Department spokesman John Kirby.
Those two emails were among four that had previously been determined by the inspector general of the intelligence community to have been classified at the time they were sent. Grassley said the inspector general of the nation’s intelligence community had reported the new details about the higher classification to Congress on Tuesday.
“This past spring, Hillary Clinton asked the Department of State to publish the 55,000 pages of the work emails she provided to the Department last fall”, Merrill said.
“For months the Select Committee on Benghazi has called on Secretary Clinton to turn over her server to a neutral, detached third party for independent forensic examination”, he said.
Even so, the rules covering the release of classified material are subject to interpretation and nuance.
Advertisement
Reporter: Did all of her aides get some sort of training in how they handle classified information when they joined the State Department? Not only were all emails deleted from the server but earlier this week Clinton signed a statement under the penalty of perjury to a federal judge that she has turned over all emails from the server “that were or potentially were federal records”.
