But The Associated Press has learned that 7 email chains are being withheld in full for containing “top secret” material.
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Seven email chains from the private server Hillary Clinton used when she was USA secretary of state are being withheld from public release for containing “top secret” material, the Associated Press reported on Friday, without citing a source. The concern is there are likely other copies somewhere and the fragmented information could lead others to figure out information in the original document and that could reveal factors involved in intelligence gathered in “special access programs”. He said, regardless, the information was deemed too sensitive Friday for release.
The State Department will release more emails from Clinton’s time as secretary of state later Friday.
Messages were marked “top secret” because they would cause “exceptionally grave” damage to national security if disclosed, the State Department said.
He indicated that the emails in question were exchanged between State Department officials using their official accounts before they were shared with Clinton on her private server.
Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has been embroiled in a controversy about her use of a private server for government business.
Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon called the decision “over classification run amok” and called for the emails to be released publicly despite the State Department’s finding. “We adamantly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails”.
This is the first time her emails have been labelled classified at any level.
This month’s release was supposed to be the final one and include just over 9,000 pages of documents – the largest number to date.
“State has experienced some difficulty contacting some of the appropriate agency personnel since the snow storm and is still making arrangements with some of the receiving agencies for secure delivery of the documents”, the department lawyers wrote, emphasizing that these represent a small portion of the total remaining emails.
While a judge had ordered the department to release all of the emails by the end of January, lawyers for the department said this week that they would miss the deadline and requested another month.
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“I think it’s great”. The department has already released thousands of pages of Clinton emails.
