It is against the law for officials to discuss classified information on unclassified networks used for routine business or on private servers, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether such information was mishandled.
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Trump and the 10 other Republican candidates are barnstorming across Iowa this weekend ahead of the Iowa Caucus on Monday, the first-in-the-nation balloting in the 2016 presidential race.
Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, insists she never sent or received information on her personal e-mail account that was classified at the time and has argued that the emails should not be withheld.
“These documents were not marked classified at the time they were sent”, Mr Kirby told a news briefing, explaining that the emails had been reviewed prior to public release and found to contain “top secret” information.
Intelligence officials told the Associated Press that the 37 pages being withheld concerned so-called “special access programmes” – clandestine projects such as drone strikes or government eavesdropping.
The mainstream media is calling it a “bombshell” and a potential “game changer” after the State Department announced that 22 emails that were sent during Hillary Clinton’s time as Secretary of State included “top secret” information.
“We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails”, Fallon stated.
The former Secretary of State said she didn’t take any documents from the classified system because you can’t take information off the classified system and put it into an unclassified system.
Clinton and the State Department also claimed the vast majority of her emails were preserved properly for archiving because she corresponded mainly with government accounts.
Of course, it remains unclear what the “top secret” emails were about.
The latest revelation comes just as Clinton and her competitors for the Democratic nomination for president face off in the Iowa caucus.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, there is an exemption that makes it possible for highly sensitive and classified material to be kept secret and withheld in full, meaning that even heavily redacted versions can not be released.
The Clinton campaign criticised the state department’s decision as the result of “bureaucratic infighting” and “over-classification run amok”, adding that the emails should be released.
The State Department released another batch of Mrs Clinton’s emails on Friday evening.
He also said he doubted many Iowa Democrats were particularly interested in Clinton’s emails.
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Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, Hillary Clinton dismissed the email issue as “a continuation of the story that has been playing out for months”. But critics say it may have been a way for her to hide her communications and that use of the unsecured server at her home outside New York City left it vulnerable to overseas hackers.
