The FBI is investigating the handling of top-secret classified information on the Democratic presidential candidate’s private email server while she served as secretary of state.
Advertisement
“I understand that it is my responsibility to consult with appropriate management authorities in the Department … in order to ensure that I know whether information or material within my knowledge or control that I have reason to believe might be SCI”, the agreement that Clinton signed says.
The libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute think-tank obtained the document with Hillary’s signature, which the State Department declassified on Thursday, and gave it to the conservative Washington Free Beacon. Though officials initially believed the email was classified because it contained information from a top secret report, that report was not written until days after the email was sent, the news outlet reported.
That agreement pertains to the Clinton email scandal because of two emails she received on her personal email account that the intelligence community’s inspector general has determined contained “top secret/sensitive compartmented information”, or TS/CSI.
A spokesman for Hillary’s presidential campaign did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment on Friday. The spy agency watchdog initially indicated that the pair of emails were top secret and appeared related to intercepted intelligence information from US spy satellites.
“If a foreign minister just told the secretary of state something in confidence, by USA rules that is classified at the moment it’s in US channels and USA possession”, Leonard told Reuters in August.
Clinton’s NDA spells out stiff criminal penalties for “any unauthorized disclosure of SCI”.
The document shows that Hillary confirmed her understanding that mishandling classified that information could put the country at risk.
There’s nothing special about a government employee signing an NDA, especially if the job involves dealing with classified information.
Two of Clinton’s top State Department aides, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, also signed that nondisclosure agreements.
While the determination may sound like bureaucratic hair splitting, the IG’s original decision prompted a formal referral for the FBI to launch an investigation of Clinton’s “homebrew” arrangement and was one in a marathon of bad headlines for the then-presumed frontrunner that prompted Democrats to wonder if she should drop out of the 2016 race.
Advertisement
Whether the administration would actually prosecute Clinton is a different question.
