Hillary Clinton in damage control over latest email revelation

This is not secret information, and it’s not a case of Hillary Clinton simply claiming the emails weren’t top secret when they were sent.

The information was contained in 22 emails, across seven email chains, that were sent or received by Clinton through the private email server she used as Secretary of State for four years.

The revelation comes just three days before the Iowa presidential nominating caucuses in which Clinton is a candidate.

None of Clinton’s emails was marked as classified during her tenure, State Department officials say, but intelligence officials say some material was clearly classified at the time.

The department on Friday evening published its latest batch of emails from her time as America’s top diplomat.

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.

Clinton’s campaign has been dogged, however, by allegations that her use of a private email server, rather than a secure government system, while in office, had put USA secrets at risk. Friday’s will be the first at top-secret level. The State Department has already released more than 1,300 of Clinton’s classified emails, but these 22 are so serious as to merit holding them.

“There are certain people who are “feeling the Bern” today, she was on fire, and we “felt the Bern” in a different way”, said Jon Vein, who has been raising money for Clinton in Los Angeles along with his wife, producer Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, according to the same source.

Cheryl D. Mills, Counselor and Chief of Staff, Department of State, listens during a commitment workshop titled “Haiti: Lessons for the Future” on the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative 2012 in New York Sept. 24, 2012. A campaign statement said the development is an example of “bureaucratic infighting” over the degree of classification that should be placed on the emails and “over-classification run amok”.

Kirby said the State Department has not yet made a determination of whether the information was classified at the time it was sent or has become more sensitive due to subsequent events.

Separately, Kirby said the department withheld eight email chains, totaling 18 messages, between Obama and Clinton. These are remaining confidential “to protect the president’s ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel”, but will ultimately be released like other presidential records.

As a look at GMA’s report demonstrates, that’s a lot like Kylo Ren observing that “this family reunion couldn’t come at a worse time for Han Solo”.

Hillary Clinton takes the stage to speak during the Scott County Democratic Party’s Red, White and Blue Dinner at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport, Iowa, January 23, 2016. As he has drawn huge crowds across the country, Sanders has been riding on a wave of anger among progressives that could carry him far beyond Iowa.

Hillary Clinton also held a speech at at Grand View University in Des Moines.

The department had been ordered to release all the emails by Friday, but last week asked the court for a one-month extension.

“If she is indicted, it is hard to see how she could successfully run for president”.