Clinton Encouraged Unsecured Email Use

The email chain shows that a diplomatic officer named John Godfrey wrote a detailed summary of information about Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi that was soon forwarded to Clinton. Sixty-five of those emails were upgraded to “confidential”, the lowest level of classification, though they were not deemed so at the time they were sent. On its face, the former Secretary of State appears to be directing her staff to take material that they plainly believed ought to be sent via a secure method, and send it via a method that might make it susceptible to interception by unintended recipients. In addition, ordering aides to remove headers to facilitate the transmission over unsecured means strongly suggests that the information was not unclassified.

“Good not to campaign, good not to go to convention, good on revelations on Bin Laden raid, but should use speeches like VMI, Naval Academy to establish new pivot, new redefinition of USA strength in new era that also redefines the relative position of others”, he tells her. “Should say there is a new “metric” of global affairs (lots of people like that word, as much as “meme”)”. That’s what happened when CREW asked for records in 2012 pertaining to the number of different email addresses from which senior staffers at the department regularly received Clinton’s correspondence.

Reuters/REUTERS U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (2nd R) checks her phone while sitting next to South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan (R). Oh, and by the way, that particular email was marked classified. In one email, Clinton even seemed to coach a top adviser on how to send secure information outside secure channels. Emails released previously have shown how Clinton and longtime aide Sidney Blumenthal crafted that response. Clinton ironically then replied with the following, showing a clear understanding that most State Department officials were expected to use their official government accounts to conduct public business: “I was surprised that he used a personal account if he is at State”. The record of emails is slowly being released by the State Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request and is a key focus of the House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks. But the report indicated the watchdog will report separately on issues associated with using non-State Department systems to conduct official business, as well as on requirements to preserve government records.

The Clinton email scandal goes beyond the mishandling of sensitive classified material on a home-brew private email server.

The FBI is investigating the private email server and account Clinton held while secretary of State, which may have incluced classified information, possibly posing a threat to national security.

State Department Spokesman John Kirby, however, said that the department did “forensic” research on the matter and found no evidence that Sullivan or anyone else complied with Clinton’s instructions.

A lawyer for Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s State Department chief of staff, referred a request for comment to the campaign.

The department released a total of 1,262 messages in the early morning hours, a week after it failed to meet a court-ordered target to publish 82 percent of emails by the end of 2015.