State Department Declares 22 Hillary Clinton Emails ‘Top Secret’

A letter by intelligence community Inspector General Charles McCullough III, dated January 14, informed senior intelligence and foreign relations committee leaders of the fact that “several dozen emails containing classified information” were proven to be “at the CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, AND TOP SECRET/SAP levels”.

“The revelation comes three days before Clinton – the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination – goes to battle in the Iowa caucus, the first time the public will cast ballots on the long road to Election Day in November”.

Mr Kirby said an investigation was underway into whether they should have been considered classified at the time they were sent.

Kirby also said 18 emails, comprised of eight email chains between Clinton and President Barack Obama, are being “withheld in full” to “protect the President’s ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel”.

On Friday, the State Department said emails had been removed from the latest batch to be released because they may contain top secret information – a decision that infuriated Clinton’s camp, which wants the mails to be released to prove her claim that they were anodyne.

The State Department is trying to finish its review and public release of thousands of Clinton emails, as the Democratic presidential primary contests get underway in early February.

In keeping with an order by a federal judge, the State Department has already released most of the roughly 30,000 work emails Clinton returned to the department.

After the department’s announcement, Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon said in a statement that the campaign objected to the decision to withhold the seven email chains and sought full transparency. But without classification markings, that may have been hard, especially if the information was publicly available.

“This appears to be overclassification run amok”, Fallon said.

The inquiry has frustrated Clinton allies and provided fodder to GOP candidates such as Sen.

Fallon, the Clinton spokesperson, wrote in a statement that “in at least one case, the emails appear to involve information from a published news article”, alluding to a New York Times report on Central Intelligence Agency drone operations in Pakistan.

The State Department said none of the messages were marked top secret at the time they were sent-although it is looking into whether they should have been. The messages marked top secret are being excluded from the disclosure.

An FBI probe of the security of Clinton’s email set-up continues, with Republicans increasingly insisting that the Justice Department take legal action against Clinton for mishandling classified information.

Congressional Republicans have criticised and investigated Clinton for her use of a private email server in her NY home for her work as a secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. “It’s not enough to prove she was negligent”, Levin said.

But US intelligence agencies have determined these message contain enough sensitive information that even blacking out whole passages isn’t enough to make them safe for public view. The other concerned North Korean nuclear weapons programs, according to officials. The agency also acknowledged that the information was classified at the time the emails were created. Independent experts say it is highly unlikely that Clinton will be charged with wrongdoing, based on the limited details that have surfaced up to now and the lack of indications that she meant to break any laws.