State to release more Clinton emails but falls short of goal

The State Department says portions of 275 emails released Thursday from Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state have been newly classified.

In May, Contreras ordered the State Department to “aspire to abide” to a monthly production schedule, releasing specified numbers of emails at the end of each month up until January 29, 2016.

Democratic presidential candidate and former secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that President Barack Obama called her when negotiators had reached a deal on Iran’s nuclear program. The department says in a statement that while it has “worked diligently” to come close to the goal, it will fall short because of the large number of documents involved and the holiday schedule. Past emails have been released here: https://www.foia.state.gov/Learn/New.aspx.

While most of those were elevated to the “confidential” level, according to a State Department official, two in the most recent batch were upgraded to the “Secret” level, a more sensitive classification for issues that affect national security.

The State Department is due to release almost 5,500 pages of Clinton’s emails but was supposed to release over 8,000 pages of emails. The mounting number of correspondence with classified material has been a lingering problem for Clinton on the presidential campaign, spotlighting her decision to exclusively use a private email account, routed through a personal server installed at her suburban NY home, for work related correspondence while secretary.

In addition, hundreds of messages that Clinton turned over to the State Department contain information that has since been deemed classified. The Republican majority in Congress has pressed the former chief diplomat over her handling of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, in which a U.S. diplomat and three other Americans were killed.

Q: How many emails are there?