Hillary Clinton Emails Face New Scrutiny Former secretary of state’s private server included highly classified intelligence, review says; unclear whether information was deemed classified when sent By Byron Tau
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clinton-emails-face-new-scrutiny-1453267811
WASHINGTON—Emails on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server contained national-security information classified at some of the highest levels, according to a new review by a government watchdog.
A letter from Intelligence Community Inspector General Charles McCullough finds that Mrs. Clinton’s email trove contains a type of highly classified intelligence information beyond “top secret,” referred to as “special access programs” or SAP. That designation is reserved for information shared on a need-to-know basis to protect intelligence sources, military operations or other highly sensitive government information.
In a separate review over the summer, Mr. McCullough’s office found “top secret” information on Mrs. Clinton’s home server. The new unclassified letter from Mr. McCullough to members of the House and Senate committees that oversee intelligence, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, says that the intelligence community now believes even more highly classified information was on the server. The letter was reported earlier by Fox News.
Mr. McCullough’s latest finding is that “several dozen” emails in Mrs. Clinton’s archive containing information classified at various levels, including SAP.
Most of Mrs. Clinton’s email trove of about 55,000 pages from her time in office has been released by the State Department. That includes more than 1,300 emails with some information blocked out, or redacted, because it is classified.
State Department spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the letter Tuesday, saying the department is focused on releasing the rest of Mrs. Clinton’s emails to the public “in a manner that protects sensitive information.”
The campaign of Mrs. Clinton, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign has said that no information in her emails was marked classified at the time it was sent.
A review is now under way by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and several inspectors general to determine whether some of that information should have been marked classified.
A spokesman for the inspector general declined to comment on whether the SAP information was deemed classified at the time it was sent; nor would the office elaborate on what was contained in the emails, citing their nature. It is also unclear if Mrs. Clinton sent or received the information.
Information deemed highly classified by the intelligence community could include programs that have been publicly revealed in the media, for example the government’s drone program. Some parts of the program are widely known and routinely discussed, but the program is still considered highly classified by government officials. Media reports about classified programs could be deemed classified by government officials.
The inspector general’s latest finding sets up a potential intragovernmental standoff with the State Department, which has repeatedly insisted that no information sent or received by Mrs. Clinton was classified when it was sent.
Mrs. Clinton’s decision to use a personal email server while serving as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013 has roiled her campaign. Use of a private email server for unclassified work email was discouraged but not explicitly forbidden by State Department policy. Other secretaries of state occasionally used private email accounts, though not on a personal server.
Mrs. Clinton turned over her email archive to the State Department in late 2014. Her emails are in the process of being publicly released under orders from a federal judge.
The FBI has taken possession of Mrs. Clinton’s server equipment and is conducting an investigation into the possible loss or mishandling of classified information. Officials say Mrs. Clinton isn’t the target of the probe.
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