Top U.S. intelligence officials are running out of patience with the
State Department's reluctance to turn over emails from Hillary Clinton's
private email server, which have already been shown to have included
top secret communications, Fox News has learned.
The Intelligence Community's Inspector General has requested some
30,000 emails from Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State in order to
conduct its own review. Those emails are in possession of the State
Department, which has been gradually releasing them to the public.
Clinton has agreed to turn over a similar-sized batch of emails, as
well as the highly unusual private server she had installed in her
Chappaqua, N.Y., home, to the Department of Justice which is conducting a
separate investigation.
An intelligence source told Fox News the State Department has pushed
back on the government intelligence watchdog's request, and that
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is considering
intervening. The source said the inspector general wants to check the
controls on the redaction process and ensure that the office can get a
handle on all of the potentially sensitive information that was
contained in the Clinton emails.
The flurry of activity came after Charles McCullough, the inspector
general, notified senior members of Congress that two of four
retroactively classified emails found on Clinton's server were deemed
"Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information" — a rating that is the
government's highest classifications.
Clinton, the former first lady, senator from New York and top
diplomat now running for the Democratic presidential nomination,
announced Tuesday that she had told aides to turn over the actual server
to the Justice Department, giving in to months of demands that she
relinquish the device she used to store her correspondence while
secretary of state.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said
McCullough had reported the new details about the higher classification
to Congress on Tuesday.
The State Department disputes McCullough's determination that the
emails were classified at the time they were sent. McCullough had
previously told Congress that potentially hundreds of classified emails
are among the cache that Clinton provided to the State Department.
A State Department spokesman said Wednesday that the agency is still
processing the emails Clinton initially turned over and took a veiled
swipe at Grassley for disclosing what McCullough had said.
"The emails that have been discussed have not been released to
public," said Deputy Press Secretary Mark Toner. "We are working to
resolve if it is indeed classified [and] we are taking steps to make
sure the information is protected and stored properly.
"These emails were not marked classified when they were sent," he added.
A source familiar with the investigation told Fox News late Tuesday
that the two emails in question contained operational and geospatial
intelligence from the CIA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency (NGA), which produces satellite images.
The FBI is investigating whether classified information was
improperly sent via and stored on the so-called "home-brew" e-mail
server she ran from her home in the New York City suburb after concerns
were raised by McCullough. Investigators have said that the probe is not
criminal in nature and have denied that Clinton is a target of their
inquiries.
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said she has "pledged to
cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more
questions, we will continue to address them."
It's not clear if the device will yield any information — Clinton's
attorney said in March that no emails from the main personal address she
used while secretary of state still "reside on the server or on back-up
systems associated with the server."
An intelligence source familiar with the matter told Fox News that
the campaign's statement of cooperation was overblown, as the FBI had
previously taken possession of a thumb drive containing sensitive emails
that had been held by Clinton's personal attorney, David Kendall. The
Associated Press reported that Kendall gave three thumb drives
containing copies of roughly 30,000 work-related emails sent to and from
Clinton's personal email address to the FBI after the agency determined
he could not remain in possession of the classified information
contained in some of the emails.
The AP's report cited a U.S. official briefed on the matter who was
not authorized to speak publicly. The State Department previously had
said it was comfortable with Kendall keeping the emails at his
Washington law office.
Clinton had to this point refused demands from Republican critics to
turn over the server to a third party, with Kendall telling the House
committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that "there
is no basis to support the proposed third-party review of the server."
Clinton has also defended her use of the server, saying she used it as a
matter of convenience to limit the number of electronic devices she had
to carry.
Congressional Republicans seized on Clinton's reversal late Tuesday.
"It's about time," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio said in a
statement. "Secretary Clinton's previous statements that she possessed
no classified information were patently untrue. Her mishandling of
classified information must be fully investigated."
"Secretary Clinton said she created this unusual email arrangement
with herself for 'convenience.' It may have been convenient for her, but
it has been troubling at multiple levels for the rest of the country,"
said Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chairman of the Benghazi select
committee. "Secretary Clinton's decision to prioritize her own
convenience - and desire for control - over the security of our
country's intelligence should concern all people of good conscience."
There is no evidence Clinton used encryption to shield the emails or
her personal server from foreign intelligence services or other
potentially prying eyes. Kendall has said that Clinton is "actively
cooperating" with the FBI inquiry.
In March, Clinton said she exchanged about 60,000 emails in her four
years in the Obama administration, about half of which were personal and
were discarded. She turned over the other half to the State Department
in last December.
The department is reviewing those emails and has begun the process of releasing them to the public.
"As she has said, it is her hope that State and the other agencies
involved in the review process will sort out as quickly as possible
which emails are appropriate to release to the public, and that the
release will be as timely and transparent as possible," Merrill said
Tuesday.
Earlier this week, Clinton said in a sworn statement submitted to a
federal judge that she has turned over to the State Department all
emails from the server "that were or potentially were federal records."
The statement, which carries her signature and was signed under penalty
of perjury, echoed months of Clinton's past public statements about the
matter.