To the surprise of no one…
The State Department cannot find emails of Clinton IT staffer Bryan Pagliano. Hillary Rodham Clinton said she does not need to apologize for using a private email account and server while at the State Department because “what I did was allowed.” Hillary Clinton’s private server contained information from 5 US spy agencies. Hillary Clinton deleted half of emails from personal account used to conduct business as secretary of state.
So why would the following make any difference?
An intelligence community review has reaffirmed that two classified emails were indeed “top secret” when they hit Hillary Clinton’s unsecured personal server despite a challenge to that designation by the State Department, according to two sources familiar with the review reports the NY Post. The sources described the dispute over whether the two emails were classified at the highest level as a “settled matter.”
The CIA and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency reviewed the emails to determine how they should be properly stored, as the State Department took issue with their highly classified nature. The subject matter of the messages is widely reported to be the movement of North Korean missiles and a drone strike.
The sources told Fox News that while the emails were indeed “top secret” when they hit Clinton’s server, one of them remains “top secret” to this day — and must be handled at the highest security level. The second email is still considered classified but at the lower “secret” level because more information is publicly available about the event.
Of course the State Department continues to challenge the intelligence community’s conclusions about the classification of all the emails. But the department has no authority to change the classification since it did not originate the information.
Earlier this month, Politico reported that the intelligence community was retreating from the “top secret” classification, a development that could have helped Clinton’s presidential campaign deflect allegations about mishandling classified material. Fox News can confirm it is true the handling of one email has changed since it was drafted and sent, but this change has no bearing on the “top secret” nature of the emails when first received on Clinton’s server.
And this is what matters to the FBI probe. While the classification finding is important, the central issue is whether the FBI investigation concludes there was or was not a criminal violation.
Fox News reported earlier this month that two top Republican senators wrote directly to Secretary of State John Kerry and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper about possible leaks from their departments on their review of Clinton’s emails — wrongly leaving the impression that the two “top secret” messages were not that sensitive.
The letter was sent by Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Richard Burr, who heads the powerful Intelligence Committee, on Nov. 13, with copies sent three days later to the intelligence community and State Department watchdogs known as inspectors general. The IGs were asked to conduct an independent review of the process.
While the senators’ letter is not public, Fox News has confirmed that the senators cited the Politico report from Nov. 6 in which unnamed sources claimed the two “top secret” emails had been downgraded after a second review. While hailed by Clinton’s supporters as evidence she did not break the law and send classified information on her personal email account, the Politico story was later updated to reflect the fact that Clapper’s office said the review was ongoing.
Hillary is escapable from any wrong doing. Bet she’s excited about that!
DCG
