The Federal Bureau of Investigation released several documents Monday morning confirming discussions between officials at the State Department and at the FBI about a “quid pro quo” to reclassify documents stored on Hillary Clinton’s private email server. Among the 34 released documents, which are summaries of interviews conducted by the FBI in its investigation of the Clinton server, is evidence that a high-ranking State Department official, undersecretary of state for management Patrick Kennedy, discussed a quid pro quo with the FBI.
In one interview summary, a witness described receiving a call from the International Operations Division of the FBI who he says “‘pressured’ him to change the classified email to unclassified”, and that in exchange the State Department “would reciprocate by allowing the FBI to place more Agents in countries where they are presently forbidden.”
The witness also told the FBI that he “believes [the State Department] has an agenda which involves minimizing the classified nature of the CLINTON emails in order to protect STATE interests and those of CLINTON.”
This discussion of the quid pro quo was first reported by THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s Stephen Hayes. Here’s more from Hayes:
The story about potential reclassification of Clinton emails unfolds over three of the summaries. A senior FBI official in the international operations division describes conversations with Kennedy about the classification of emails. In his interview, this official says his section of the FBI had attempted to contact Kennedy repeatedly over the course of several months in the spring of 2015. Kennedy did not return the calls. In the late spring or early summer of 2015, the FBI official reported to work surprised to find a note indicating that Kennedy had called. According to the summary, Kennedy wanted help. The FBI official spoke with Kennedy and Kennedy raised the possibility of keeping at least one Clinton email from public disclosure by obtaining a “B9” exemption under the Freedom of Information Act, a rarely used exemption that refers to “geological and geophysical information and data.” One email in particular concerned Kennedy and, according to the FBI summary, providing a B9 exemption “would allow him to archive the document in the basement of the department of state never to be seen again.” The FBI official told Kennedy that he would look into the email if Kennedy would authorize a pending request for additional FBI personnel in Iraq. A summary of an interview with the section chief of the FBI records management division provides further evidence of Kennedy’s attempts to have the classification of some sensitive emails changed. The FBI records official, whose job includes making determinations on classification, told investigators that he was approached by his colleague in international operations after the initial discussion with Kennedy. The FBI records official says that his colleague “pressured” him to declassify an email “in exchange for a quid pro quo,” according to the interview summary. “In exchange for making the email unclassified State would reciprocate by allowing the FBI to place more agents in countries where they are presently forbidden.” The request was denied. In the days that followed, the FBI records official attended an “all-agency” meeting at the State Department to discuss the ongoing “classification review of pending Clinton FOIA materials.” One of the participants at the meeting asked Kennedy whether any of the emails were classified. Kennedy purposely looked at the FBI records chief and then replied: “Well, we’ll see.”
Read the whole thing here.
