Top intelligence officials may be walking back their claim that Hillary Clinton’s private emails contained information classified up to “top secret,” the finding earlier this year that triggered an FBI investigation into Clinton’s private server.
The inspector general for the intelligence community had said at least two emails in a small sample he had been permitted to review contained top secret material, but an unnamed source told Politico the inspector general recently ruled against that statement and sided with the State Department officials who had disputed the finding from the beginning, according to a Politico report.
But spokesmen for the intelligence community inspector general and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said no such determination had been made, casting doubt on the status of the “top secret” emails. Politico appears to be standing by its anonymous source.
The discovery of potentially top secret information prompted the FBI to take custody of Clinton’s private server in August and has been the primary driver of criticism over her handling of sensitive information in her emails.
Clinton has repeatedly defended her use of a private email server by claiming nothing she sent or received was “marked classified at the time.”
However, hundreds of her emails have since been marked classified by the State Department, with hundreds more expected to receive that designation before the agency finishes screening them in January of next year.
