State Department spokesman John Kirby declined Monday to say whether Hillary Clinton maintained her security clearance after leaving office, telling reporters he didn’t know the status of Clinton’s clearance and likely would not be able to comment even if he did.
“I’m going to scrupulously avoid getting into commenting on things on the campaign trail,” Kirby said when asked about Clinton’s claim that the State Department had “overclassified” 22 emails deemed “top secret” late last week. “That would be inappropriate.”
The State Department announced Friday it has opened an investigation into whether some of Clinton’s emails contained information that should have been marked classified at the time. None of the emails deemed classified so far was marked as such, a fact Clinton has consistently touted in defense of her conduct.
Kirby said Secretary of State John Kerry has pushed for that review “to be conducted as expeditiously as possible, but not so fast that it’s not right and it’s not thorough.”
However, the agency spokesman said he disagreed with the assertion from many intelligence officials that the lack of markings on Clinton’s classified emails is irrelevant.
“That’s why the classification at the time these emails were sent are going to be reviewed separately by the State Department,” Kirby said.
Clinton faced renewed scrutiny of her private email use this weekend in the wake of the agency’s decision to withhold 37 pages of emails, the first time the release of any of her records has been blocked in a months-long document review.
