A batch of Hillary Clinton’s private emails slated for release late Monday evening contains roughly 150 emails that include information that has been classified, the State Department said.
None of the 150 emails were classified at the time they were written, according to agency spokesman Mark Toner.
Intelligence community officials have repeatedly clashed with the State Department over what should be classified and when it should have been marked as such. The intelligence community has insisted some of the emails were classified when written, a position both Clinton and the State Department have rejected.
Toner deflected questions about whether foreign governments whose information has been exposed in the Clinton emails made public so far have contacted the State Department to raise concerns about their privacy.
“Of course, we’re in touch with foreign governments about a wide range of issues,” Toner said Monday. “If they have issues, they can certainly exchange those issues with us.”
The agency spokesman also dodged criticism of State’s decision to withhold the emails until 9 p.m. Monday after telling reporters earlier in the day to expect a 6 p.m. document dump. Toner said the agency doesn’t know exactly how many pages of emails it will publish Monday night, as officials are “still finalizing” the final set of records for release.
He blamed the delay on an “interagency review” that has drawn several other agencies into the process of reviewing Clinton’s emails for potentially classified information.
Records published in May, June and July contained 63 classified emails, meaning Monday’s release will more than double the number of emails now known to be classified.
The publication of more than 7,000 pages of emails at the end of August will mark the largest release of records so far, making more emails public in one day than the agency did in May, June and July combined.
