Hillary Clinton’s legal team received “top secret” security clearances from the State Department in the weeks before they handed over 55,000 pages of emails, raising questions as to whether they were aware of the highly sensitive material hidden in Clinton’s private communications.
David Kendall, Clinton’s attorney, said he and his law partner, Katherine Turner, sought clearances in November and December 2014 “in order to be able to review documents at the Department of State, to assist former Secretary Clinton in preparing to testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi,” Kendall wrote in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley on Monday.
Kendall claimed the security clearances had nothing to do with his review of the 30,490 emails given to the State Department on Dec. 5 of last year. He maintained in separate letters to Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson that none of the emails were “marked as classified.”
But Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted Kendall’s security clearance was not high enough to allow him to retain custody of three thumb drives that contained copies of Clinton’s emails after the intelligence community inspector general identified top secret information among the records.
“[I]t is imperative to confirm when, how, and why the department issued the security clearances in connection with the representation of Secretary Clinton and what steps the department has taken to secure the classified material contained within the emails,” the Iowa Republican wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.
Grassley demanded to know why the agency granted Kendall and Turner security clearances. He also asked whether Clinton’s security clearance — if she still has one — has been suspended in light of the FBI probe into her email network.
Grassley’s continued interest in the handling of Clinton’s emails has spread congressional interest in her activities from the House, where the details of her private server were first uncovered, to the Senate.
Although Clinton claimed in a March press conference “there was no classified material” on her private server, the State Department has identified dozens of emails that have since been marked classified.
State officials have clashed with the intelligence community inspector general, which argues some of the emails were indeed classified when written.
