State Department officials have not yet begun their internal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email use, and a spokeswoman refused on Friday to estimate when that probe would begin.
Elizabeth Trudeau, State Department spokeswoman, declined to specify who would be included in the review or what the investigation would entail beyond noting that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security would bear ultimate responsibility for decisions affecting the personnel who are reviewed.
The State Department has spent the past month vowing to open its own investigation into the “extremely careless” handling of classified information that transpired under Clinton’s leadership since the FBI director cleared her of criminal wrongdoing on July 5.
But the agency has still failed to open such a probe, telling reporters that officials are waiting for the FBI to pass along the thousands of work-related emails agents recovered from Clinton’s server. Trudeau said her department has not received any emails yet.
Trudeau said the State Department is “committed to fair, impartial and [an] absolutely rigorous process.”
Patrick Kennedy, the agency’s undersecretary for management, has said he failed to realize the extent of Clinton’s email use during her tenure even though he was in charge of record-keeping practices. Even so, Trudeau said Kennedy would be involved in the process of deciding whether Clinton or her aides could maintain their security clearances in the event those clearances were revoked and the aides appealed the agency’s decision.
