State Department declares 22 Clinton emails ‘top secret’

Kirby, however, claimed the 22 email documents had not be identified as classified information when they were sent out through Clinton’s private clintonemail.com email account through her private server located at her residence in NY.

“The seven emails, or a few emails at any rate, are being withheld at the request of the intelligence community itself”, he told reporters. The 37 pages concerned “special access programs” -highly restricted, classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes.

Although emails previously released by the State Department have been partially redacted due to the nature of the information they contained, this was the first time entire messages were withheld. State Department officials are checking whether any of the material was actually classified at the time it passed through her server, but Clinton has repeatedly said she did not send or receive any such classified material.

Thousands of emails have already been released by the State Department, but this is the first time her messages have been labelled top secret.

“Dianne Feinstein, member of the [Senate] Intelligence Committee, who has had a chance to review them, has said that this e-mail chain did not originate with me and that there were no classification markings”.

In the past few months, Clinton had been facing issues of trustworthiness during surveys as a result of evidence of the existence of top secret material in her private email server.

The State Department released another batch of Mrs Clinton’s emails on Friday evening.

The exchange came between State Department official Lewis Lukens and a number of Clinton staffers in a conversation about her email setup. “Questions about classification at the time emails were sent are being, and will be, handled separately by the State Department”.

Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen.

Officials said that almost 1,000 pages of Clinton’s emails would be released yesterday but, as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, it was required to finish the production on Friday and reveal the remaining 9,900 pages of the Secretary’s emails.

The announcement fueled criticism of Clinton’s handling of highly sensitive information while secretary of state, even as the Clinton campaign continued to downplay the matter as the product of an interagency dispute over classification.

“I’m not willing to say it was an error in judgment because nothing I did was wrong”, she said.

Alisyn Camerota agreed saying, “Even The New York Times, in their endorsement said we believe she’s the best candidate but the email questions are legitimate”.

Mrs Clinton’s use of a personal email as secretary of state has dogged her bid for the USA presidency.

He said her use of a private server “put our national security and diplomatic efforts at risk”. “Top secret” is the highest designation.

The e-mail issue has dogged Clinton throughout the race with particular heat coming from her prospective Republican challengers. That would mean the last of the emails would not be released until the end of February – after the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, officials there told a federal judge this week.