http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/us/po ... unity.htmlHillary Clinton Emails Said to Contain Classified Data
WASHINGTON — Government investigators said Friday that they had discovered classified information on the private email account that Hillary Rodham Clinton used while secretary of state, stating unequivocally that those secrets never should have been stored outside of secure government computer systems.
Mrs. Clinton has said for months that she kept no classified information on the private server that she set up in her house so she would not have to carry both a personal phone and a work phone. Her campaign said Friday that any government secrets found on the server had been classified after the fact.
But the inspectors general of the State Department and the nation’s intelligence agencies said the information they found was classified when it was sent and remains so now. Information is considered classified if its disclosure would likely harm national security, and such information can be sent or stored only on computer networks with special safeguards.
“This classified information never should have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system,” Steve A. Linick, the State Department inspector general, said in a statement signed by him and I. Charles McCullough III, the inspector general for the intelligence community.[that's actually a formal title; I assume it encompasses all of our spook organizations; CIA, NSA, etc: http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/orga ... who-we-are]
Exactly how much classified information Mrs. Clinton had on the server is unclear. Investigators said they searched a small sample of 40 emails and found four that contained government secrets. But Mr. McCullough said in a separate statement that although the State Department had granted limited access to its own inspector general, the department rejected Mr. McCullough’s request for access to the 30,000 emails that Mrs. Clinton said were government-related and gave to the State Department.
Mrs. Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, is “purported” to also have copies of the 30,000 emails on a thumb drive, according to Mr. McCullough.
The discovery of the four emails prompted Mr. McCullough to refer the matter to F.B.I. counterintelligence agents, who investigate crimes related to the mishandling of classified information. On Thursday night and again Friday morning, the Justice Department referred to the matter as a “criminal referral,” but later Friday dropped the word “criminal.” The inspectors general said late Friday that it was a “security referral” intended to alert authorities that “classified information may exist on at least one private server and thumb drive that are not in the government’s possession.”
Irrespective of the terminology, the referral raises the possibility of a Justice Department investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s emails as she campaigns for president. Polls show she is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination by a wide margin.
Mishandling classified information is a crime. Justice Department officials said no decision had been made about whether to open a criminal investigation.
The refusal by the State Department to give Mr. McCullough access to the emails has reignited calls by Republicans for Mrs. Clinton to hand over the server that she used to house the personal email account.
“If Secretary Clinton truly has nothing to hide, she can prove it by immediately turning over her server to the proper authorities and allowing them to examine the complete record,” Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said on Friday. “Her poor judgment has undermined our national security, and it is time for her to finally do the right thing.”
I think what's clearly needed here, is the appointment of a Special Counsel to do a thorough and complete investigation into this; Since Hillary is completely innocent of any wrong doing, I'm sure she would welcome such a public and prolonged investigation...
Though I have to say, that if they've only looked at 40 emails and already found criminal transmission of classified material in four of them, after they look at all 30,000 (The 30,000 Her Royal Clintoness found fit to provide after she deleted the other 30,000 that were under subpoena...wholesale destruction of legally subpoenaed records is a line even Dick Nixon wouldn't cross...) if the percentage holds, that will be somewhere in the neighborhood of three thousand criminal violations...




