In the latest blow to the Hillary Clinton campaign’s claim that sensitive government information stored on her private e-mail server was only classified after the fact, a special review by two top spy agencies confirmed that two e-mails with “Top Secret” material were classified from the moment they were received.
Senior intelligence officials told the New York Times that the review, conducted by the CIA and the National-Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), echoes the earlier findings of inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence community. Those two watchdogs initially discovered the e-mails, sent to the then-secretary of state in 2009 and 2011, during an inquiry into the State Department’s release of Clinton’s e-mails as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit this summer. Citing the extreme sensitivity of the e-mails’ contents — one message contained information on North Korea’s nuclear program — the IGs determined that the documents were “Top Secret” from Day One.
The State Department and the Clinton campaign have long disputed that finding, and on Monday, both cast doubt on the CIA/NGA review confirming it. “Our hope remains that these releases continue without being hampered by bureaucratic infighting among the intelligence community, and that the releases continue to be as inclusive and transparent as possible,” said Nick Merrill, a Clinton campaign spokesman. A State Department official said that classification “is rarely a black and white decision,” and that “any conclusion about the classification of the documents in question would be premature.”
#share#An executive order signed by President Obama in 2009 grants “Top Secret” classification authority to the agencies from which the information emanated. In the case of these two e-mails, that means the CIA and the NGA, which runs the government’s spy-satellite programs. Despite Merrill’s claim, there is little evidence of bureaucratic infighting between these two agencies — both have now endorsed the finding of the intelligence community’s top watchdog, and resistance to the e-mails’ “Top Secret” designation appears to be emanating exclusively from the State Department.
#related#In June, the intelligence community inspector general accused State Department lawyers of overturning the classification of four Clinton e-mails, relabeling the messages as part of the agency’s “deliberative process.” State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy has also resisted attempts by intelligence community investigators to take a more active role in the e-mail review process.
An FBI investigation into Clinton’s retention of “Top Secret” material on her private server — and whether that retention warrants a federal indictment — is ongoing.
— Brendan Bordelon is a political reporter for National Review.