State Dept.: 22 Clinton Emails Found With 'Top Secret' Info
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The State Department has confirmed that at least 22 emails sent or received by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her home server contained information deemed to be "top secret," one of the highest levels of U.S. government classification. Here is a look at what we know.
WHAT WE KNOW:
— The State Department said Friday that it would withhold 22 documents from its release of Clinton's emails because of the classification issue and that it would take appropriate action if it determines that security regulations were breached.
— The State Department is in the process of releasing 55,000 documents that Clinton sent or received on her home email server. It has not completed reviewing those documents but has so far retroactively classified more than 1,200 of them.
— The vast majority of those have been designated as "confidential," the lowest level of classification, and a handful have been at the second-highest level of "secret." Friday's announcement about the 22 documents — comprising seven email chains covering 37 pages — is the first time the department has decided to withhold documents because information in them has been deemed "top secret."
— The department says the documents were not marked classified at the time they were sent or received byClinton. But it says is looking into whether they should have been.
— The department says that "if warranted," it will take appropriate action in response to the revelation. That action could include counseling or issuing warnings or security violations if it determines that the information was mishandled in violation of classification regulations.
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW:
— The State Department is refusing to discuss the content of the 22 emails deemed to contain "top secret" information.
— It remains unclear if the information could have come from publicly available sources despite now being classified as "top secret."
— It also remains unclear if Clinton will face any punitive action over the revelation as multiple investigations into her use of a homebrew server are continuing.
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