Hillary Clinton’s ‘email scandal’ takes another turn with 37 pages of messages classified as top secret for the first time
Republicans have been trying to slow the momentum of Clinton’s campaign by playing up her email issues, saying she played by her own rules during her time as secretary of state.
The federal government is censoring 37 pages of emails from Hillary Clinton’s private email server, saying they contain information considered “top secret”. The move marks the first time her State Department emails have been accorded such a high level of classification and comes just days before the Iowa caucuses.
Seven email chains are being withheld in their entirety from a release scheduled later Friday for including “top secret” information.
“The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community, because they contain a category of top secret information,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
He added, though, that the messages had not been designated as top secret when they were sent, though the department “is focusing on whether they need to be classified today”.
The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information
Clinton, who served as secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, has long maintained that she did not send or received information that was classified at the time, which Kirby said on Friday was the case. She is in a tight battle with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Iowa, which holds caucuses that open the 2016 primary calendar on Monday.