Update:
Please scroll down to the bottom to read excerpts from the transcript of State Department spokesman John Kirby’s briefing on this issue.
Original Post:
In what could spell trouble for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just three days before the Iowa caucuses, the State Department is saying that seven private Clinton email “chains” will be withheld from the public in their entirety because they contain top-secret information, according to Reuters.
Reuters:
The material, amounting to 37 printed pages, contained information U.S. intelligence agencies said was classified as top secret, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.
“These documents were not marked classified at the time that they were sent,” Kirby said, adding that the department would investigate whether the information in them was classified at the time.
In the meantime, Clinton’s presidential campaign says — according to Reuters — “We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails.”
While in the past some information in Clinton’s e-mails has been redacted, this is the first time that public release of entire e-mails has been blocked.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
The private email server Hillary Clinton used while secretary of State reemerged as a liability for her presidential run, as the State Department acknowledged Friday that 22 messages stored on the server contain top-secret information.
According to the Times, the administration is refusing to discuss the contents of the messages and is excluding the messages marked top secret from the disclosure.
State Department spokesman John Kirby: “I’m not going to speak to the content of these documents…I understand there’s great curiosity. I’m just going to put that right out at the top. I am not going to speak to the content of this email traffic.”
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Update: Excerpts from State Department spokesman John Kirby’s briefing on this issue – full briefing and exchange with reporters can be read here:
At approximately 7:00 p.m. tonight, the State Department will make publicly available online approximately 1,000 additional pages from former Secretary Clinton’s email account. As we’ve explained previously, tonight’s release will not meet the court’s due date for producing all of the remaining emails, but we are still striving to produce as many documents as possible today…
I also want to address some information that, I think, some of you have seen in the news just in the last few minutes or so. I can confirm that as part of this monthly FOIA production of former Secretary Clinton’s emails, the State Department will be denying in full seven email chains found in 22 documents, representing 37 pages. The documents are being upgraded at the request of the Intelligence Community because they contain a category of top secret information. These documents were not marked classified at the time that they were sent. We have worked closely with our interagency partners on this matter, and this dialogue with the interagency is exactly how the process is supposed to work. As to whether they were classified at the time they were sent, the State Department, in the FOIA process, is focusing on whether they need to be classified today. Questions about classification at the time they were sent are being and will be handled separately by the State Department.
These emails will be denied in full, meaning that they will not be produced online on our FOIA website. And I don’t need to remind many of you that in response to a FOIA request it’s not unusual to deny or withhold a document in full. I’m not going to speak to the content of these documents. I understand there’s great curiosity. I’m just going to put that right out at the top – I am not going to speak to the content of this email traffic…
These emails denied in full are among the emails discussed recently by the Intelligence Community inspector general in a letter to Congress. We will not, however, be confirming or speaking, as I said, to every detail provided in the documents or in the ICIG’s letter. One of these emails was also among those identified by the ICIG last summer as possibly containing top secret information…
Kirby then shifted to “an entirely different asppect, which relates to emails exchanged between President Obama and then Secretary Clinton:
As the White House has previously stated, Secretary Clinton and the President did on occasion exchange emails. As they have also said previously, such presidential records shall remain confidential to protect the President’s ability to receive unvarnished advice and counsel but will ultimately be released in accordance with the Presidential Records Act. I can confirm that 18 emails comprised of eight distinct email chains between former Secretary Clinton and President Obama are being withheld in full from the State Department’s FOIA production today of these emails of Secretary – former Secretary Clinton’s emails….
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The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.