Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to the reporters at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, March 10, 2015. Clinton conceded that she should have used a government email to conduct business as secretary of state, saying her decision was simply a matter of “convenience.” (Photo: AP/Seth Wenig)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has discovered two emails deemed top secret classified on the private server kept by Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate is in full spin mode not only on why classified information was improperly sent via and stored on the home-brew email server she ran from her house in suburban New York City, but also how FBI investigators came to take possession of the server in the first place.
Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill claimed the Democratic frontrunner turned over the server voluntarily.
“Hillary Clinton has pledged to cooperate with the government’s security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them,” Merrill said. “As she has said, it is her hope that State and the other agencies involved in the review process will sort out as quickly as possible which emails are appropriate to release to the public, and that the release will be as timely and transparent as possible.”
However, a source in the Justice Department familiar with the investigation tells PPD that Clinton responded only after the Bureau gave her a “soft ultimatum,” give up the potentially-compromised server or explain a warrant to the public. Clinton’s Republican rivals jumped on the news Tuesday, offering an alternative version of events that turned out to be far closer to the truth than the Clinton camp will admit.
“All this means is that Hillary Clinton, in the face of FBI scrutiny, has decided she has run out of options,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement. “She knows she did something wrong and has run out of ways to cover it up.”
Nevertheless, the Justice Department source insisted the security investigation being conducted by the FBI is, in fact, a criminal investigation. Further, though it has been compared to the scenario that led to the prosecution of former CIA head General David Petraeus, it is actually far more severe since the government alleged he failed to properly secure “confidential” information. While confidential information is the lowest in severity and classifications, Mrs. Clinton failed to comply with federal law regarding top secret classified, which is the highest classification.
“The FBI doesn’t conduct anything but criminal investigations into these kinds of national security violations and we certainly don’t conduct different investigations because of someone’s political status,” the source said. “The investigation, by its nature, is a criminal investigation and it is centered around the actions of Hillary Clinton before, during and after her tenure as secretary of state.”
Earlier this week, Clinton said in a sworn statement submitted to a federal judge that she has turned over to the State Department all emails from the server “that were or potentially were federal records.” The statement, which carries her signature and was signed under penalty of perjury, echoed months of Clinton’s past public statements about the matter.
