Criminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Account
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An internal government review of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email archive has revealed that hundreds of those messages contain potentially classified information.
A joint memorandum from the inspectors general of the Department of State and the intelligence community viewed by The Wall Street Journal found that an investigation discovered “hundreds of potentially classified emails within the collection” of Mrs. Clinton’s emails.
In a minimum of one case, the review found that at least one of Mrs. Clinton’s emails already publicly released on the State Department’s website contained classified information.
As a result, the inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into the mishandling of classified information, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The news of the request for a criminal investigation was first reported by the New York Times.
While secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton used her own email account run through a personal server for all of her work-related correspondence.
Although the arrangement was legal at the time, it has prompted questions from lawmakers and watchdogs about her compliance with federal records laws.
Critics contend that her use of that address skirted government regulations and helped shield Mrs. Clinton from open records requests and federal archiving rules.
Mrs. Clinton has said she turned over relevant federal records before deleting all her emails off her private server. She said she used a personal account for convenience, to avoid carrying two devices.
She told CNN earlier this month: “The truth is, everything I did was permitted and I went above and beyond what anybody could have expected in making sure that if the State Department didn’t capture something, I made a real effort to get it to them.”
A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department declined to comment. A spokesman for the Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Mrs. Clinton has also said most of her emails would be preserved because they were exchanged with people who had State Department accounts.
The State Department said last month that Mrs. Clinton hadn’t turned over 15 emails that appeared to be work-related.
