An "A-Team" at the FBI is spearheading an "extremely serious" investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email system, specifically focusing on a provision of the Espionage Act regarding the "gathering, transmitting or losing defense information," according to an anonymous intelligence source.
The specific provision in question is 18 USC Sec. 793.
Fox News reported:
A separate source, who also was not authorized to speak on the record, said the FBI will further determine whether Clinton should have known, based on the quality and detail of the material, that emails passing through her server contained classified information regardless of the markings. ... It is not clear how the FBI team’s findings will impact the probe itself. But the details offer a window into what investigators are looking for--as the Clinton campaign itself downplays the controversy.
While Clinton has repeatedly said she did not send or receive information marked as classified on her personal email, multiple messages held on her system have been flagged for containing classified information. Moreover, two of the emails have been determined by the inspector of the intelligence community to hold "top secret" information.
According to national security attorney Edward MacMahon, Jr., a violation of said provision of the Espionage Act would constitute a felony.
"Under [sub-section] F, the documents relate to the national defense, meaning very closely held information," MacMahon said. "Somebody in the government, with a clearance and need to know, then delivered the information to someone not entitled to receive it, or otherwise moved it from where it was supposed to be lawfully held."
Indeed, the public interest law group Judicial Watch recently told the Washington Free Beacon that Hillary Clinton and former aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills appear to have violated two national security laws, one of which is 18 USC Sec. 793, by sending classified information on the personal email server.
Chris Farrell, director of investigations for Judicial Watch, labeled the email controversy a "serious national security crime issue."
Weeks after she delivered her private server to the FBI amid the investigation, Clinton on Friday reiterated to reporters that she never sent or received classified information over email during her time as secretary of state.
"I have said repeatedly that I did not send nor receive classified material and I’m very confident that when this entire process plays out that will be understood by everyone," Clinton said.
'"It will prove what I have been saying and it’s not possible for people to look back now some years in the past and draw different conclusions than the ones that were at work at the time. You can make different decisions because things have changed, circumstances have changed, but it doesn’t change the fact that I did not send or receive material marked classified."