A senior State Department official pressured the FBI to declassify emails stored on Hillary Clinton’s private server that were earlier deemed classified in an attempted "quid pro quo" arrangement.
Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy contacted the FBI repeatedly in 2015 offering to permit the bureau to place additional agents overseas in exchange for altered classifications, the Weekly Standard reported.
FBI summaries detail an unnamed bureau official engaging with Kennedy in conversations regarding the potential trade. The FBI official said he would provide a rarely used Freedom of Information Act exemption that would allow Kennedy "to archive the document in the basement of the department of state never to be seen again" if Kennedy authorized a pending request for addition FBI agents in Iraq.
Later, during an all-agency meeting at the State Department to discuss the ongoing "classification review of pending Clinton" Freedom of Information Act documents, a participant asked Kennedy whether any of the emails under review were marked classified. Kennedy turned to the section chief of the FBI records management division and responded, "Well, we’ll see."
The FBI records section chief privately met with Kennedy after the meeting and told investigators, "Kennedy spent the next 15 minutes debating the classification of the email and attempting to influence the FBI to change its markings."
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) condemned the latest FBI documents, claiming they "further demonstrate Secretary Clinton’s complete disregard for properly handling classified information."
"A senior State Department official’s attempt to pressure the FBI to hide the extent of this mishandling bears all the signs of a cover-up," Ryan said in a statement Monday.
The FBI and State Department denied any "quid pro quo" arrangement occurred.
"This allegation is inaccurate and does not align with the facts. To be clear: the State Department did upgrade the document at the request of the FBI when we released it back in May 2015," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Monday.
Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state has dogged her bid for the White House. Donald Trump has promised to have his attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to reopen an investigation into Clinton’s email practices should he win in November.