The FBI is expanding its investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email while secretary of state "beyond the Espionage Act statutes," Fox Business reported Thursday, with intelligence sources exploring whether statements made by Clinton, her staff and her attorney violated U.S. criminal code.
"Also, we're learning separately, that two U.S. government officials told Fox that the FBI is doing its own independent classification review of the Clinton emails," anchor Cheryl Casone said.
Fox News is told agents are looking at U.S. Code 18, Section 1001, which pertains to "materially false" statements given either in writing, orally or through a third party. Violations also include pressuring a third party to conspire in a cover-up. Each felony violation is subject to five years in prison.
This phase represents an expansion of the FBI probe, which is also exploring potential violations of an Espionage Act provision relating to "gross negligence" in the handling of national defense information.
"The agents involved are under a lot of pressure and are busting a--," an intelligence source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told Fox News.
The section of the criminal code being explored is known as "statements or entries generally," and can be applied when an individual makes misleading or false statements causing federal agents to expend additional resources and time. In this case, legal experts as well as a former FBI agent said, Section 1001 could apply if Clinton, her aides or attorney were not forthcoming with FBI agents about her emails, classification and whether only non-government records were destroyed.
It's another significant story in the now eight-month saga of Clinton's private server from the State Department. Last week, the Washington Free Beacon's Lachlan Markay revealed Clinton signed a non-disclosure agreement at the beginning of her tenure laying out criminal penalties for the mishandling of classified information, including any "negligent handling."