A group of former special operations forces and intelligence community members are calling on the State Department to revoke "any and all security clearances" still held by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her confidants in the wake of revelations Clinton used a private email server to transfer classified information.
OPSEC, an advocacy group comprised of former intelligence and security officials, petitioned Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday to revoke classified privileges for Clinton, as well as her former chief of staff Cheryl Mills, her former deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, and her top adviser Huma Abedin, according to a copy of the letter.
The group maintains that Clinton and her allies should have their clearances revoked until government agencies can determine whether they broke the law by exchanging emails on a private email server outside of the State Department’s jurisdiction.
At least two inspectors general at the State Department and the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) have come forward to say that classified information had been mishandled during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.
"These four very senior officials, … while still employed by the Department, violated a plethora of department directives and Title 18 U.S. Code by their involvement with a privately owned and operated email server and domain to send and receive official emails, some of which contained" classified and secret information, OPSEC writes in its letter.
Clinton may have violated at least four laws governing the exchange of sensitive information, according to OPSEC.
The violations include removing information, some of it classified, and storing it in an "unauthorized location." The law also forbids the disclosure of Foreign Government Information (FGI), whether it is classified or not, according to OPSEC.
Clinton and her allies may have also violated laws pertaining to Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) materials, Personally Identifying Information (PII), and Critical Infrastructure Information (CII), OPSEC says.
"There is ample evidence that this private server was inadequately protected from foreign intelligence penetration and malicious ‘hacking,’" OPSEC writes in its letter to Kerry. "Indeed, the existence of this server and its use by senior State Department officials to send and receive official emails was first disclosed publicly by a hacker from Romania."
The State Department should adhere to normal protocol by revoking all security clearances for Clinton and her former advisers, the group writes.
"The Department of State should exercise its administrative authority to suspend any existing security clearances of these four individuals and those of any and all other individuals currently or formerly in the employ of the United States Government who may have used in any form the clintonemail.com service, pending final adjudication," they letter states.
Scott Taylor, president of OPSEC, said in a statement that the State Department should not play political games when national security secrets are at stake.
"The American people must be assured that the Departments of State and Justice and the relevant congressional oversight committees are committed to ensuring that the laws and policies governing handling of classified materials are efficiently and consistently enforced to protect the national security of this country and its citizens," Taylor said. "Hence, we call on Secretary Kerry to take immediately the first and essential step in fulfilling that obligation."
A State Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a Washington Free Beacon request for comment on OPSEC’s letter and the claims made by the group.