FBI investigators probing Hillary Clinton’s personal email are zeroing in on whether a subsection of the Espionage Act related to "gross negligence" in the keeping of national defense information was violated, according to an intelligence community source.
Fox News reported:
Under 18 USC 793 subsection F, the information does not have to be classified to count as a violation. The intelligence source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the ongoing probe, said the subsection requires the "lawful possession" of national defense information by a security clearance holder who "through gross negligence," such as the use of an unsecure computer network, permits the material to be removed or abstracted from its proper, secure location. Subsection F also requires the clearance holder "to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer." A failure to do so "shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both."
The news comes nearly two months after an investigator for public interest law group Judicial Watch told the Washington Free Beacon that Clinton and aides Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills appeared to have violated 18 USC 793.
Moreover, according to the intelligence source, FBI investigators are also examining whether there has been any obstruction of justice related to the Clinton email probe.
"If someone knows there is an ongoing investigation and takes action to impede an investigation, for example destruction of documents or threatening of witnesses, that could be a separate charge but still remain under a single case," the source said.
Clinton handed about 30,000 work-related emails over to the State Department after deleting about an equal number of emails she deemed personal from her system.
The FBI seized Clinton’s personal server after the inspector general of the intelligence community determined that at least two emails contained on her private system included top secret information at the time they were sent. Clinton has insisted that she never sent nor received information marked classified.