Hillary Clinton wrote 104 emails sent using her private, unsecured email server that have been deemed classified by the federal government.
The Washington Post, which conducted an analysis of the Clinton emails periodically released by the State Department under court order, determined that Clinton sent dozens of messages that now contain classified information. The former secretary of state and Democratic presidential candidate has long insisted that she never sent nor received information that was marked classified at the time.
In about three-fourths of the classified messages penned by Clinton, the former secretary of state wrote text in the body of the emails that has been assessed as classified, according to the analysis. Approximately 300 individuals inside and outside the federal government also wrote emails that are classified.
Though the State Department has said that none of the over 30,000 work-related emails it reviewed from Clinton’s private email were marked classified, the government has nevertheless upgraded 2,093 to classified status and redacted parts of them before release. Additionally, the State Department has had to withhold 22 emails from release because they contain information that is classified at the highest "top secret" level. The Post analysis did not include these messages.
The emails released by the State Department have provided insight into Clinton’s correspondence with top aides, political allies, and others.
One of the messages included in the agency’s final release last week appeared to undermine Clinton’s key talking point about her handling of classified information, namely that she never sent nor received emails marked classified on her personal system. A 2012 email written by Clinton and sent on her private system showed her checking with aides about whether one of her emails contained classified information. The correspondence indicated that Clinton knew that even messages with no classification markings could still contain classified information.
In another message sent by Clinton, the former secretary of state instructed one of her closest aides to send her information using "nonsecure" channels.
Critics have argued that Clinton put national security at risk by exclusively using personal, unsecured email to conduct sensitive government business. Clinton’s campaign, alternatively, has dismissed the controversy surrounding her private email as the product of an attempt to hurt her White House ambitions.
Clinton’s private email setup has become the subject of an FBI investigation, which multiple reports last week indicated has become criminal in nature. Clinton herself has described the probe as a "security review."
Bryan Pagliano, a former State Department staffer who set up Clinton’s private server in her New York home in 2009, has been granted immunity by the Justice Department and is cooperating with the FBI in its investigation. Clinton described the development, which was reported last week, as good news during a televised interview Sunday.