Fox News is reporting that a review by inspectors general (IG) of state and national intelligence has confirmed that two of the emails found on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's unsecured personal email server were, indeed, top secret at the time she received them. The two emails were deemed top secret after an initial review, however, in early November the State Department leaked to Politico that a second review found them not to be worthy of the highest classification.
Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) chairman of the Intelligence Committee sent a letter to Secretary of State Kerry and Director of National Intelligence Clapper, and the inspectors general (IGs) for the two departments asking that the IGs conduct an independent review of the emails.
On Tuesday, Catherine Herridge of Fox News reported that the independent review has been conducted and "has re-affirmed that two classified emails were indeed 'top secret' when they hit Hillary Clinton’s unsecured personal server despite a challenge to that designation by the State Department" In fact, one of the emails remains top secret at this point in time.
Ms. Herridge says her two sources not only confirm the results of the review, but that it firmly is a "settled matter."
Actually, the classification of the information in the emails should have been a no-brainer. According to executive order 13526 signed by President Obama in December 2009, the agency that first distributes the information also gives the data its classification. And only that agency which gave the information its classification may change it or remove it.
In this case:
The agencies that owned and originated that intelligence – the CIA and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or NGA – reviewed the emails to determine how they should be properly stored, as the State Department took issue with their highly classified nature. The subject matter of the messages is widely reported to be the movement of North Korean missiles and a drone strike. A top secret designation requires the highest level of security, and can include the use of an approved safe.
The sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, told Fox News that while the emails were indeed “top secret” when they hit Clinton’s server, one of them remains “top secret” to this day -- and must be handled at the highest security level. The second email is still considered classified but at the lower “secret” level because more information is publicly available about the event.
The findings have been transmitted to the State Department, which continues to challenge the intelligence community’s conclusions about the classification of all the emails. But the department has no authority to change the classification since it did not originate the information.
The classification of the emails when Ms. Clinton received them is key to the FBI investigation of whether she criminally mishandled classified information. For the FBI's purposes, it's irrelevant whether classification was changed after it left the subject's possession, only what the classification was at the time it was received and whether it changed while still in the person's possession.
Later in the day Tuesday, Ms. Clinton is due to give what is being called a major speech on terrorism and national security. This latest revelation may cast a dark cloud over that address.