When the New York Times revealed months ago that Hillary Clinton used a personal email address and server to conduct official government business, the former Secretary of State denied ever using personal correspondence to send classified information.
"I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material. I'm certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material," Clinton said during a press conference at the United Nations in March.
It turns out, that more than likely isn't true.
New documents show Secretary Clinton planned a no-fly zone over Libya via personal email and officials working for Clinton may have renamed classified information as "unclassified" to cover for the Secretary. Catherine Herridge has the story:
An email chain from March 23, 2011 -- with virtually no redactions -- shows a message for senior administration staff including then Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, then-Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy among others. It goes point by point, explaining what Turkey, France and Britain will likely accept in the deal.
"I think the information in the email is clearly classified. If I were engaged in the negotiation on that subject reporting back to Washington, my reporting cable would be classified," former UN Ambassador and Fox News contributor John Bolton said after reading the un-redacted emails.
"They're dealing with the possible U.S. military operation, sensitive negotiations among NATO partners, talking about U.S. objectives and political arrangements and possible objections to the deal from key partners so all of these at secretary of state level is extraordinarily sensitive."
While the first email in the chain is marked "UNCLASSIFIED," based on his experience as ambassador to the UN, Bolton said he suspects a lot of intelligence was pushed out as unclassified to accommodate her separate, private system.
"It's not simply the effect on Secretary Clinton's own email. It's pervasive throughout the higher levels of the department, which simply magnifies the risk." Bolton added.
It should be noted that members of the military have been prosecuted for simply receiving classified information on a personal email server. Further, General David Petreaus was charged with a felony and prosecuted for sharing classified documents he kept on a personal computer with his biographer and mistress.
