Senior State Department officials said they were following standard protocol in an investigation that began during the latter days of the Obama administration and is nearing completion.

"This has nothing to do with who is in the White House," said a senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "This is about the time it took to go through millions of emails, which is about 3½ years."

To many of those under scrutiny, including some of the Democratic Party's top foreign policy experts, the recent flurry of activity surrounding the Clinton email case represents a new front on which the Trump administration could be accused of employing the powers of the executive branch against perceived political adversaries.

The existence of the probe follows revelations that the President used multiple levers of his office to pressure the leader of Ukraine to pursue investigations that Mr Trump hoped would produce damaging information about Democrats, including potential presidential rival Joe Biden.

Donald Trump raised the issue as recently as Wednesday, calling it "one of the great crimes committed" by his 2016 adversary. AP

State Department officials vigorously denied there was any political motivation behind their actions, and said that the reviews of retroactively classified emails were conducted by career bureaucrats who did not know the names of the subjects being investigated.

"The process is set up in a manner to completely avoid any appearance of political bias," said a second senior State Department official.

Mrs Clinton's use of a private email server during her term as secretary triggered multiple investigations by the State Department, the FBI and Congress. The bureau did not accuse her of breaking the law, but she blamed the FBI's unusual public handling of the matter as a major factor in her loss in the 2016 election.


"I'd like to think that this is just routine, but something strange is going on," said Jeffrey Feltman, a former assistant secretary for Near East Affairs. In early 2018 Mr Feltman received a letter informing him that a half dozen of his messages included classified information. Then a few weeks ago he was found culpable for more than 50 emails that contained classified information.

"A couple of the emails cited by State as problems were sent after my May 2012 retirement, when I was already working for the United Nations," he said.

I'd like to think that this is just routine, but something strange is going on. — Jeffrey Feltman, former assistant secretary for Near East Affairs

A former senior US official familiar with the email investigation described it as a way for Republicans "to keep the Clinton email issue alive". The former official said the probe was "a way to tarnish a whole bunch of Democratic foreign policy people" and discourage if not prevent them from returning to government service.

The probe is being carried out by investigators from the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security. Republican congressmen, led by Iowa senator Charles Grassley, have been pressing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to complete the review of classified information sent to Mrs Clinton's private emails and report back to Congress.

State Department officials said they were bound by law to adjudicate any violations.

'Remarkably aggressive'

Former Obama administration officials, however, described the probe as a remarkably aggressive crackdown by an administration with its own troubled record of handling classified material.


Mr Trump has improperly disclosed classified information to foreign officials and used phones that national security officials warned were vulnerable to foreign surveillance, according to current and former officials.

At the same time, Mr Trump overrode the concerns of his former White House chief of staff and US intelligence officials to give his son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner access to highly classified materials, officials said.

The list of State officials being questioned includes prominent ambassadors and assistant secretaries of state responsible for US policy in the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia. But it also includes dozens of current and former career bureaucrats who served as conduits for outside officials trying to get important messages to Mrs Clinton.

In most cases the bureaucrats and political appointees didn't send the emails directly to Mrs Clinton, but passed them to William Burns, who served as deputy secretary of state, or Jake Sullivan, the former director of policy planning at the State Department. Mr Burns and Mr Sullivan then forwarded the messages to Clinton's private email.

It is such an obscene abuse of power and time involving so many people for so many years. — former US official

Mr Burns and Mr Sullivan declined to comment. Other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the matter and concern for retaliation.

Those targeted began receiving letters in August, saying, "You have been identified as possibly bearing some culpability" in supposedly newly uncovered "security incidents", according to a copy of one letter obtained by The Washington Post.

There is no indication in any of the materials reviewed by the Post that the emails under scrutiny contained sensitive information about classified US initiatives or programs.


Many of those who have been targeted by the probe and found "not culpable" described it as an effort to harass diplomats for the routine conduct of their job.

"It is such an obscene abuse of power and time involving so many people for so many years," one former US official said of the inquiry. "This has just sucked up people's lives for years and years."

Under external pressure

Several of those who have been questioned said that the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security investigators made it clear that they were pursuing the matter reluctantly, and under external pressure.

Those targeted do not appear to be in jeopardy of criminal prosecution – the FBI investigation of the Clinton email case has been closed since before the 2016 election. But many fear the results of the probe will damage their reputations and complicate their ability to maintain security clearances.

Mr Trump raised the issue as recently as Wednesday, calling it "one of the great crimes committed" by his 2016 opponent.

Washington Post