The State Department released more than 1,100 additional pages of Hillary Clinton's emails Friday night, shedding light on her handling of diplomatic crises and detailing her team's efforts to make sure President Barack Obama didn't get all the credit for U.S. foreign policy.

The online posting is the 12th incremental release of Clinton's messages since her exclusive use of a private email account for official business at the State Department became public nearly a year ago.


However, the latest batch comes at a particularly crucial and inconvenient time for the former secretary of state, as she searches for her first decisive win in the Democratic presidential primary contest against an unexpectedly formidable challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Clinton eked out a victory over Sanders in Iowa, and was walloped in New Hampshire. She's hoping Saturday's Nevada caucuses will set her on a clear path to the nomination.

But each release serves as a reminder of Clinton's decision to use the private server and of the FBI's investigation into the potential intelligence breach — a probe the law enforcement agency said was ongoing as of earlier this month.

Republicans have portrayed her use of the private email system as a reckless danger to national security. Even some of Clinton's allies have described it as a serious lapse in judgment. Clinton has disputed both critiques, but says that in retrospect she would have made a different decision.

The newest release includes 64 emails now deemed classified, bringing the total number of messages in Clinton's account determined to be classified to over 1,750. All the messages classified in the new set were designated as "Confidential," the lowest tier of classification. Clinton and the State Department have asserted that none of the messages was marked classified at the time it was sent.

Last May, a federal judge handling a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit ordered the State Department to make monthly releases of the Clinton emails and to complete the process by the end of January. State missed that deadline, but was ordered to make four releases this month, concluding the disclosure process by Feb. 29.

"We take our obligations to the court very seriously and are making every effort to comply with this order," State spokesman Mark Toner said Friday.

Here's POLITICO's selection of the most notable Clinton emails in the latest set:

Celebrating Clinton "turning [Obama] around," apparently on Libya

The emails reflect the near-jubilation of Clinton's allies over what appears to be her success at persuading President Barack Obama to join a military intervention in Libya. The operation was billed as humanitarian, but ultimately led to the toppling of Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi.

"I cannot imagine how exhausted you must be after this week, but I have NEVER been prouder of having worked for you," former State policy planning director Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote to Clinton in a March 19, 2011 message bearing the subject line "bravo!" and sent two days after passage of a key U.N. Security Council resolution on the crisis. "Turning POTUS around on this is a major win for everything we have worked for."

Asserting Clinton's role as a foreign policy strategist

Another Slaughter email reflects early frustration on the Clinton team with perceptions (and perhaps reality) that the Obama White House was driving the train on foreign policy.

"More and more I am hearing things about how the White House is setting the agenda and [Clinton] is just the implementer. For her stature and and longer-term impact she has to seize this moment to flesh out a real foreign policy strategy rather than just a set of proposals, as important as they are. The president has given her the opening," Slaughter wrote in a June 10, 2009 email.

The message, sent to Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills and forwarded to Clinton, called it "critical" that she make such a speech following a major address Clinton gave in Cairo earlier that month.

Clinton delivered the speech outlining her foreign policy vision on July 15. This is the same speech that has drawn attention in recent days over deals the Clinton team appeared to cut with one or more journalists to describe the address as "muscular."

Clinton's wary words on Biden debate performance

Clinton's complicated relationship with Vice President Joe Biden is underscored by one exchange with one of her top aides during the vice presidential debate in 2012 between Biden and GOP VP nominee Paul Ryan, now speaker of the House.

After Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides chimed in with an attaboy for Biden, Clinton offered a somewhat more reserved response about the man who considered challenging her for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 but ultimately stepped aside.

"Biden is very good," Nides wrote.

"So far so good," Clinton replied.

Heaping praise on Pat Kennedy

State's Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy has emerged as a pivotal but low-profile figure in State's response to a series of crises ranging from Wikileaks and Benghazi, to the furor over the Clinton email setup which generate the very messages.

In a message released Friday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough (then deputy national security adviser) heaps praise on Kennedy for his role in organizing the evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Tunisia during the chaotic days that followed the deadly attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.

"Pat Kennedy is the greatest!!!" McDonough wrote in a September 16, 2012 email to top State officials. "Thanks for the great work, guys, DM"

McDonough was responding to a message from Undersecretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, reporting that a plane carrying U.S. personnel had lifted off from Tunis. "Tunis plane wheels up a few minutes ago. Another Pat Kennedy miracle," she wrote.

Eliza Collins and Nolan McCaskill contributed to this report.