The now-classified message to Chelsea Clinton was among 74 documents totaling 285 pages released by State Friday afternoon pursuant to a court order. | Getty Hillary Clinton sent Chelsea info now deemed classified

Hillary Clinton sent her daughter Chelsea an email message that contains information the State Department now deems classified, a new batch of messages released by State Friday shows.

The email originated with White House Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Froman and was forwarded to the former secretary of state by her policy aide Jake Sullivan. Hillary Clinton sent it along to her daughter's email account with the notation: "See below."


The subject matter of the message is unclear, but it appears likely to relate to global climate change negotiations.

Froman sent the first message in the chain on December 19, 2009, the day after Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama took part in whirlwind talks in Denmark over a possible international agreement to combat global warming. Among those sent the earliest message was White House environmental adviser Carol Browner.

The original pair of messages from Froman were given the lowest classification stamp, "Confidential," about a year ago when they were released. Notations indicate the information was classified because it came from a foreign government or pertained to diplomatic exchanges.

When Sullivan sent the messages to his boss, she wrote back: "Wow--you can't make this up--sorry to have missed all of that! Let me know if you learn anything else."

State Department spokesman John Kirby stressed that the classification—an 'upgrade' in State parlance—did not address the issue of whether the information in the message should have been treated as classified when it was sent.

"The portion of this email that was upgraded was provided to the Department by former Secretary Clinton back in December 2014," Kirby said. "It was upgraded to confidential – the lowest level of classification – and released in October 2015 during our regular productions of approximately 52,000 pages of former Secretary Clinton’s emails. As to whether emails were classified at the time they were sent, the State Department in the [Freedom of Information Act] process is focusing on whether information needs to be protected today."

Spokespeople for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, Clinton and her aides have said they don't believe any of the emails she sent or received were classified.

The now-classified message to Chelsea was among 74 documents totaling 285 pages released by State Friday afternoon pursuant to a court order. Two of the emails in the new batch contained information newly upgraded to "Confidential."

“We were ordered by the court to process 350 pages of material received from the FBI by today … and have met that requirement,” Kirby said in a statement, noting that “a significant number” of emails are “near duplicates.”

On Thursday, State released more than a thousand pages of emails that the FBI recovered from her server during its year-long investigation. A significant portion of those documents were also near duplicates of messages the agency had already released.

About 2,100 of the messages from Clinton's server are now being treated as classified. The vast majority of them are considered "confidential," the classification level State uses to withhold sensitive diplomatic communications when they are requested under FOIA. Such information is routinely handled outside classified channels at State, although it's unclear whether State's rules officially sanction that practice.

When FBI Director James Comey announced in July that he was recommending no criminal charges as a result of the investigation into Clinton’s use of the private account and server, he said about 110 messages from Clinton's server were classified at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those email chains contained 'Top Secret' information and 37 contained 'Secret' information, the FBI chief said.



The State Department has been reviewing and publicly posting additional pages of emails in response to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits. Litigants in those cases pressed for release of as much information before the election, but the releases are certain to continue for months or longer.

“Beyond today’s posting, courts have ordered monthly productions,” Kirby said.

The information contained in State’s email dumps, which includes redacted names and other information, has been far less revealing than WikiLeaks. The latter organization has disclosed thousands of hacked emails daily from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s personal email account.

The new batches of Clinton emails have also gotten far less attention than FBI Director James Comey’s bombshell announcement last Friday to Congress that he would be reviewing additional emails that may be related to the bureau’s investigation into Clinton’s server.

Friday’s batch of emails is the State Department’s fourth such release since the FBI handed over emails it recovered from Clinton’s server.