Feinstein defends Clinton's email practices

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee defended Hillary Clinton’s email practices on Thursday, saying media reports about classified information on the former secretary of state’s server did not make clear that Clinton hadn’t written any of the “top secret” emails.

Two days after an inspector general said it found “top secret” information on Clinton’s unsecured email server, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California accused news reports of “missing key points.” For example: “none of the emails alleged to contain classified information were written by Secretary Clinton,” she said — nor were they marked as “top secret” at the time they were sent.


“The questions are whether she received emails with classified information in them, and if so, whether information in those emails should have been classified in the first place,” Feinstein said. “Those questions have yet to be answered. However, it is clear that Secretary Clinton did not write emails containing classified information.”

An inspector general from the intelligence community several weeks ago told Congress it found four classified emails when examining a random sampling of 40 out of 35,000 messages Clinton handed over to the State Department for record-keeping.

On Tuesday, the IG clarified that two of those were “top secret” and off limits to foreigners, one of the highest classifications for sensitive information.

That same day, Clinton, who had previously said she did not have classified information on her server, turned over her computer hardware to the Justice Department. The FBI opened a probe of her email set up and how classified documents were handled by Clinton’s account just over a week ago.

Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), had called for Clinton to turn over her server for several months, ever since The New York Times broke the news that Clinton exclusively used personal email instead of a State.gov account like she was supposed to do.

But Feinstein’s statement on Thursday aimed to rebut any accusations of wrongdoing. As the top Democrat on the panel with jurisdiction over top secret matters, Feinstein — who noted in the release that she reads classified documents all the time — has some authority on the issue and and her opinion should carry some weight.

The press still does not have access to the four emails the inspector general initially flagged to Congress, making it difficult to determine who, in fact, sent the messages.

But according to Feinstein’s statement, none was from Clinton, meaning she would not likely be at fault.

Feinstein also stressed how important it is that the emails with classified information did not have markings that signaled they were indeed classified.

“As someone who regularly reviews classified material, I can say that those documents are always clearly marked as containing classified information,” she said. “Every official who writes classified material, whether in email or on paper, must mark the information as classified. They would also be required to use a separate classified email system to transmit the information. The emails identified did not contain these markings.”

There’s also an ongoing dispute between the intelligence community inspector general and the state inspector general as to whether some of the items were, are or should have been classified.

Feinstein also dropped another small news nugget, noting that the State Department inspector general is conducting a “broader review of the email practices of the past five Secretaries of State and their senior staff.”

That means Clinton’s and her top brass’s email practices aren’t the only ones under the microscope.