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AP Photo Clinton aides' cybersecurity emails go from 38,000 to one

The State Department has dramatically revised downward — from about 38,000 to one — its estimate of the number of pages of messages in Hillary Clinton aides' private email about training on cybersecurity threats and other computer-related issues.

Just two weeks ago, Justice Department attorney Jason Lee told the Competitive Enterprise Institute that tens of thousands of pages of emails from the private accounts of Clinton State Department chief of staff Cheryl Mills and deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin were "potentially responsive" to the conservative group's series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed soon after the revelation last March that Clinton exclusively used a private email account as secretary of state.

However, by early Tuesday morning, that tally had dwindled significantly — to just one email between Mills and Abedin, according to a follow-up message from DOJ lawyer James Todd Jr.

Todd had the opportunity to explain the seemingly startling development Tuesday at a court hearing in Washington on CEI's lawsuit seeking action on its FOIA requests.

"There were a few twists and turns," the understated Todd told U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss, before confirming that the earlier count of 38,388 possibly responsive pages was way off the mark.

CEI attorney Hans Bader said the development was mystifying. "I'm concerned that there might not [have been] a thorough or accurate search," Bader told the judge. "It is a little puzzling to me."

Todd said that the high page counts were driven largely by attachments that in some cases appeared to involve 2000 pages at a pop and that only about 400 documents or emails were ever deemed possibly responsive. "It was only after someone actually sat down and reviewed the records" that officials discovered that nearly all the records weren't truly responsive to the group's requests, the Justice Department attorney said. Among the attachments was a 2,000-page report on State Department cybersecurity as well as "outside documents" that didn't bear on computer or cybersecurity training for Clinton or her top aides, he said.

The single, apparently responsive email amounts to "a couple of lines" between Mills and Abedin, Todd said. The State Department has pledged to release it, except for any exempt portions, by Jan. 15.

In response to CEI's request, State previously released records from its official files showing Clinton, Mills and Abedin signed agreements pledging not to disclose classified information. Information about any cybersecurity or computer training Clinton received could still be forthcoming in an online release of the set of about 54,000 pages of emails Clinton turned over to State at the end of 2014. Most of those emails have already been disclosed, but more are due out later this week and at the end of the month.

In June 2011, the State Department sent a cable to all its overseas personnel warning them to avoid using private email for official business, yet Clinton continued to do so exclusively, and several of her top aides did so from time to time. Former State officials have said the practice was often necessary when official State Department systems were down or unreachable during travel. Mills also mentioned in 2011 that her email had been the target of an attempted hacking, one of the released Clinton emails shows.

Bader referred questions about Tuesday's hearing to another CEI attorney, Chris Horner, who declined to comment.