The State Department on Tuesday said it cannot commit to completing its investigation into 22 “Top Secret” Hillary Clinton emails before the general election in November.
“I’m not going to commit to a specific timeline,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.
The agency is still working to determine whether the information in the former secretary of state’s emails was classified when the messages were originated. The question is important, not just for national security reasons, but also because Clinton has insisted that she did not send or receive information that was classified at the point of origin.
“The secretary wants this review to be done thoroughly, and accurately and efficiently and he’s not going to allow himself, or the process or the department to be driven by the political calendar on this,” Kirby said.
The spokesman announced last month that the State Department would concur with the intelligence community’s assessment that the 22 emails contained “Top Secret” information. The messages, which traversed Clinton’s private email server, were withheld in full from the State Department’s monthly release of the Democratic presidential front-runner’s emails.
The intelligence community’s inspector general has determined that the information in at least one “Top Secret” Clinton email was classified when it was originated. The State Department has disputed that assessment, however. State also announced on Monday, ahead of the 14th and final release of Clinton’s emails, that the intelligence community inspector general had re-classified another “Top Secret” email as “Secret.”
Reporters asked Kirby whether it is not important to conclude the probe soon so that voters can consider the information before decided who to vote for in November. Clinton is considered a heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination.
“The argument that we should be ever mindful of that, and while I don’t agree with the logic, I understand where you are coming from,” Kirby said.
“The counter logic to that would be is that we are politicizing what needs to remain a completely apolitical process here. What the American people have a right to know is how these things were handled, and how the State Department has met our obligations in terms of properly preparing these documents for their release. There are other agencies involved.”
The State Department and other agencies determined that more than 2,000 emails housed on Clinton’s server contained information that was classified at some level. Of those, 44 were classified at the “Secret” level.
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