Two inspectors general are asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation to find out whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified emails as secretary of state.
The New York Times reports that the internal watchdogs at the State Department and the Intelligence Community are requesting the probe, but that the Justice Department has not yet said whether it will dive in.
The inspectors general sent a June 29 memo to under secretary of state for management Patrick Kennedy claiming that Clinton’s records contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.”
More than two dozen of the emails out of the 55,000 pages of records Clinton turned over to the State Department in December have retroactively been deemed to be classified. One of the emails released to the House Select Committee on Benghazi in May was classified upon release. The rest were classified in June when the State Department released about 3,000 pages of Clinton emails last month.
According to The Times’ senior level sources, it is not clear whether Clinton maintained classified documents on her private email server while she was in office.
Any finding that she did would pose a massive problem for the Democratic presidential candidate.
“I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,” Clinton said at a press conference in March, shortly after her private email arrangement was revealed. “There is no classified material. So I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”
Politico reports that the State Department has acknowledged the investigation request.
“We are working with both the State IG and the Intelligence Community’s Inspector General to ensure that our review of former Secretary Clinton’s emails is completed in a manner that protects sensitive and potentially classified information,” State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach said.