Rep. Elijah Cummings has denied reports of a criminal investigation into the released of classified information during the State Department's release of thousands of emails on Hillary Clinton's email server. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI |
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WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- At least one classified email was released to the public when the State Department published thousands of pages of emails stored on Hillary Clinton's private server, though U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., denied reports of a possible criminal investigation Friday.
The Office of Inspector General in the State Department (OIG) on June 19 issued a memo calling for the department to review its methods for releasing thousands of pages of emails stored on Clinton's private email server. In a joint review with the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG), the OIG found "several of these emails contained classified (intelligence community) information, though they were not marked as classified.
"In addition, at least one of these emails has been released to the public and can be accessed on the department's (Freedom of Information Act) website," a followup memo on July 17 said.
Since June, the State Department has been releasing some 55,000 pages of emails stored on Clinton's server in batches. About 850 pages were made public May 22 and another 3,000 pages were posted online June 30.
The inspectors general recommended the emails be moved by a computer system capable of processing and keeping secure top secret information.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported that senior government officials told the newspaper the OIG and ICIG asked the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation to determine whether classified information was mishandled.
Cummings, ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Select Committee on Benghazi, issued a statement to The Hill on Friday saying Steve Linick, the State Department's inspector general, denied reports of a possible criminal probe.
"I spoke personally to the State Department inspector general on Thursday, and he said he never asked the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation of Secretary Clinton's email usage," Cummings said.
He said Linick "told me the Intelligence Community IG notified the Justice Department and Congress that they identified classified information in a few emails that were part of the [Freedom of Information Act] review, and that none of those emails had been previously marked as classified."
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill issued a statement Friday, saying that contrary to the Times' original article, which has since been revised, Clinton "followed appropriate practices in dealing with classified materials.
"As has been reported on multiple occasion, any released emails deemed classified by the administration have been done so after the fact, and not at the time they were transmitted."
Meanwhile, a statement from Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, said members of the committee have been concerned about the security of classified information found in emails on Clinton's server.
"This certainly merits further review by the executive branch to determine the legal and national security implications posed by the former secretary's unusual email arrangement in order to mitigate any potential counterintelligence risks and minimize the damage caused by this scheme," Gowdy's statement read.
Gowdy said the server should be turned over to "proper authorities" for independent forensic evaluation.
