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150 More Clinton Emails Upgraded to “Classified” Status

150 More Clinton Emails Upgraded to “Classified” Status

Next release tonight at 9 pm EST

https://twitter.com/czechov/status/633784760452513792

Tonight at or around 9:00 pm EST, the State Department will release another batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails, including 150 (redacted) messages that the agency has “upgraded” to classified status.

The batch is expected to contain around 7000 messages total. In an effort to pad the landing for this latest release, State Department spokesman Mark Toner emphasized today during a press briefing that “the information we’ve upgraded was not marked classified at the time the emails were sent.”

More from the Wall Street Journal:

The latest set of emails is the fourth release of documents from Mrs. Clinton’s time in office. Previously, the State Department released records pertaining to the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi Libya, as well as thousands of pages of emails from her time in office.

The release of Mrs. Clinton’s records has been delayed by a controversy over the presence of classified information on her server—with multiple government agencies seemingly at odds over what should properly be considered classified.

Two inspectors general concluded that Mrs. Clinton’s inbox contained material that was classified when it was sent. The Clinton campaign and the State Department acknowledge that much of the material has been retroactively classified but insist that Mrs. Clinton didn’t send or receive anything with classification markings.

Many of the most sensitive and controversial of her emails are currently being reviewed as part of a multiagency process. State Department officials have noted that such referrals and consultations with other agencies don’t mean the emails will ultimately be deemed classified.

The FBI has headed up the investigation into how secure Clinton’s server was, and her campaign has been careful not to deviate too far away from the argument that any content received by Clinton would not have been marked as classified.

Still, investigators have made this a focal point in their questioning of those involved:

“It is hard to move classified documents into the non-classified system. You couldn’t move a document by mistake,” said Willes Lee, a former operations officer for the U.S. Army in Europe and former operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach confirmed the two systems don’t connect. “The classified and unclassified system are separate and you cannot email between the two,” Gerlach told Fox News.

The Clinton campaign adamantly denies any emails traversing Clinton’s homebrew server were marked classified at the time. The intelligence community inspector general says “potentially hundreds” of classified emails may be in the mix, but acknowledges at least some were not properly marked.

So if the Clinton denial is to be believed, individuals in her inner circle would have simply typed or scanned classified information into a non-classified system without regard for its contents. In this case, emails would have started in, and stayed in, the unclassified system — albeit improperly, based on the findings of the intelligence inspector general.

But if it turns out emails literally jumped from the classified to the non-classified system — something the State Department claims cannot happen — it would seem to point to Clinton’s staff going to great lengths to create a work-around to do so.

We’ll keep you updated as to the content of the newly released emails.

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Comments

Criminal is as criminal does.

    MattMusson in reply to VotingFemale. | August 31, 2015 at 9:04 pm

    Why is it criminal? Because of Hillary – the Chinese, the Russians and the Iranians were stealing US secret emails in real time.

    This was not a victimless crime. The entire country was victimized because of Hillary’s scheming.

Unless she is indicted and tried I do not believe this e-mail fiasco will hurt her with Demorats. Independents and Republicans yes, but not the true yellow Demorats. They see this as an administration mess up and not a national security issue. Just ask Sandy Berger and Gen Petraeus how that worked out for them with one one hundredth of the classified material involved.

emails would have started in, and stayed in, the unclassified system — albeit improperly

Investigation still isn’t taking this seriously. “Improperly”. Big deal.

If it was “illegally”, indict somebody for a crime. Clinton, a staffer, whoever—if there’s a crime, find the damn criminal.

Otherwise, stop trying to cheer us up, drop the charade, and get off her back. Mere harassment won’t put Hillary out of our misery.

    Casey in reply to tom swift. | August 31, 2015 at 7:29 pm

    I do believe that’s why it’s called an “investigation” vice “prosecution.” Inadequate data as yet.

    I dropped by this post to observe that AFAIK the only specific mentioned so far was “classified.” I’ve seen a lot of folks around the web jump to the conclusion that it’s all automatically TOP SECRET. We just don’t know yet.

Two quick points, really hopes:
1. I would hope that Obama would torpedo Hillary’s campaign by pardoning her for any and all offenses she might have committed against federal laws.
2. Or, alternatively, that Obama would take direct action against HRC by directing the DoJ to criminally investigate her. The current FBI investigation would be a great vehicle to do this; right now, a forlorn hope.

However, most likely neither of those two courses of action will happen. Still, if the USA were to elect this Marxist / Leninist, after Obama’s “great” (Great? Instead, disastrous!) terms of national destruction, the USA is sunk, and it’s very difficult to imagine that would happen to US!

Hmmm…

But if it turns out emails literally jumped from the classified to the non-classified system — something the State Department claims cannot happen — it would seem to point to Clinton’s staff going to great lengths to create a work-around to do so. [emphasis added]

Challenge accepted.

“Cannot happen”, they say? “Great lengths”, they say?

$6 USB flash drive. Done.

    Ragspierre in reply to Archer. | August 31, 2015 at 11:14 pm

    Heard a military security guy say that computers equipped to handled secure data will sense the insertion of a flash-drive and go into “dummy mode”. Nothing out, nothing in.

Nothing will ever come of this. I tire of discussing the subject.

A must read compilation of the former SecState’s email problems (which mentions some good work by Legal Insurrection):

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/08/you_dont_have_hillarys_mail.html

Bottom line: Even if she gets a pass because the incoming emails were not “marked” classified, she remains in legal peril because she “should have known” the information in the emails was of a classified nature. This issue is totally separate from the legal issues of keeping classified info on a non-secured private server.

My opinion is most Democrats don’t want someone this incompetent as the standard bearer in 2016. Her defense, apparently, will be “I didn’t intend to break the law, I’m just incompetent.”

    lichau in reply to Redneck Law. | August 31, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    “Most Democrats”, at core, detest the military and, by extension, don’t give a fig about “national security secrets”–unless it gives them cover.

    But, simply disclosing something to China, Russia, etc. is A-OK. We shouldn’t have anything that they don’t, anyway.

    51 percent of the nation voted for a proven incompetent Anti-American in 2012. As opposed to a decent guy with real accomplishments.

Hope she enjoys wearing orange. There may be a lot more of it in her future.

“the information we’ve upgraded was not marked classified at the time the emails were sent.”

But was it classified at the time it was sent? From what I recall, Clinton’s myrmidon’s either stripped classification markings off multiple emails or condensed the original documents that were sent to/from Hillary.

State is using weasel words.

The fact that it wasn’t marked as classified isn’t a defense. It’s an indictment. Failing to mark it is another felony.

Accidents happen. Sometimes people attempt to “talk around” classified information in unclassified environments, on unsecure phones, and in unclassified information systems. Which is a no no. If people accidentally discuss classified information then the sender is supposed to self-report, and the recipient also must report the spillage.

Everything Clinton and her defenders are saying in her defense will simply not fly if it gets to court. Everyone who ever held a clearance knows these are simply not defenses. It’s the information that is classified. It doesn’t matter if it’s marked or not, if you hold a clearance it’s your obligation to safeguard it.

Hillary Clinton has even less of an excuse.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-original-classification-authority

“Executive Order 13526- Original Classification Authority

Pursuant to the provisions of section 1.3 of the Executive Order issued today, entitled “Classified National Security Information” (Executive Order), I hereby designate the following officials to classify information originally as “Top Secret” or “Secret”:

TOP SECRET

…Departments and Agencies:

The Secretary of State…”

Not only should Clinton have been able to recognize classified material when she sees it. As an original classification authority (OCA) she was trained to know exactly how it should have been classified. It was her job to know what markings to put on that classified information.

So she has even less excuse. Intel doesn’t normally have classification markings when it is collected. That’s the job of an OCA. But sometimes it’s marked. As in when it’s foreign government information, which is the bread and butter of the State Department. And the associated Obama E.O. on classified national security information makes it very explicit.

“Foreign government information shall retain its original classification markings or shall be assigned a U.S. classification that provides a degree of protection at least equivalent to that required by the entity that furnished the information.”

She has no wiggle room. It’s not complicated. She has no excuses. Everything she and her defenders are trying to claim is simply an attempt to prey on public ignorance.

If this ever gets to a courtroom none of her “defenses” will be allowed. Basically she’s claiming she had the clearances, and she had the job title of OCA. But she doesn’t want to be held accountable for any of the responsibilities that go with the territory. That isn’t a defense.

buckeyeminuteman | September 1, 2015 at 11:11 am

It’s good to see Hillary enjoying the orange jumpsuit. She’ll be wearing one for a long time.

An email can not be “upgraded” because if it is classified when it is sent, it’s classified. The Clinton’s think they can make up their own rules as they go along. There is no filter that an email goes through and then is stamped “classified”. The sender determines that and in all these case did that exactly, but Huma or Cheryl changed them. Those two need to be indicted and sent to Guantanamo and be water boarded until they talk.