Clearances for five other people Clinton designated as researchers have also been withdrawn on Sept. 20, including Clinton’s close aide Cheryl Mills, the State Department said in the Sept. 21 letter.
The letter blacks out the names of other four other Clinton “researchers” whose security clearances were withdrawn.
In the letter, the State Department said that a “two-step process” is employed to identify classified information and security incidents in documents which passed through Clinton’s unauthorized email server.
The Department’s Bureau of Administration first reviews the documents received from the FBI to identify agency records and determine the current classification of documents. This process was “completing” at the time when the letter was written.
A subset of documents identified as containing classified information “was then reviewed” by Diplomatic Security. All identified and valid security incidents have been forwarded to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s Office of Personnel Security and Suitability.
Clinton Private Email Server
Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state has become the focus of a criminal probe by the FBI.The FBI’s investigation has been criticized for multiple irregularities, including the drafting by then-FBI Director James Comey of his exoneration statement of Clinton well before the investigation was concluded. Comey had also testified under oath before Congress that he had been instructed by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch to refer to the investigation as a “matter” rather than a “criminal investigation.”
The FBI’s probe, which focused on whether classified material was sent via the private email server, was complicated by the fact that at least 33,000 emails were deleted by Clinton’s team.
After her lawyers identified the emails to be deleted, Clinton staffer Paul Combetta used a program called BleachBit to permanently delete the emails from the server.
In announcing the findings of the FBI’s investigation of Clinton, Comey said at least 110 evaluated emails were deemed to contain classified information. Eight email chains were deemed “top secret” and 36 “secret.”
The FBI’s analysis, however, did not include the emails that had been deleted by Clinton’s staff.
