Keeping track of Hillary Clinton’s classified e-mails is more than a little like watching dandelions grow. The former secretary of state turned presidential candidate sent and/or received so many e-mails containing classified information that the number changes noticeably each time a new batch is released.
The State Department was originally ordered by a federal judge to release all of Mrs. Clinton’s e-mails in January, but told the court it could not comply. The court then ordered the e-mails to be released in batches on February 13, 19, 26, and 29.
With each new release, the headlines changed to reflect the new numbers. McClatchyDC’s headlines for each of the dates are as follows:
• February 13, 2016 — At least 1,666 Clinton emails contain classified material
• February 19, 2016 — At least 1,730 Clinton emails contain classified material
• February 26, 2016 — At least 1,818 Clinton emails contain classified material
• February 29, 2016 — At least 2,079 Clinton emails contain classified material
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As this writer said when it was revealed that at least 1,340 of Clinton’s e-mails contained information classified at the highest levels:
It is now known that at least 1,340 e-mails sent or received by Clinton contained information that was classified and several dozen of those e-mails contained intelligence that was classified at the highest levels. That means — based on an extrapolation of the number of e-mails released so far — that of the 1,470 days that she served as secretary of state, Clinton sent or received classified information over her unsecured network an average of more than once a day.
With the final release of e-mails Tuesday, it is no longer necessary to extrapolate those numbers. It is now known for certain that Secretary Clinton’s private e-mail server housed 2,079 e-mails containing classified information. That is an average of almost 10 per week. As McClatchyDC reported:
According to the Republican National Committee, 2,063 emails were found to contain classified information on “foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States, including confidential sources;” 1,478 were found to contain classified “foreign government information” and 28 emails were found to contain classified information on “intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology;” and 4 emails were found to contain classified information on “vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, infrastructures, projects, plans, or protection services relating to the national security.”
That’s a lot of top-secret data leakage for the woman who said she “never sent or received any e-mail that was deemed classified, that was marked classified.” Of course she could claim ignorance, but that would be a hard sell. As we reported in a previous article:
It would be difficult to believe that Clinton failed — on an average of at least once a day — to recognize sensitive, classified information that was traveling back and forth across her private network and in and out of her private e-mail account. Whatever else can be said of her, she is not stupid. As [former House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell] Issa said in his FOX News interview:
The one thing about Hillary Rodham Clinton that I know — having worked with her — is she is smart and she knows what she sees. And that works well for her in her job, but it also makes her very much responsible when she traffics in sensitive information that should not have been on an unclassified sever — should never have been on hers.
Furthermore, the e-mails have revealed that Clinton had her team set up a hidden computer network for the express purpose — it would appear — of covering her trail. As we reported early last month:
Records recently disclosed by the Department of State as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit reveal that Hillary Clinton — and senior officials within the State Department — acted to set up a hidden computer network to allow Secretary of State Clinton to access her private e-mail server without going through the secured — and archived — government network.
Also from that article:
As Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton put it, “These emails are shocking. They show the Obama State Department’s plan to set up non-government computers and a computer network for Hillary Clinton to bypass the State Department network.” Furthermore, the State Department admitted to Judicial Watch that “Hillary Clinton was never issued secure State Department computing devices.”
Judicial Watch has accused Mrs. Clinton of having “deliberately thwarted FOIA by creating, using, and concealing the ‘clintonemail.com’ record system for six years.” The e-mails seem to show that is precisely the case.
With the final batch of e-mails now having been released, Clinton may at last have to face the fact that she did indeed send or receive “e-mail that was deemed classified, that was marked classified.” Whether it will hurt her numbers in the polls is for her supporters to decide. But, if the FBI recommends indictment, her troubles could be just beginning.
Considering the nature of the information she handled so carelessly, she could be facing some very serious charges.
Photo: AP Images
