WASHINGTON — The State Department and the intelligence community are reviewing 305 emails sent or received by Hillary Clinton to determine whether they contain classified information, potentially deepening concerns over the former secretary of State's handling of sensitive information.
The examination identified the 305 emails from among 6,100 of her emails that came from a personal account and were routed through the private server in her New York house, according to a document filed by the State Department in response to a lawsuit about the emails Monday.
“It doesn't mean that all 300 are going to end up at some level of upgrade,” said John Kirby, a State Department spokesman. “I suspect some will, and I suspect some won't. We just have to let the process work its way out, but this is a healthy thing, and it's again part of the seriousness with which the State Department wants to take the proper scrutiny in looking at these emails, particularly with respect to potentially sensitive information.”
Meanwhile, a Senate committee chairman asked FBI Director James Comey if the bureau will determine if Clinton's server ever was hacked.
Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, has said she did not send or receive emails marked as classified.
Her use of the private system set up in her Chappaqua, N.Y., house in 2009 has become the focus of multiple inquiries by the FBI, a pair of inspectors general and Congress, prompting questions about her judgment and motive for actions that potentially led to national security risks. Several groups have filed suit seeking access to the emails.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, pressed Comey for details of the bureau's inquiry into Clinton's handling of classified information and asked whether its agents are examining whether her email account was hacked, according to a letter obtained by McClatchy.
In a letter released Monday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, asked Clinton attorney David Kendall to describe what security clearance he and his employees had that allowed them access to tens of thousands of Clinton's emails that were eventually stored on a thumb drive.
