Whatever became of the Emailgate-related inspector-general referrals that sparked a feud between Hillary Clinton and the New York Times last week? According to the Washington Post, the FBI has launched a “preliminary” probe focused on “ensuring the proper handling of classified material.” The paper made it clear that it does not intend to spend the next week walking back the report, noting, “The referral did not accuse Clinton of any wrongdoing, and the two officials said Tuesday that the FBI was not targeting her.”
Last month, the intelligence community’s inspector general reached out to the Justice Department with concerns about classified information that may have passed through the former secretary of State’s private email server. The Post reports that, so far, the FBI has contacted Platte River Networks, a Denver-based company that maintained the server since 2013, and Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, who has a thumb drive that contains copies of Clinton’s work emails from her time at the State Department. “The government is seeking assurance about the storage of those materials. We are actively cooperating,” Kendall said.
Clinton has said that she did not send or receive classified information using the account, but an internal government review determined that at least four emails that should have been classified passed through her personal email. Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill did not comment on the FBI probe, but he reiterated in a statement that Clinton “did not send nor receive any emails that were marked classified at the time. We want to ensure that appropriate procedures are followed as these emails are reviewed while not unduly delaying the release of her emails. We want that to happen as quickly and as transparently as possible.”
