Two government inspectors general who reviewed just 40 of the estimated 30,000 emails from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state say they discovered classified material in four of them already.

The discovery appears to undermine the accuracy of her statements from March, when she said, “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material. So I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”

Inspectors General I. Charles McCulough III and Steve Linick late Friday released a statement, “Yesterday the Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC IG) sent a congressional notification to intelligence oversight committees updating them of the IC IG support to the State Department IG.

“The IC IG found four emails containing classified IC-derived information in a limited sample of 40 emails of the 30,000 emails provided by former Secretary Clinton. The four emails, which have not been released through the State FOIA process, did not contain classification markings and/or dissemination controls. These emails were not retroactively classified by the State Department; rather these emails contained classified information when they were generated and, according to IC classification officials, that information remains classified today. This classified information should never have been transmitted via an unclassified personal system.

“IC IG made a referral detailing the potential compromise of classified information to security officials within the Executive Branch. The main purpose of the referral was to notify security officials that classified information may exist on at least one private server and thumb drive that are not in the government’s possession. An important distinction is that the IC IG did not make a criminal referral – it was a security referral made for counterintelligence purposes. The IC IG is statutorily required to refer potential compromises of national security information to the appropriate IC security officials.”

The firestorm of controversy erupted Friday when the New York Times said the inspectors general at the Director of National Intelligence and State Department asked for a probe into the issue of Clinton’s use of a private email server for her time as secretary of state.

Get the hottest, most important news stories on the Internet – delivered FREE to your inbox as soon as they break! Take just 30 seconds and sign up for WND’s Email News Alerts!

Time reported later Friday that officials were now worried that classified information still could exist on Clinton’s private home server, as well as on a thumb drive in the control of her personal lawyer.

Clinton had turned over work emails from her time as secretary of state after its was found that the government did not have any of that documentation of her public work; they all had been on a private computer server she had set up. She turned over about 30,000 work emails, and said she deleted those that were not pertinent to her government work.

The inspectors said they were required to notify the FBI once they discovered the classified material.

Just in time for the 2016 election, hear Hillary Clinton say she would NOT run for president, in “Hillary Unhinged” by Thomas Kuiper.

The Justice Department hasn’t determined if it will open an investigation into Clinton yet, the New York Times reported. Some are refuting the report, though.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on Benghazi, denied reports suggesting the inspectors general were pushing for an investigation.

“I spoke personally to the State Department Inspector General on Thursday,” Cummings said, according to the Washington Examiner, “and he said he never asked the Justice Department to launch a criminal investigation of Secretary Clinton’s email usage.”

Meanwhile, Breitbart picked up that the New York Times itself, the newspaper that broke the story of the inspectors general request, actually softened its headline and leading paragraphs. The original New York Times headline read, “Criminal Inquiry Sought in Hillary Clinton’s Use of Email.” That was later changed to, “Criminal Inquiry Is Sought in Clinton Email Account.”

Breitbart found, too, the opening paragraph started as this: “Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether Hillary Rodham Clinton mishandled sensitive government information on a private email account she used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.”

What do YOU think? Has Hillary been caught red-handed? Sound off in today’s WND poll

But later, and without explanation to readers, the New York Times changed it to this: “Two inspectors general have asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account Hillary Rodham Clinton used as secretary of state, senior government officials said Thursday.”

This is just the latest in a long line of scandals that have plagued Clinton in recent years. And Democrat analysts worry that the issue could erupt in the middle of her march for the Democratic Party nomination for president.

Even if an investigation doesn’t go forward, the request alone could have an impact on her presidential campaign, which has already been dotted by poor poll showings due primarily to trust issues with the voters. Her campaign has also seen a somewhat shocking stall from the rising popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the self-declared socialist from Vermont who has been reeling in large crowds on his campaign run for the White House.

The reported inspectors’ general request comes just a day after a federal judge chided attorneys for the State Department about their perceived stall of several Freedom of Information Act requests from the Associated Press. Some were made four years ago and still haven’t been fulfilled.

“I want to find out what’s been going on over there – I should say, what’s not been going on over there,” said Judge Richard Leon of the United States District Court, Politico reported. “For reasons known only to itself [the State Department] has been, to say the least, recalcitrant in responding.”

Capitol Hill politicians have also sharply criticized the seeming failure of the State Department to provide adequate excuses for not providing subpoenaed documents.

“The State Department has used every excuse to avoid complying with fundamental requests for documents,” said Rep. Trey Gowdy, the New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, another Clinton-tied scandal has just loomed. As WND reported, an arms dealer has just accused the Obama administration of protecting Clinton by sending the Department of Justice to prosecute an innocent man.

On Friday, Clinton alleged there were “inaccuracies” in reports about the classified emails.

Article printed from WND: http://www.wnd.com

URL to article: http://www.wnd.com/2015/07/inspectors-general-press-for-criminal-query-of-hillar