Clinton aides signed forms agreeing classified info is ‘marked or unmarked’
WashingtonExaminer: Hours before Hillary Clinton was set to deliver a major foreign policy address Thursday, the Republican National Committee released copies of classified nondisclosure agreements signed by a pair of Clinton’s top aides.
The agreements, obtained by the RNC through the Freedom of Information Act, indicated both Clinton staffers had been specifically instructed on how to handle “marked or unmarked” classified material upon their arrival at the State Department in early 2009.
Jake Sullivan, former director of policy planning, and Bryan Pagliano, Clinton’s former information technology specialist, both signed the classified information nondisclosure forms.
By signing the document, Sullivan acknowledged that “negligent handling” of classified information could carry consequences. Sullivan reportedly sent the highest number of now-classified emails through Clinton’s private server.
Pagliano’s involvement in setting up and maintaining Clinton’s email network has come under fire in the months since reports surfaced of his simultaneous employment by the State Department and by the Clintons as a personal aide.
Pagliano has invoked his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions about the server in a closed-door congressional hearing and ahead of a deposition slated for Monday.
“Hillary Clinton endangered our national security and created a culture where top staffers went rogue, silenced career officials and hid a reckless email scheme that placed her political ambitions above all else,” Reince Priebus, chairman of the RNC, said of the nondisclosure forms. “These records show that like Clinton, her closest aides did not meet their responsibilities to protect classified information regardless of whether it was marked.”
Clinton has repeatedly argued that because nothing she sent or received was “marked” classified, she did not break any laws governing the treatment of sensitive government material. She maintains that the more than 2,000 emails from her server that have been classified by the State Department were only considered classified after they were written.
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FBI: Everything on Clinton is ‘evidence’ or ‘potential evidence’
TheHill: The FBI is treating everything on the private server used to run former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal email account as evidence or possible evidence as part of the federal investigation connected to the machine, the bureau said in a court filing this week.
“[A]ll of the materials retrieved from any electronic equipment obtained from former Secretary Clinton for the investigation are evidence, potential evidence, or information that has not yet been assessed for evidentiary value,” the FBI said in the filing.
Release of any of that additional information “could reasonably be expected to interfere with the pending investigation,” it added.
The FBI refused to publicly confirm other details of its investigation, and in the Monday evening filing declined to outline what, if any, laws it believes may have been broken to prompt its investigation. It also would not say who the target of the investigation is or confirm reports that multiple senior Clinton aides had been interviewed as part of the probe.
Still, the claim that all material is being treated as current or potential evidence could bode poorly for Clinton, who this week clinched the role of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The FBI months ago took control of Clinton’s server, which was used to run her private email setup from her New York home throughout her time as secretary of State.
The federal bureau’s filing was made in a motion trying to kill an open-records lawsuit from Vice News journalist Jason Leopold.
In addition to that filing, the FBI asked the court for permission to offer another secret declaration outlining the steps it had taken to search Clinton’s machine for documents related to Leopold’s request.
