Key Clinton emails did not contain highly classified secrets, inquiry finds

"The initial determination was based on a flawed process," a source says.

By Josh Gerstein, Poltico.com
11/06/15 01:40 PM EST

The U.S. intelligence community has retreated from claims that two emails in Hillary Clinton’s private account contained top secret information, a source familiar with the situation told POLITICO.

The determination came from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s office and concluded that the two emails did not include highly classified intelligence secrets. Concerns about the emails' classification helped trigger an on-going FBI inquiry into Clinton's private email set-up.

Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III made the claim that two of the emails contained top secret information, the State Department publicly stated its disagreement and asked Clapper’s office to referee the dispute. Now, that disagreement has been resolved in State’s favor, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Intelligence officials claimed one email in Clinton’s account was classified because it contained information from a top secret intelligence community “product” or report, but a further review determined that the report was not issued until several days after the email in question was written, the source said.

(More here.)