The FBI was offered a major “quid pro quo” if it changed the classification of Hillary Clinton’s emails that the agency was going to make available to the public and to the media.
The bombshell revelation was made in a Monday release of FBI investigation papers into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, which became known to the world in March 2015 after a New York Times report.
“[The agent] believes State has an agenda which involves minimizing the classified nature of the Clinton emails in order to protect State interests and those of Clinton.”
An FBI investigation soon began as charges flew that the private server handled classified material while Clinton was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. Classified material going through a private server in a way that constituted gross negligence would violate federal law.
On Monday, it became clear the State Department did its best to try to control and downplay the fallout. In a release of a July 30, 2015, report, an FBI agent recounted how he was contacted by another agent within the FBI’s International Operations Division.
The FBI agent was told that Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy, a Hillary Clinton ally, had contacted him about some emails that were to be made public. Kennedy was worried about one email in particular.
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The agent in charge of handling the email was “pressured” to change the email’s category to “classified” under Freedom of Information Act policies. That would get this particular email exempted from FOIA requests, and get the document sent to the State Department basement, safe from public eyes.
In exchange for this favor, the agent was told Kennedy had promised to allow FBI agents to work in “slots,” or foreign areas, where they were currently forbidden to operate in.
One of these slots appears to be in Iraq.
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Since some of the Clinton emails were still pending review under FOIA, the agents were summoned to a meeting at the State Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., sometime in June 2015. When asked by one of the attendees if any of the emails to be reviewed were classified, the agent said Kennedy made eye contact with him and said, “We’ll see.”
After the meeting, Kennedy continued to ask agents to change the marking, which read “Secret.”
The FBI held firm. Shortly afterward, the emails were released. The Associated Press printed a story “within an hour” on classified documents appearing on the private server and in Hillary Clinton’s private email. And, the FBI notes, Clinton promptly held a new conference denying that she received or sent classified emails.
The report concluded, “[The agent] believes State has an agenda which involves minimizing the classified nature of the Clinton emails in order to protect State interests and those of Clinton.”
Since the incident with Kennedy in June 2015, the report indicated another nine emails were found by the agent by the end of July 2015, one of which he believed was also marked “Secret.”
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