Agencies Clashed on Classification of Clinton Email, Inquiry Shows

Documents released Monday in the Hillary Clinton email investigation show intense disagreement last year between the State Department and the F.B.I. over whether some of Mrs. Clinton’s emails should be considered classified, including a discussion of a possible “quid pro quo” to settle one dispute.

The new batch of documents indicated that in one particular case, a senior State Department official, Patrick F. Kennedy, pressed the F.B.I. to agree that one of Mrs. Clinton’s emails on the 2012 Benghazi attack would be unclassified — and not classified as the bureau wanted.

What remained unclear from the documents was whether it was Mr. Kennedy or an F.B.I. official who purportedly offered the “quid pro quo”: marking the email unclassified in exchange for the State Department’s approving the posting of more F.B.I. agents to Iraq.

Officials at both the F.B.I. and the State Department said Monday that no deal had been struck, or even offered, over the classification of Mrs. Clinton’s private emails. They noted that the Benghazi email in question had been made public with a sentence blocked out, meeting the F.B.I.’s demand for classification. They also said no additional F.B.I. agents had been posted overseas.

There is no indication from the documents that Mrs. Clinton was aware of the discussion.

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