‘Born Classified’, report says

Dozens of emails that passed through Hillary Clinton’s server during her time as secretary of state reportedly contained information automatically considered classified by the U.S. government and State Department’s own regulations.

According to Reuters, at least 30 e-mail threads dating from as far back as 2009 contained what the State Department describes as “foreign government information.” That number represents scores of individual emails that have already been made public, including 17 sent by Clinton herself. At least one of those emails was sent to longtime supporter Sidney Blumenthal, who did not hold a government position at the time.

The report says that the State Department identified the emails as containing “foreign government information” when it retroactively classified them upon their release earlier this year. However, the regulations say that such information, defined as having been provided orally or in writing to U.S. officials by their foreign counterparts in confidence, must be “presumed” classified, regardless of whether it is initially marked that way.

Reuters said the State Department disputed the report’s analysis, but declined to say how it was incorrect.

“We do not have the ability to go back and recreate all of the various factors that would have gone into the determinations,” State Department spokesman Alec Gerlach wrote in an e-mail,after initially accusing Reuters of making “outlandish accusations” about the emails. Reuters said it could not establish whether the State Department was applying its rules in a different manner from when the emails were first sent.

If true, the regulations would undercut Clinton’s defense that she never sent or received information that was marked classified at the time it passed through her server.

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