Federal officials have requested that the US Justice Department opens a full criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account while she held the position of secretary of state.
The officials believe that a full investigation is required to understand if she misused sensitive information while using her own home-brew email server and personal email systems. The request was submitted to the Justice Department by two inspector generals, reports The New York Times, but as yet no decision has been made as to whether the investigation will take place.
While Clinton insists that the email contained on her servers contained no classified information, a June 29 memo written by Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management, explained that the private account contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.” The use of private email for state affairs is both a huge security concern as well as a blow for increased government transparency.
Following huge criticism, Clinton said she wished for her email to be made publicity available. Since, the State Department has been wading through 55,000 pages of email, and it’s slowly been releasing them. Lending weight to Kennedy’s claims, State Department officials determined that some information in the emails had to be retroactively classified.
Clinton’s legal fate remains to be seen. For now, the ball’s in the court of the Justice Department.
[New York Times via The Verge]
Picture: AP