Two inspectors general have asked Justice officials to open a criminal inquiry into whether classified information was mishandled when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a private email account to conduct official business.
That's according to a New York Times report citing unnamed "senior government officials." Those sources, the Times reports, also handed the paper two memos written by the inspectors general and sent to Patrick F. Kennedy, the under secretary of state for management.
The memos, the Times reports, reveal two important things: First, that investigators found that Clinton's private email account contained "hundreds of potentially classified emails." Second, the investigators found that "at least one email made public by the State Department contained classified information."
If you remember the issue of Clinton's private email account — a story The New York Times has owned from the beginning — has cast controversy over Clinton's burgeoning presidential campaign. Clinton, however, has always maintained that she did not break the law when she opted to use a personal email account instead of a State Department account to conduct official business during her tenure as secretary of state.
Our friends at It's All Politics took a comprehensive look at the law back in April. They found that whether Clinton broke the law could ultimately come down to whether she emailed classified material on her personal account.
During a press conference Clinton held in March, she was unequivocal about the issue.
"I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email," Clinton said at the time. "There is no classified material. So I'm certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material."
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