There are fresh allegations from the intelligence community that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton[1] was handling some of the most closely held intelligence secrets available through her private email.
According to a newly revealed letter sent from the Intelligence Community's Inspector General to members of Congress on Jan. 14, "several dozen" of Clinton's emails contained "CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET and TOP SECRET/SAP" information. It wasn't clear how many of those were TOP SECRET/SAP.
SAP is code for Special Access Programs and is said to contain highly secretive intelligence re lated to the sensitive military programs, capabilities and operations. The existence of the letter was first reported by Fox News.
The intelligence community made a similar assessment this past summer, claiming that at least two emails contained TOP SECRET/SCI information. SCI, or Special Compartmental Information, is also highly sensitive, and refers to the highly coveted and protected sources through which the intelligence was derived, such as satellites or even actual spies. SAP is a subset of SCI.
It's unclear, however, if this new assessment refers to new emails or if it's a review of emails the Intelligence Community has already determined were TOP SECRET. Intelligence officials who spoke to ABC said because of the highly sensitive nature of the subject manner only a handful of people are even cleared to look at them.
Clinton's campaign responded by attacking the Intelligence Community directly.
"This is the same interagency dispute that has been playing out for months, and it does not change the fact that these emails were not classified at the time they were sent or received," campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement to ABC News.
"It is alarming that the intelligence community IG, working with Republicans in Congress[2], continues to selectively leak materials in order to resurface the same allegations and try to hurt Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The Justice Department[3]'s inquiry should be allowed to proceed without any further interference."
The head of the Senate[4] Intelligence Committee, Richard Burr[5] (R-NC), denied the claim from Fallon. "I didn't conspire with anybody," he told ABC News.
While the Justice Department is conducting a investigation into how her emails were handled, it is not known when or if they intend to bring any charges. The FBI[6] has steadily refused to provide comment on its investigation.
Clinton has not been charged with a crime.
Additional reporting by Ali Weinberg.< /em>
References
- ^ Hillary Clinton (abcnews.go.com)
- ^ Republicans in Congress (abcnews.go.com)
- ^ Justice Department (abcnews.go.com)
- ^ the Senate (abcnews.go.com)
- ^ Richard Burr (abcnews.go.com)
- ^ FBI (abcnews.go.com)
