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Clinton relents to pressure, hands over private emails

Democratic presidential hopeful and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton speaks during a Service Employees International Union event at Los Angeles Trade Technical College August 6, 2015. (AFP photo)

Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton has relented to months of demands she turn over her private email server to the Justice Department, her spokesman confirmed.

Spokesman Nick Merrill said Tuesday that the former secretary of state “pledged to cooperate with the government’s security inquiry.”

“She directed her team to give her email server that was used during her tenure as Secretary to the Department of Justice, as well as a thumb drive containing copies of her emails already provided to the State Department,” Merrill said in a statement provided to congressional newspaper The Hill.

The announcement came hours after the inspector general for the Intelligence Community notified Congress that Clinton’s email server contained materials that have been classified “Top Secret.”

Clinton's lawyer, David Kendall, handed over the emails Tuesday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined that he could not be in possession of the classified information, a US official told the Associated Press.

Clinton’s former top aides are also being drawn into the federal inquiry following requests from Congress, McClatchy reported.

The State Department said it was reviewing the use of “personal communications hardware and software” by the former aides.

“We will follow the facts wherever they lead, to include former aides and associates, as appropriate,” said Douglas Welty, a spokesman for the State Department’s inspector general.

Clinton’s use of a private email server potentially put thousands of pages of State Department correspondence at risk, but it also shielded Clinton’s emails from congressional and Freedom of Information Act requests.

She has long denied handling classified information on her private account when she served as the nation's top diplomat.

“Secretary Clinton's previous statements that she possessed no classified information were patently untrue. Her mishandling of classified information must be fully investigated," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

Inspectors general for the State Department and the intelligence agencies have called for a criminal investigation following their assessment in a June 29 memo that Clinton’s private server contained “hundreds of potentially classified emails.”


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