Of Course, She Got Classified Emails. How Else Would They Communicate With Her?

Report: Review Finds That Hillary Clinton Received 'Top Secret' Emails Despite State Department Challenge

BY DEBRA HEINE DECEMBER 15, 2015

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Hillary Clinton received at least two top-secret emails to her unsecured email server, an intelligence community review has found, despite State Department claims to the contrary.

At least two intelligence sources told Fox News that the dispute over whether the two emails were classified at the highest level is now a "settled matter.”

The agencies that owned and originated that intelligence – the CIA and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or NGA – reviewed the emails to determine how they should be properly stored, as the State Department took issue with their highly classified nature. The subject matter of the messages is widely reported to be the movement of North Korean missiles and a drone strike. A top secret designation requires the highest level of security, and can include the use of an approved safe.

The sources, who were not authorized to speak on the record, told Fox News that while the emails were indeed “top secret” when they hit Clinton’s server, one of them remains “top secret” to this day -- and must be handled at the highest security level. The second email is still considered classified but at the lower “secret” level because more information is publicly available about the event.

The findings have been transmitted to the State Department, which continues to challenge the intelligence community’s conclusions about the classification of all the emails. But the department has no authority to change the classification since it did not originate the information.

After Politico reported earlier this month that the intelligence community was retreating from the “top secret” classification -- giving the Clinton campaign a big boost -- two top Republican senators wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper crying foul.

Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Richard Burr, who heads the powerful Intelligence Committee, wrote the letters on Nov. 13, with copies sent three days later to the intelligence community and State Department IGs, requesting that that they conduct independent reviews of the leaks.

Republicans on Capitol Hill suspect that the leaks were designed to help the Clinton campaign by leaving the impression that the two “top secret” messages were not that sensitive or at least confuse the issue.

Clinton has claimed for months that she never sent classified material on her email and never received any email that was "marked classified.”

“The State Department has confirmed that I did not send nor receive material marked classified or send material marked classified,” she said in August.

But as reported above, "the State Department has no authority to change the classification since it did not originate the information."

Now that that matter is settled, the only question is whether the FBI investigation will conclude that there was a criminal violation.