Tensions between the State Department and the intelligence community are mounting as agencies struggle over which of Hillary Clinton’s private emails should be classified.
While Clinton’s campaign has attempted to capitalize on the disagreements — blaming recent controversy on simple bureaucratic infighting — the dispute has highlighted the volume of sensitive material that circulated on Clinton’s server.
The State Department publicly disagreed Wednesday with the intelligence community inspector general’s assertion that at least two emails contained classified information when they were written.
“We stand by our review of those emails,” said John Kirby, State Department spokesman, during a briefing Wednesday.
The State Department has thus far found no emails it deemed classified at the time they were written.
In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley probed suggestions that State Department officials had used exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act to mask classified information that had been flagged by representatives of the intelligence community.
The Iowa Republican, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted several attorneys who worked for the firm representing Clinton in her legal battle are now involved in State’s FOIA review of the emails.
Clinton’s campaign has aligned itself with the State Department on the issue, stating Wednesday evening it also rejected the intelligence watchdog’s findings.
“We don’t agree with the judgement of the inspector general’s office in general,” said spokesman Brian Fallon.
Fallon attempted to blame a “culture of classification” within the intelligence community for the hundreds of emails that have been flagged for further review because they contain potentially classified information.
But the State Department’s own inspector general has sided with the intelligence community, joining its watchdog late last month in referring the matter to the Justice Department for further review.
The FBI is presently investigating the private email network Clinton used during her time at State.
