A top official at the State Department repeatedly sought to have the FBI back down on classifying the contents of an email from Hillary Clinton’s private email server, documents released Monday revealed.
According to notes from interviews conducted during an FBI investigation into Clinton’s email practices, Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy personally tried to convince FBI officials that the email should be declassified. One interviewee described feeling “pressured” by another FBI official at Kennedy’s request.
The FBI is denying that any “quid pro quo” was offered in the fight between the bureau and State Department over the classification level of the email, though one interview described it as such.
At issue are somewhat contradictory interview notes contained in the crop of newly released FBI documents. In one, an FBI official recounted hearing second-hand that the State Department had offered a “quid pro quo” in exchange for declassifying an email. In another, a different FBI official said he told State Department he’d look into the email, if State Department looked into his request for personnel in Iraq.
An FBI records management official told the FBI in one interview that a member of the International Operations Division (IOD) told him that Kennedy had reached out to have an email unclassified in exchange for a “quid pro quo,” according to the records management official, documents revealed Monday show. The records management official said the IOD official “pressured” him to change the email’s classification.
In return for FBI declassifying one of the Clinton server emails, the interviewee said as relayed by the IOD official, the State Department official offered to help station FBI agents overseas in sensitive areas.
The anonymous individual said in a later meeting at State with several intelligence agencies, Kennedy responded to a question about whether any emails were classified by making eye contact and saying, “well, we’ll see.”
After the meeting, the individual said, “Kennedy spent the next 15 minutes debating the classification for he email and attempting to influence the FBI to change its markings.”
That records management official concluded State had an “agenda” related to “minimizing” the classification issues with Clinton’s emails.
The newly released documents contain a summary of interview notes related to the FBI’s investigation into whether classified information was improperly handled while Clinton was secretary of state.
Read More: CNN
