Hmmm: Kerry sent Hillary classified e-mail over his private account

Apparently, exposing classified information via unsecured communications channels was all the rage among Democrats in 2011. Who knew? Actually, that’s a darned good question arising from the latest release of e-mails from Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized and non-secure homebrew e-mail server. One newly released communication came from then-Senator John Kerry’s iPad, and some of the content has been redacted with a SECRET classification level, The Hill’s Julian Hattem reports:

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As a senator, Secretary of State John Kerry sent at least one email to Hillary Clinton from his personal account that has now been classified as secret, the State Department confirmed on Tuesday.

The largely redacted May 19, 2011, email from Kerry — then the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — “was sent from a non-official account,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.

That account, Kirby added “is no longer active.”

The message referenced India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and was classified for containing information about foreign governments and U.S. foreign relations.

The e-mail in question has four sections redacted in the body, two of which are explicitly marked as SECRET. The declassification date is 5/27/2036, exactly twenty-five years after the original transmission of the message — indicating that the information within it was classified at that time, not by the Inspector General or the State Department as a precaution on its discovery within the system.

And oh, by the way — the top of this document shows Hillary transmitting the classified information to someone in the State Department from her “hrod17” account. That would be another potential violation of 18 USC 793, as well as 18 USC 1924 via the unauthorized retention of this information on Hillary’s private e-mail server in her home. That joins more than 1,300 other examples of violations of the criminal statutes regarding transmission and retention of classified information.

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In what is an equally interesting development, Tom Donilon was copied on the same e-mail, and apparently on an official e-mail account. At the time, Donilon worked in the White House as President Obama’s national security adviser, having just succeeded James Jones seven months earlier. Oddly, the Hill’s account fails to mention the CC: to Donilon, but it raises more questions about what the White House knew and when it knew it. Did Donilon object to transmitting sensitive diplomatic via private e-mails? Did he mention Hillary’s use of a private e-mail system for sensitive material to Barack Obama?

This scandal might get uncomfortable for the Obama administration now, too — and force the Department of Justice to consider Rep. Ron DeSantis’ demand for a special counsel.

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