Clinton email probe finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information

A multiyear State Department probe of emails that were sent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private computer server concluded there was no systemic or deliberate mishandling of classified information by department employees, according to a report submitted to Congress this month.

The report appears to represent a final and anticlimactic chapter in a controversy that overshadowed the 2016 presidential campaign and exposed Clinton to fierce criticism that she later cited as a major factor in her loss to President Donald Trump.

In the end, State Department investigators found 38 current or former employees ‘‘culpable’’ of violating security procedures – none involving material that had been marked classified – in a review of roughly 33,000 emails that had been sent to or from the personal computer system Clinton used.

Overall, investigators said, ‘‘there was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.’’ The report cited ‘‘instances of classified information being inappropriately’’ transmitted, but noted that the vast majority of those scrutinised ‘‘were aware of security policies and did their best to implement them.’’ The release comes as Trump continues to raise the Clinton email issue to attack Democrats, even as new evidence has emerged of apparent security lapses by senior officials in his own administration.

Diplomats involved in pressuring Ukraine to pursue investigations that would politically benefit Trump used private phones and texting apps to trade messages about their efforts, according to records released by leaders of the House impeachment inquiry.

The State Department probe focused on internal communications that were up to nine years old.

Dozens of former State employees were brought back in for questioning in recent months after being notified that emails they had sent years ago had been retroactively classified.

The renewed activity after a long stretch in which the investigation had seemed to go dormant sparked suspicion that the Trump administration was seeking to revive an issue that had been politically advantageous to Republicans.

– Washington Post