Part of 275messages in monthly batch classified
One exchangewith an adviser shows dismay over the 2010 election.
washington » The State Department said Thursday that portions of 275 e- mails released onNew Year’s Eve from Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state have been newly classified, bringing 2015 to a close for the Democratic presidential front- runner.
Clinton has said she didn’t send or receive information that was classified at the time via her personal email account, which was run on a private server at her New York home. Republicans have repeatedly questionedwhether her use of a private e- mail system put sensitive information at risk.
In all, the State Department said 1,274 of Clinton’s e- mails have been retroactively classified since the department started reviewing them for public release.
Two e- mails released Thursday were designated “secret,” the secondhighest level of classification, which applies to information that could cause serious damage to national security if released. Most of the e- mails were classified “confidential,” which is the lowest level of classification.
Themessageswere part of a batch of about 5,500 pages of Clinton emails released on the final day of 2015.
From the latest batch:
• Clinton and one of her closest aides, Jake Sullivan, had an exchange in September 2010 that showed considerable confusion over her e- mail practices.
“I’m never sure which of my emails you receive, so pls letmeknow if you receive this one and on which address you did,” she wrote to Sullivan on a Sunday morning.
A few hours later Sullivan responded: “I have just received this email on my personal account, which I check much less frequently thanmy StateDepartment account. I have not received any emails from you on my State account in recent days .... Something is very wrong with the connection there.”
Sullivan added, “I suppose a nearterm fix is to just send messages to this account— my personal account — and Iwill check it more frequently.”• Politics was never far from Clinton’s mind at the State Department. In September 2010, as Republicans threatened to take the majority in the House, Clinton told former policy adviser Neera Tanden, president of the left- leaning think tankCenter for American Progress, “I confess I’m bewildered at how poorly the Dems are doing in driving anymessage and putting the Rs on the defensive.”
“Do you and CAP have any ideas as to how to change the dynamic — before it’s too late?” Clinton asked. Losing the House would, she wrote, “be a disaster in every way.”
Republicans seized control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections inwhat President Barack Obama later called a “shellacking.”