Official wanted FBI to change classification of email
A top State Department official tried to pressure the FBI to change its determination that at least one of the emails on Hillary Clinton’s private server contained classified content, prompting discussion of a possible trade to resolve the issue, two FBI employees told colleagues investigating her use of a private server last year.
One FBI official conceded that he told the State Department employee he would “look into” changing the classification of a Clinton email if the official would lend his authority to an FBI request to increase its personnel in Iraq, according to documents released by the bureau yesterday.
Another bureau official described the arrangement as a “quid pro quo” and said he believed that the State Department official, Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, was interested in “minimising the classified nature of the Clinton emails in order to protect State interests and those of Clinton,” the documents say.
No tangible swap ever came to pass. The email was classified in accordance with the FBI’s original wishes, and the bureau was not given any additional personnel in Iraq. Both the FBI and the State Department denied that a quid pro quo ever existed.
Clinton’s use of a private email server while Secretary of State has dogged the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign. The new documents could add to perceptions among voters that Clinton is not trustworthy.
Meanwhile, Clinton’s campaign is bolstering support for Democratic congressional and governing candidates and making a fight for the Republican stronghold of Arizona as it seeks to exploit what her advisers see as a downward spiral for Donald Trump. The campaign announced plans to spend an additional US$6 million on direct mail and digital outreach for coordinated Democratic committees in presidential battlegrounds that also have competitive Senate races — Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It also is adding US$2 million to its budget for television and digital ads, as well as mailings, in Arizona, while deploying Clinton’s most prominent advocates to the state.
Democrats see an opportunity to make gains in Congress and in states that would help push her agenda forward.
First lady Michelle Obama, widely seen as the most effective surrogate for Clinton, visits Phoenix on Friday. Senator Bernie Sanders is making two stops in the state today and Chelsea Clinton will campaign for her mother there tomorrow.
Most recent polls in the state show Trump and Clinton essentially tied. Arizona has gone for the Democratic presidential candidate only once in the past 64 years. That was in 1996 when then-President Bill Clinton was running for re-election.