Administration declares 22 Hillary Clinton emails ‘top secret’

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration confirmed for the first time Friday that Hillary Clinton’s home server contained closely guarded government secrets, censoring 22 emails that contained material requiring one of the highest levels of classification. The revelation comes three days before Clinton competes in the Iowa presidential caucuses.

State Department officials also said the agency’s Diplomatic Security and Intelligence and Research bureaus are investigating if any of the information was classified at the time of transmission, going to the heart of Clinton’s defense of her email practices.

More Clinton emails were to be released late Friday.

The Associated Press learned seven email chains are being withheld in full for containing top secret information. The 37 pages include messages a key intelligence official recently said concerned “special access programs” – highly restricted, classified material that could point to confidential sources or clandestine programs like drone strikes.

“The documents are being upgraded at the request of the intelligence community because they contain a category of top secret information,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told the AP, calling the withholding of documents in full not unusual.

That means they won’t be published online with others being released, even with blacked-out boxes.

Department officials wouldn’t describe the substance of the emails, or say if Clinton sent any herself.

Clinton’s campaign deflected fresh suggestions that the former secretary of state’s use of a private email server for government business may have posed a security risk. The news heightened some Democrats’ fears that the email controversy could dog their front-runner well into this year’s campaign.

Clinton insists she never sent or received information on her personal email account that was classified at the time. No emails released so far were stamped “CLASSIFIED” or “TOP SECRET,” but reviewers previously designated more than 1,000 messages at lower classification levels. Friday’s are the first at top secret level.

Even if Clinton didn’t write or forward the messages, she still would have been required to report any classification slippages she recognized in emails she received.

But without classification markings, that may have been difficult, especially if the information was publicly available.

“We firmly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these emails,” Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said. “Since first providing her emails to the State Department more than one year ago, Hillary Clinton has urged that they be made available to the public. We feel no differently today.”

Kirby said the State Department was focused on “whether they need to be classified today.”