Clinton Campaign Seeks to Calm Supporters About Emails

A day after Hillary Clinton turned her personal email server over to the Justice Department, her campaign assured supporters that the Democratic presidential candidate did not send classified information over her private account.

In a message sent to campaign backers, communications director Jen Palmieri dismissed inquires by Congress and federal agencies into Clinton’s use of a private account while she was secretary of state as partisan attacks “designed to do political damage to Hillary in the run-up to the election.” Palmieri stressed that Clinton is not facing a criminal investigation and said she remains “committed to cooperating” with federal investigations into her private account.

“The bottom line: This kind of nonsense comes with the territory of running for president,” Palmieri wrote. “We know it, Hillary knows it, and we expect it to continue from now until Election Day.”

Federal investigators have begun looking into the security of Clinton’s email setup after the inspector general of the U.S. intelligence agencies said that classified information may have passed through the system. There is no evidence she used encryption to prevent prying eyes from accessing the emails or her personal server.

Two emails that traversed Clinton’s personal system contained information that had been designated “top secret” and “sensitive compartmented information,” one of the government’s highest classification ratings, U.S. officials said.

The campaign’s missive seemed aimed not only at making public Clinton’s side of the email story but also arming backers with talking points to defend her from further Republican attacks. GOP officials and candidates have said the newest revelations point to Clinton malfeasance as secretary of state.

“This is something that isn’t just a matter of her not being able to tell the truth,” said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican presidential candidate, on Wednesday. “This is something that has put national security at risk and highly questions her ability to be the commander in chief of the United States.”

For months Clinton refused calls to give up the home-brew email server she used in her suburban New York City home to send and store email through a private account. She has defended her use of the server, saying she used it as a matter of convenience to limit the number of electronic devices she had to carry. She has said the server account never held classified information.

On Tuesday, Clinton attorney David Kendall gave to the Justice Department three thumb drives containing copies of work-related emails sent to and from her personal email addresses via her private server.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the August 13th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.