Article from the Washington Free Beacon
Article written by: Madeleine Weast
Hillary Clinton and seven of her top aides have retained their State Department security clearances a year after the FBI concluded they were “extremely careless” handling sensitive information.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) revealed Clinton’s current security clearance status on Friday. Grassley released the information to express concern about the State Department’s slow bureaucratic process, Circa reported.
“The State Department confirmed that it is continuing to review the mishandling of classified information that passed through Secretary Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email server as she and seven former aides retain access to sensitive information,” Grassley’s office said.
Clinton, the former secretary of state under President Obama and seven of her aides were designated as “research assistants” in order to keep their security clearances.
Clinton was under investigation for using a private email address and home-brewed server to send and receive classified information during her tenure at the State Department.
Former FBI Director James Comey had said that Clinton and her top aides were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
“There is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information,” Comey said.
However, Comey never formally charged Clinton and recommended no criminal charges because he could not prove she intended to break the law by using a private email server.
