The State Department on Friday confirmed that the Pentagon has found an email chain between Hillary Clinton and David Petraeus — work-related emails that she had not previously turned over.
The emails date back to January and February of 2009, when Clinton was Secretary of State and Petraeus was the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and involve a personnel matter.
The State Department received the emails from the Department of Defense “in the last several days,” State department spokesman John Kirby said.
“These emails are now in our possession and will be subject to Freedom of Information Act requests,” Kirby said. “We have also informed Congress of this matter,” he said.
Whether the information in the emails was classified is still to be determined by an inter-agency review board vetting the entire trove of Clinton emails. The Clinton campaign has not said why she failed to turn over these emails.
Separately, the State Department has also found 925 more emails relating to Libya — including some involving Benghazi — that it is now turning over to the special House committee investigating the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound. U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.
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Department officials say that in advance of the committee’s Oct. 22 hearing with Clinton, the State Department expanded its search beyond Benghazi to include anything related to Libya, and did a digital search as well. They had turned over 296 Benghazi emails in February.
“The State Department has previously informed both the Committee and the public that we had not provided all materials relating to Libya,” a senior State Department official said.
The official said “the documents provided today do not alter the fundamental facts known about the Benghazi attacks.” The Department instead focused on providing the Benghazi Committee first with the 296 emails that directly pertained to the 2012 attacks in Benghazi. The documents provided today do not alter the fundamental facts known about the Benghazi attacks. The committee slammed the State Department for its failure to find them earlier, and said the State Department “failed to act in good faith” in the past. “If indeed this is a sign the stonewalling and political protection effort that was previously being run by the Department is diminishing, the Committee welcomes it,” Select Committee on Benghazi spokesman Jamal Ware said in a statement. “The proof will be in the production.”
Andrea Mitchell
Andrea Mitchell is chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News. Recommended
