In a statement Tuesday, State Department spokesperson John Kirby noted that the two e-mails determined to have contained top secret material were "not marked as classified" when they were sent between State Department employees and ultimately forwarded to Clinton.
The two e-mails, from 2009 and 2011, were identified before they were made public as part of the department's monthly releases of Clinton e-mails. "While we work with the Director of National Intelligence to resolve whether, in fact, this material is actually classified, we are taking steps to ensure the information is protected and stored appropriately, Kirby said. [My emphasis]
To be clear, the State Department has already stated that is disagrees with the IC IG on this. I covered these points in a previous diary. The upshot was State disagreed with the IC regarding whether the information was in fact classified, even NOW.
This is an intergovernment agency food fight. All of this is in dispute. What's not in dispute is that the information was not marked classified when received by Clinton. (It now seems clear she never sent the information, just received it.)
As Clinton said: "“What I think you’re seeing here is a very typical kind of discussion—to some extent disagreement—among various parts of the government over what should or should not be publicly released."
The story has not changed. That's still what it is.
