Feds release more Clinton emails on eve of South Carolina primary
By Julian Hattem, The Hill, Feb. 26, 2016
The State Department on Friday released 881 new emails from Hillary Clinton’s personal server, a day before Democrats in South Carolina head to the polls.
The new release brings the total number of classified emails on the former secretary of State’s machine up to more than 1,800.
The vast majority of those classified emails were listed at the lowest level, that of “confidential,” but nearly two dozen were classified as “secret” and another 22 were deemed “top secret” — the highest level of classification.
Those top secret emails were deemed too dangerous to release to the public, even in a redacted form.
None of the 88 classified emails in Friday’s dump were classified at the time they were sent, a State Department official said.
Friday’s release is the second-to-last from the State Department, which has been laboring to make Clinton’s emails public since last May.
Under the terms of a court order earlier this month, the department will need to publish the very last of the roughly 35,000 supposedly work-related emails on Monday.
Federal officials planned to work through the weekend to reach that goal, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said earlier in the day.
“We’re still reviewing them – a lot of them, frankly,” Toner told reporters at the State Department. “Going to be working hard through the weekend.”
On Saturday, Clinton’s presidential campaign is hoping to cement its front-runner status with a strong showing in South Carolina, where polls show her with a significant lead over rival Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Sanders has repeatedly refused to attack Clinton over her emails, but Republicans have been less kind.