Several dozen emails discovered on Hillary Clinton's unsecured private email server contained classified information, according to a U.S. intelligence official.
An unclassified letter from Inspector General of the Intelligence Community Charles McCullough to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was obtained Tuesday by media outlets including Fox News.
In the Jan. 14 letter, McCullough told Senators Bob Corker and Richard Burr that based on sworn declarations from intelligence personnel that "several dozen" emails had been identified that contained confidential, secret, or top secret/SAP information. SAP, or "special access program," information is sometimes referred to as above top secret — it may only be obtained by select individuals, regardless of their security clearance.
"These declarations cover several dozen emails containing classified information determined by the [intelligence community] element to be at the confidential, secret and top secret/sap levels," McCullough said.
A Clinton spokesperson did not immediately provide comment to BuzzFeed News. On Wednesday, Clinton reiterated to NPR that she never sent or received anything marked as classified.
She said she believed the emails in question were a forward of a New York Times article about a drone program, which contained information that was later classified.
"This, seems to me, to be, you know, another effort to inject this into the campaign," she told NPR. "It's another leak."
In August, federal officials said two of Clinton's emails contained information "up to top secret." A State Department spokesperson at the time said the emails had been forwarded to Clinton, and they were not marked as classified.
The emails are currently being reviewed by the State Department, and officials are determining what is classified and what may be released to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Spokesman John Kirby said in a statement that the State Department is committed to releasing the emails in a way that protects sensitive information.
"No one takes this more seriously than we do," Kirby said. "We have said repeatedly that we anticipate more upgrades throughout our release process. Our FOIA review process is still ongoing. Once that process is complete, if it is determined that information should be classified as Top Secret we will do so."