Clinton Signed NDA Laying Out Criminal Penalties for Mishandling of Classified Info Dem presidential candidate and top aides signed NDAs warning against ‘negligent handling’ of classified information by Lachlan Markay 11/6/15 AP
As the nation’s chief diplomat,
Hillary Clinton was responsible for ascertaining whether information in her
possession was classified and acknowledged that “negligent handling” of that
information could jeopardize national security, according to a copy of an
agreement she signed upon taking the job.
A day after assuming office as
secretary of state, Clinton signed a Sensitive Compartmented Information
Nondisclosure Agreement that laid out criminal penalties for “any unauthorized
disclosure” of classified information.
Experts have guessed that Clinton
signed such an agreement, but a copy of her specific contract, obtained by the
Competitive Enterprise Institute through an open records request and shared
with the Washington Free Beacon, reveals for the first time the exact
language of the NDA.
“I have been advised that the
unauthorized disclosure, unauthorized retention, or negligent handling of SCI
by me could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to
advantage by a foreign nation,” the agreement states.
Clinton received at least two emails
while secretary of state on her personal email server since marked “TS/SCI”—top
secret/sensitive compartmented information—according to the U.S. intelligence
community’s inspector general.
The State Department said in
September that Clinton’s private email system, set up at her Chappaqua, N.Y.,
home, was not authorized to handle SCI.
The Democratic presidential
frontrunner defended her unauthorized possession of SCI and her sending of
emails containing classified information by claiming that the information was
not marked as classified when it was sent or received.
The language of her NDA suggests it
was Clinton’s responsibility to ascertain whether information shared through
her private email server was, in fact, classified.
“I understand that it is my
responsibility to consult with appropriate management authorities in the
Department … in order to ensure that I know whether information or material
within my knowledge or control that I have reason to believe might be SCI,” the
agreement says.
The Clinton campaign did not
immediately respond to a request for comment on the NDA. According to
government security experts, the type of information that receives a TS/SCI
designation is sensitive enough that most senior government officials would
immediately recognize it as such.
“TS/SCI is very serious and specific
information that jumps out at you and screams ‘classified,’” Larry Mrozinski, a
former U.S. counterterrorism official, told the New York Post in August. “It’s
hard to imagine that in her position she would fail to recognize the obvious.”
Additional emails on Clinton’s
server contained information that was “born classified,” according to J.
William Leonard, who directed the U.S. Information Security Oversight Office
from 2002 to 2008.
“If a foreign minister just told the
secretary of state something in confidence, by U.S. rules that is classified at
the moment it’s in U.S. channels and U.S. possession,” Leonard told Reuters in
August.
Clinton’s NDA spells out stiff
criminal penalties for “any unauthorized disclosure of SCI.” The FBI is
currently investigating whether Clinton’s private email server violated any
federal laws.
In addition to her SCI agreement,
Clinton signed a separate NDA for all other classified information. It contains
similar language, including prohibiting “negligent handling of classified
information,” requiring her to ascertain whether information is classified and
laying out criminal penalties.
It adds, “I will never divulge classified
information to anyone unless: (a) I have officially verified that the recipient
has been properly authorized to receive it; or (b) I have been given prior
written notice of authorization” from the proper authorizes.
Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin Clinton’s
two top aides, also signed copies of the classified information NDA. Mills sent
classified information to officials at the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton
Foundation in 2012, an email released by the State Department in September
shows.
Mills’ NDA required her to inquire
about the classification of information in her possession if she was unsure
about its status. However, her attorney said that she “presumed” that the
information she sent to the foundation was unclassified because it had been sent
to her at her unclassified State Department email address.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/clinton-signed-nda-laying-out-criminal-penalties-for-mishandling-of-classified-info/
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