Hillary Clinton’s current and former employees committed two dozen security violations involving her emails, the State Department revealed this week.
In a letter to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley who is heading the security review of Hillary Clinton’s emails, State Department Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Legislative Affairs Mary Elizabeth Taylor said 15 people were involved in committing the security violations and infractions, Fox News reported Tuesday.
“To this point, the Department has assessed culpability to 15 individuals, some of whom were culpable in multiple security incidents,” the letter said. “DS [Department of State] has issued 23 violations and 7 infractions incidents. … This number will likely change as the review progresses.”
Taylor added that individuals will face consequences if they’re found responsible for one security violation or at least three infractions. In those instances, State Department officials “forwarded the outcome to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s Office of Personnel Security and Suitability (DS/PSS), to be placed in the individuals’ official security file,” she noted in the letter.
urrent employees who carried out the violations and infractions are also referred to the Bureau of Human Resources.
“All valid security incidents are reviewed by DS and taken into account every time an individual’s eligibility for access to classified information is considered,” Taylor added, noting “such security files are kept indefinitely.”
The Department said the review is “serious” and has taken considerably more time than anticipated, but expects a conclusion to the probe before Sept. 1.
“Given the volume of emails provided to the Department from former Secretary Clinton’s private email server, the Department’s process has been necessarily more complicated and complex requiring a significant dedication of time and resources,” Taylor added in the letter.