Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) bickered on Sunday over allegations that the information on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s personal email server was more highly classified than previously understood.
{mosads}Lankford, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” that the presence of highly classified information from “special access programs” (SAP) on her private server, which was reported last week by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, “absolutely represents a security threat.”
“There are about 13,040 emails that we know about so far that had classified information,” he said. “it is a major risk to have this kind of information outside a government server.”
Schiff, the ranking member of the intelligence committee, meanwhile, dismissed the allegations as trumped-up charges designed to damage Clinton’s presidential campaign ahead of upcoming primaries and caucuses in early voting states.
“When you read this emails, you can see why there would a difference of opinion between the State Department and the Justice Department about whether these should be marked classified,” he said.
“I think, given that none of these were marked classified at the time, there’s no reason when you read the contents, I believe, for the secretary to believe that these should be marked classified,” Schiff continued.
Lankford said the complaints from the Clinton campaign and her surrogates about the latest email allegations are part of the “whole Clinton procedure of trying to attack the messenger, [saying] he must be part of the vast right wing conspiracy.”
“We’re not just talking about a newspaper article. Again it’s the conversation that interchanges between staff here,” he said.
“The inspector general is an Obama appointee and he is doing his job,” Lankford continued. “He’s been asked by the committee to keep the members up to date and that’s what he’s doing.”
This story was updated on Jan. 25 at 9:54 a.m. to correct an earlier version that incorrectly identified Sen. James Lankford’s title.