At least one email from Hillary Clinton’s private, unsecured email account that she used during her tenure as secretary of State contained information gathered from human spying, Fox News reported.
The information contained in the email was classified as “HCS-O,” an intelligence agency code for human spy operations on the ground or “HUMINT Control System Operations,” according to two unnamed sources familiar with the investigation.
It’s not yet clear whether the information contained in Clinton’s email exposed personally identifiable information about the sources.
Earlier this week, it was reported that two of Clinton’s emails contained intelligence known as “special access programs” (SAP), which is a level of classification even higher than “top secret.”
“There are people’s lives at stake,” said Dan Maguire, former Special Operations strategic planner for Africom in an interview with Fox News.
Maguire explained that intelligence contained in an SAP could potentially be traced back to the person who provided it, as there may only be one person in the world that has access to the information in the the report.
In response to the SAP revelations, Clinton’s campaign spokesman Brian Fallon accused Republicans on national TV of conspiring with an inspector general to resurface her email misbehavior and hurt her campaign.
His allegations of a partisan conspiracy are tough to swallow, as Inspector General Charles McCullough was appointed by President Barack Obama. In addition, Fallon’s words dredge up his own past, as he reportedly attempted to collude with a Democratic congressman in September 2014.
While working for then Attorney General Eric Holder, Fallon tried to get congressmen to help him spin the news coverage surrounding the Department of Justice’s investigation into whether the IRS was targeting conservative groups.
The Clinton campaign also claimed that the SAP intel was merely information contained in a New York Times article, but State Department spokesman Mark Toner clarified on Thursday that government employees are “strongly discouraged” from forwarding classified information — even if it’s already been reported in a news article.
