[SIZE=24pt]Unclassified Clinton Emails May Have Consequences for a Key Deputy[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]WASHINGTON — In May, 2011, John Kerry wrapped up a trip to Pakistan intended to calm tensions over the secret raid that had killed Osama bin Laden just weeks before. But as he took off to fly to Dubai, the Central Intelligence Agency carried out a pair of
drone attacks in North Waziristan.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]When he landed, Mr. Kerry, then chairman of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, called the American ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, in
a fury and tried to reach Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton. Mr. Munter also called Mrs. Clinton’s senior aide, Jake Sullivan, who, in turn, jotted a brief email to his boss.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]“Cameron called me, hysterical,” Mr. Sullivan’s email began under a subject line that noted Mr. Kerry’s request to speak with her.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]What he wrote next is one example of what lies at the heart of a yearlong controversy over Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server at the State Department. The controversy has entangled some of her most trusted aides, both then and now, in a political and legal fight that could drag on throughout the election year.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Mr. Sullivan added a short phrase that was redacted when the email was made public in January on the grounds that the passage could cause serious damage to the nation’s security.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]That reference to the drone strikes and Mr. Munter’s reaction included information that, like a couple of dozen other emails, should not have been sent through a nonsecured computer server, not even the State Department’s official though unclassified system, according to current and former officials from the department, Congress and law enforcement agencies.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Even admirers of Mrs. Clinton’s record as secretary of state acknowledge that the use of the server had consequences for her select circle of confidants. They include Mr. Sullivan, who as director of policy planning and a deputy chief of staff, handled the most pressing policies and international crises during her tenure as secretary. Others were Cheryl D. Mills, her chief of staff, and Huma Abedin, who was then also a deputy chief of staff, and other senior diplomats who sent messages to her now under scrutiny.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]Both Ms. Abedin and Mr. Sullivan serve in senior positions in Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=12pt]The emails — as well as Mrs. Clinton’s initial decision to set up the server — are now the focus of investigations by the F.B.I., the inspectors general of the State Department and the intelligence agencies and by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss inquiries involving classified information.[/SIZE]
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