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Clinton Herself Signed NDA Laying Out Criminal Penalties for Mishandling of Classified Info
Dem presidential candidate and top assists signed NDAs warning against ‘negligent handling’ of classified data
As the nation’s primary diplomat, Hillary Clinton was accountable for ascertaining whether information in her control was classified and identified that “negligent handling” of that data could jeopardize national security, based on a copy of an contract she signed upon taking the job.
A day after assuming office as secretary of state, Clinton autographed a Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement that outlined criminal penalties for “any unauthorized disclosure” of classified data.
Analysts have suspected that Clinton signed such an contract, but a copy of her unique contract, acquired by the Competitive Enterprise Institute through an open records request and shared with FLI, discloses for the first time the precise 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 contract says.
Clinton got at least two emails while secretary of state on her personal email server since designated “TS/SCI”-top secret/sensitive compartmented information-as outlined by the U.S. intelligence community’s inspector general.
The State Department stated in September that Clinton’s private email system, set up at her Chappaqua, N.Y., home, was not approved to handle SCI.
The Democratic presidential frontrunner guarded her unauthorized possession of SCI and her sending of emails made up of classified information by boasting that the data was not marked as classified when it was sent or received.
The dialect of her NDA implies it was Clinton’s responsibility to distinguish whether data shared through her private email server was, actually, 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 states.
The Clinton campaign did not quickly react to a demand for feedback on the NDA.
Based on government security specialists, the type of data that receives a TS/SCI status is sensitive enough that most senior government officials would instantly identify 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, informed the New York Post in August. “It’s hard to imagine that in her position she would fail to recognize the obvious.”
Some other emails on Clinton’s server was comprised of data that was “born classified,” as outlined by 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 informed Reuters in August.
Clinton’s NDA spells out inflexible criminal penalties for “any unauthorized disclosure of SCI.” The FBI is presently checking out whether Clinton’s private email server violated any federal laws.
In combination with her SCI agreement, Clinton signed a independent NDA for all other classified data. It is made up of similar language, including forbidding “negligent handling of classified information,” necessitating her to conclude whether data 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 appropriate authorizes.
Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, Clinton’s two top assists, also signed copies of the classified data NDA.
Mills routed 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 demanded her to ask about the classification of information in her possession if she was uncertain about its standing. Nevertheless, her attorney stated that she “presumed” that the data she sent to the foundation was unclassified because it had been sent to her at her unclassified State Department email address.
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Source: http://fusionlacedillusions.com/2015/11/08/clinton-herself-signed-nda-laying-out-criminal-penalties-for-mishandling-of-classified-info/
