Clinton Aides Wanted Classified-capable Devices

Hillary Clinton's top aides pressed the State Department for handheld devices that would enable them to view highly classified information, internal emails show.

Eric Boswell, a diplomatic security official who was forced to resign in 2012 in the wake of the Benghazi attack, relayed requests from Clinton's staff that they be given PDAs capable of handling "secret" and "top secret" intelligence, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act.

The emails are heavily redacted, as are many of the private communications between Clinton and her aides that have been published by the State Department on a rolling basis since May.

Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, two of Clinton's top aides, used government-issued BlackBerry phones, court documents filed in the Judicial Watch case show.

Clinton did not use a handheld device that was provided by the government, instead using her own BlackBerry and an iPad to communicate with staff, friends and even foreign leaders.

Although roughly 188 emails among her published records have been designated as classified so far, the State Department and the Clinton campaign initially maintained that none were classified at the time they were written.

Both have amended their defenses to say that none were marked classified at the time, with the State Department refusing to specify whether the emails should have been classified when originated.

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