Republican lawmakers are furious over news that two emails found on Hillary Clinton's private system contained information classified as "top secret" at the time they were sent. Clinton has repeatedly denied sending or receiving classified documents from her home-brew system during her tenure as secretary of state.
"It was just a few weeks ago when the Democratic front-runner for President of the United States blatantly lied to the American people declaring that she was 'confident' that she 'never sent nor received any information that was classified,'" Texas Congressman Rep. Blake Farenthold said in a statement, reports Breitbart.
On Tuesday, U.S. federal investigators disclosed that two emails stored on Clinton's private system contained information that had been designated "top secret" and "Sensitive Compartmented Information," which is one of the government's highest classification ratings, as HNGN reported.
"This information revealed by the inspector general makes it even more important that the FBI and the State Department secure these documents," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement. "To date, the two agencies most critical to securing this information have failed to assure the American people that they are taking the necessary steps to protect America's national security interests."
Also on Tuesday, the Democratic front-runner finally turned over her server to the Justice Department for examination after months of refusing to do so. The FBI is conducting a criminal probe into how much classified information passed through her system.
"That's a long time for top secret classified information to be held by an unauthorized person outside of an approved, secure government facility," Grassley told NBC News.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, remarked that "it's about time" Clinton turned over the server. "Secretary Clinton's previous statements that she possessed no classified information were patently untrue," Boehner told NBC. "Her mishandling of classified information must be fully investigated."
Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House committee investigating the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, said the unsecured Clinton emails represented a "serious national security issue."
"For months the Select Committee on Benghazi has called on Secretary Clinton to turn over her server to a neutral, detached third party for independent forensic examination," Gowdy, R-S.C., said in a statement Tuesday, reported USA Today. "She refused every entreat."
The Republican National Committee also released a statement on the issue: "All this means is that Hillary Clinton, in the face of FBI scrutiny, has decided she has run out of options," Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement, reported USA Today. "She knows she did something wrong and has run out of ways to cover it up."
Investigators fear that a number of hackers and foreign governments were able to access Clinton's server and obtain highly classified information. A number of security experts and even a CIA deputy director have said they are near certain such an incident occurred.
Judge Andrew Napolitano revealed to Fox News last week that he had seen some Clinton emails that revealed the location of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya, who was killed in the 2012 Benghazi attack, as well as the location of NATO jets during bombing runs in Libya.
Napolitano said Clinton could be charged with a felony for each classified email sent.
