How Was a Hillary Clinton Aide Getting His Hands on Top Secret Information?

According to a new report Wednesday, an email from a Clinton Foundation employee establishes for the first time that he had access to highly classified information almost immediately, despite supposedly having no access to the State Department.

The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross wrote that longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal forwarded an email to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state that contained information classified as “SECRET” at the time it was sent. He sources the FBI’s investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee’s private email server as revealing the new bombshell detail:

It was already known that about two dozen of the hundreds of emails Blumenthal sent Clinton during her tenure contained classified information. But the FBI’s report, released Friday, reveals for the first time that one of the emails contained information the government considers to have been classified as soon as it hit Clinton’s inbox.

Clinton and the State Department have downplayed the presence of classified information in her emails by pointing out that most of the information has been classified retroactively through a process called “up classification” … But one April 23, 2010, email has been deemed to contain information that is “SECRET both when sent and currently.”

The government routinely classifies any information as “SECRET” when its disclosure could be “reasonably expected” to cause “exceptionally grave damage to national security.” The information was also marked “NOFORN,” meaning it should not be shared with any foreign government—including U.S. allies.

This highly sensitive information will not be declassified until 2035.

Ross’ report also indicates the source of Blumenthal’s information, as well as another dangerous connection:

Blumenthal’s correspondent appears to have been Scott Horton, an international lawyer and human rights activist with expertise in Central Asia.

Horton testified in the House Oversight Committee hearing Blumenthal referenced in his email to Clinton. And Horton, who is also an adviser to left-wing billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute, sent Blumenthal other emails regarding Kyrgyzstan which were forwarded to Clinton.

Horton is a managing editor at Harper’s and previously worked in the Bill Clinton administration. He developed his connections in Kyrgyzstan while working for the New York City Bar Association’s International Human Rights Committee.

He has written in defense of Clinton in the wake of her email scandal, suggesting information was “over classified” by the State Department. However, he has never disclosed in his writings that he provided the information to Blumenthal.

Ross reported it was likely Horton didn’t know the information he was sending to Blumenthal was deemed highly classified. But it’s clear that the White House didn’t want the Clinton insider having access to national secrets.

In a 2009 article, the New York Times reported:

As White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel was the one to bring the hammer down on Sidney Blumenthal. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wanted to hire Mr. Blumenthal, a loyal confidant who had helped her promote the idea of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” more than a decade ago. But President Obama’s campaign veterans still blamed him for spreading harsh attacks against their candidate in the primary showdown with Mrs. Clinton last year.

So Mr. Emanuel talked with Mrs. Clinton, said Democrats informed about the situation and explained that bringing Mr. Blumenthal on board was a no-go. The bad blood among his colleagues was too deep, and the last thing the administration needed, he concluded, was dissension and drama in the ranks. In short, Mr. Blumenthal was out.

How Blumenthal was eventually able to get his hands on such highly classified information, so soon after it was produced, will likely be the subject of a number of questions when the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform convenes new hearings later this month. But the known “dots,” when connected, paint a very disturbing picture of coziness between the Clinton Foundation and Hillary Clinton’s State Department that goes far beyond “pay-for-play.”