By Julian Hattem – 10/19/15 07:26 AM EDT
Congressional Democrats are accusing Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi of falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton improperly handled some of the government’s most closely kept secrets, days before the former secretary of State appears before the panel.
An email revealed by committee Republicans earlier this month made it seem as if Clinton received and then forwarded the name of a CIA source as part of a 2011 memo from longtime associate Sidney Blumenthal.
The name of that source “is some of the most protected information in our intelligence community,” committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said at the time, “the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but also human lives.”
According to the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), however, the CIA told lawmakers this weekend that “they do not consider the information … classified.”
“Specifically, the CIA confirmed that ‘the State Department consulted with the CIA on this production, the CIA reviewed these documents, and the CIA made no redactions to protect classified information,’” Cummings said in a scathing letter to Gowdy.
A State Department official confirmed that Cummings’s letter “describes the situation accurately.” A spokesman with the CIA declined to comment on the matter.
Gowdy insisted that the presence of the name in one of Clinton’s emails is nonetheless damaging, regardless of the CIA’s stance.