Hillary Clinton launches desperate pushback on servergate

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Email blast from Clinton campaign's communications director insists 'Hillary didn't send any classified materials over email'
Obama Justice Department is now investigating the matter, seizing her home-brew email server and thumb drives held by her lawyer
Government official says Obama is throwing Hillary under the bus to clear presidential campaign path for Joe Biden: 'I don't believe in coincidences'
News broke Tuesday that the government has retroactively classified two of her personal emails as 'top secret'
Clinton said in a March press conference that 'I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email'
Republicans are pouncing and making a case that Hillary can't be trusted to handle national security secrets as president

By David Martosko, US Political Editor and Francesca Chambers For Dailymail.com

Published: 13:49 EST, 12 August 2015 | Updated: 17:54 EST, 12 August 2015

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As panic infiltrated Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign on Wednesday, following the revelation that 'top secret' classified material was found among the former secretary of state's home-brew private emails, her communications director blasted an email to Clinton's supporters pleading her case.

'Hillary didn't send any classified materials over email,' Jennifer Palmieri wrote Wednesday in the mass-email.

'Hillary only used her personal account for unclassified email. No information in her emails was marked classified at the time she sent or received them. She viewed classified materials in hard copy in her office or via other secure means while traveling, not on email.'

Eight words – 'at the time she sent or received them' – could either give Clinton a legal safe harbor or open her up to new questions about why she was handling sensitive materials on an unsecured email server in the first place.

Palmieri did not respond to a request for comment about whether Clinton regrets her earlier blanket denials that she ever sent or received classified information through the private email address she used exclusively during the four years when she was America's top diplomat.

Meanwhile, Washington sources say Vice President Joe Biden is waiting in the wings for the Obama administration to run her over so he can step in and run for president.

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WORRIED: The Hillary Clinton campaign blasted out a mass email from its communications director on Wednesday meant to quell concerns about hints of a full-blown criminal investigation into the former secretary of state's handling of classified material

BIDEN HIS TIME: The Obama administration's Justice Department waited for months to seize Clinton's infamous email server, acting as Vice President Joe Biden began gathering support for a White House run

Hillary Clinton to give private email server to Justice Dept

Clinton first denied wrongdoing in March during a contentious press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York, saying flatly that 'I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.'

But intelligence officials acknowledged on Tuesday that at least two emails among those Clinton turned over to the State Department, years after her departure, have been retroactively classified 'Top Secret' and marked as 'Sensitive Compartmented Information.'

Those messages were part of a random sample of just 40 from among tens of thousands examined by the intelligence community's inspector general, leaving open the possibility that there could be hundreds – or thousands – yet to be identified.

A DailyMail.com review of more than 1,300 Clinton emails made public by the State Department on July 31 found an additional 41 containing information that was classified before its release.

Citing unnamed government officials, The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the information flagged a day earlier originated with the CIA and included information related to ultra-sensitive satellite images and electronic communications.

As controversy swirled on Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation took possession of the now-infamous server, along with two thumb drives, held by her attorney David Kendall, containing copies of all the emails she has already turned over to the State Department.

Dozens of Clinton emails recently classified by State Dep

A government official with knowledge of discussions in the executive branch told DailyMail.com that the email fracas is being probed aggressively, with one possible outcome being a fatal hobbling of Clinton's White House aspirations.

A second federal government official said the political implications of the DOJ entering into the fray are significant, and could indicate that the Obama White House is clearing a path for Vice President Joe Biden to enter the presidential race.

'The timing is the thing,' the official said on condition of anonymity. 'The DOJ could have jumped in at any time, but it's happening only after the vice president has signaled that he'd rather be the nominee instead of the former secretary [Clinton].'

'I don't believe in coincidences,' he added.

Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, hinted on Tuesday that the timing was curious.

'It's hard to believe that the Clinton private server and the thumb drives in the possession of Ms. Clinton's personal lawyer have just recently been turned over to the authorities,' Grassley said in a statement.

'That's a long time for top secret classified information to be held by an unauthorized person outside of an approved, secure government facility.'

Tensions between President Barack Obama and Mrs. Clinton are the stuff of legend in Washington, dating from the 2008 Democratic presidential primary in which the then-unknown Illinois senator trounced the party's heir-apparent.

Among Hillary's perceived sins: launching the 'birther' movement with a whisper campaign clamiing that Obama was born in Africa and was ineligible to hold the Oval Office.

SCENE OF THE CRIME? The Clintons maintained a home-brew email server at their home in Chappaqua, NY (shown), which reportedly was originally set up to aid Mrs. Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign

A Democratic campaign operative in New Hampshire who has consulted with two rival candidates told DailyMail.com that liberal political circles in the Granite State are buzzing with stories about the Clinton camp reaching 'full-blown panic mode' over the thought that her chickens might be coming home to roost.

'These are professionals,' she said, after reading a copy of Palmieri's email blast. 'They know how close to the edge Hillary is right now. And it's a sign of weakness that the campaign is getting this defensive.'

'This smells of desperation,' she chuckled. 'I'd hate to see the drafts they threw away.'

Republicans in Congress on Tuesday showed CNN a copy of an internal review which concluded that at least six close Clinton aides received copies of material – on their private email addresses – that would later be classified by the Obama administration.

They include former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills, and logntime foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan.

She also is known to have forwarded information, later classified, to her close confidant Sidney Blumenthal, whose activities launched the investigation into Clinton's previouslyl secret email arrangement when his own personal account was hacked by a Romanian cybercriminal.

Clinton spent Monday and Tuesday campaigning in New Hampshire, leaving the state as the worst of the news broke.

FIDDLING WHILE THE CAMPAIGN BURNS? Clinton mugged for pictures Tuesday in New Hampshire as news broke that the FBI had seized her storied email server

Her next scheduled public appearance is Friday night in Clear Lake, Iowa, at an 'Iowa Democratic Wing Ding' event where rivals Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley will also speak.

Republican presidential contenders have taken turns pummelling her since the news broke on Tuesday.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee called Clinton's actions 'beyond outrageously illegal' and 'life-threatening to members of our military and every American citizen.'

'The same action, for anyone else serving in the military, would mean a court-martial and a prison sentence. ... General David Petraeus was prosecuted for sharing "Classified Information." This new report shows that as Secretary of State, Hillary shared "Top Secret" documents – which is more dangerous.'

He told DailyMail.com during a campaign stop in Iowa on Wednesday that he's not ready to label the former secretary of state a lawbreaker.

'I don’t have the evidence, so that’s something for the prosecutors and others to determine,' he said.

'Let’s put it this way: if the investigation leads to the conclusion that she did break the law, then she should [be prosecuted]. But that’s only if the investigation leads there. Right now, it certainly may look that way, but one of the things that we still have to respect in this country is innocent until proven guilty.'

Former Texas governor Rick Perry said it was 'no surprise that after her disastrous tenure at the State Department, Secretary Clinton continues to try to hide the evidence of her failed leadership from the American people.'