US State Department steps up e-mail probe of Hillary Clinton's former aides

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is investigating the e-mail records of dozens of current and former senior State Department officials who sent messages to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private e-mail, reviving a politically toxic matter that overshadowed the 2016 election, current and former officials said.

Senior State Department officials said that they are following standard protocol in an investigation that began during the latter days of the Obama administration and is nearing completion. State Department officials vigorously denied there was any political motivation behind their actions, and said that the reviews of retroactively classified e-mails were conducted by career bureaucrats who did not know the names of the subjects being investigated.

"A couple of the e-mails cited by State as problems were sent after my May 2012 retirement, when I was already working for the United Nations," he said. The list of State officials being questioned includes prominent ambassadors and assistant secretaries of state responsible for US policy in the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia. But it also includes dozens of current and former career bureaucrats who served as conduits for outside officials trying to get important messages to Clinton.

In many cases, the incidents appear to centre on the sending of information attributed to foreign officials, including summaries of phone conversations with foreign diplomats - a routine occurrence among State Department employees. Many of those who have been targeted by the probe and found"not culpable," described it as an effort to harass diplomats for the routine conduct of their job.

Trump raised the issue as recently as Wednesday, calling it"one of the great crimes committed" by his 2016 opponent.

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