text: Steven Aftergood, who directs the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, said he suspected that if there had been no fuss and a researcher or journalist had sought all of Mrs. Clinton’s emails under the Freedom of Information Act, the answer might have been different. 
   
   “It would have been a real surprise if none of it was withheld on the grounds of classification,” Mr. Aftergood said. To start with, he said, “they’d have to say there’s no ‘foreign government information’ in the chief diplomat’s email.” 
   
   But Mr. Aftergood also noted that as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton was the top classification authority for the entire State Department, with broad discretion to determine which department documents were classified and which were not. “There’s zero chance that she’ll be charged with unauthorized retention of classified information, because she decides what’s classified,” he said. 
   
   Clinton aides pointed out other factors that reduced the need to use the personal email account for sensitive matters. As secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton was almost always accompanied by one or more aides with secure government BlackBerrys, laptops or other devices that could be used to send classified material at her direction. 
   
   “Classified information was viewed in hard copy by the secretary while in the office,” according to a statement from her office Tuesday. “While on travel, the department had rigorous protocols for her and traveling staff to receive and transmit information of all types.” 
   
   Her office said that while serving as secretary, Ms. Clinton “communicated with foreign officials in person, through correspondence and by telephone.” Her staff’s review of her emails “revealed only one email with a foreign official,” one from the United Kingdom, the statement said. 
   
   It is rare but not unheard-of for a government official to be punished for storing classified information on a personal device. John M. Deutch, a former C.I.A. director, was pardoned by President Bill Clinton in 2001, sparing him a guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge for keeping classified information on personal, nongovernment computers. Mr. Deutch had already been stripped of his security clearance. ||||| A review of the broader set of roughly 55,000 pages of Clinton emails is expected to take several months. | AP Photo Some Hillary Clinton emails set for speedy release 
   
   Under pressure to move quickly on the release of Hillary Clinton’s emails, the State Department intends to speed release about 900 pages of Benghazi-related e-mails sent by the former Secretary of State on her private e-mail account, officials said Tuesday. 
   
   Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi sent the State Department a letter Tuesday asking the agency to prioritize disclosure of the set of Clinton e-mails sent to the panel last month, but a State Department spokeswoman said later that an early release of those records was already under discussion and would go forward. 
   
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   “Those will be reviewed and released prior to the completion of the entire set,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. She said she could not offer an estimate of when the approximately 300 Libya-related messages will be disclosed. 
   
   Psaki said the review of the broader set of roughly 55,000 pages of Clinton emails is expected to take several months. She said State does not plan any incremental releases beyond the Benghazi-related one. 
   
   “We will review the entire 55,000-page set and release in one batch at the end of that review to ensure that standards are consistently applied throughout the entire 55,000 pages,” Psaki said. 
   
   Clinton said at a news conference at the United Nations in New York Tuesday that she welcomes State’s decision to release the records and is eager to see them made public soon. 
   
   “I heard just a little while ago the State Department announced they would begin to post some of my e-mails, which I’m very glad to hear, because I want it all out there,” the former secretary said. 
   
   Psaki also appeared to acknowledge for the first time Tuesday that State’s review of the documents will include checking them for classified national security information that is exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act. 
   
   “Specific FOIA redaction criteria has included and would include, since we’re following the same standards: national security, personal privacy, privilege and trade secrets, among others,” Psaki said. “As per our regular practice, we will identify the basis for any redactions. 
   
   Clinton said flatly Tuesday that she never discussed classified information in emails she sent through her private account. 
   
   “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material,” she said. “So, I’m certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”
target: – Hillary Clinton may say she never sent any classified information using her personal email account, but experts and former government officials aren't so sure. As the New York Times reports, both Democrats and Republicans believe the government tends to err on the side of "overclassification" when it comes to making documents secret—more than 80 million documents were classified in 2013—making it difficult to believe that Clinton somehow managed to avoid sending information considered sensitive. "As a longtime critic of the government's massive overclassification, I thought it was a refreshing touch that the secretary of state conducted all her email in unclassified form," says the director of George Washington University's National Security Archive with what the Times calls "a hint of sarcasm." Clinton's staff has identified more than 30,000 emails as pertaining to government business, and a former senior State Department official says it's "hard to imagine" none of those were classified. By his estimate, he says, “I would assume that more than 50% of what the secretary of state dealt with was classified." And another expert notes that, had a journalist made a FOIA request for all of Clinton's email before news of her personal account broke, "it would have been a real surprise if none of it was withheld on the grounds of classification." But, he adds, "there's zero chance that she'll be charged with unauthorized retention of classified information, because she decides what's classified." Clinton also traveled with aides who could have sent classified material from their accounts on her behalf. Politico reports that about 900 pages of emails relating to Benghazi will be released soon.