FBI Hands Over Secret Hillary Clinton Email Probe Documents to Republican Lawmakers

The FBI on Tuesday shared classified documents with members of Congress related to its investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server to conduct State Department business, fulfilling some of the promises FBI Director James Comey made in a hearing last month.

"The FBI has turned over a 'number of documents' related to their investigation of former Secretary Clinton's use of a personal email server. Committee staff is currently reviewing the information that is classified SECRET. There are no further details at this time," a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said in a statement.

The statement added: "Consistent with our commitment to transparency with respect to the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary of State Clinton’s use of a personal email server, the FBI is providing certain relevant materials to appropriate congressional committees to assist them in their oversight responsibilities in this matter. The material contains classified and other sensitive information and is being provided with the expectation it will not be disseminated or disclosed without FBI concurrence."

It was not clear what exact documents the FBI turned over and whether they included records of Clinton's 3.5-hour interrogation at FBI headquarters.

At a State Department briefing Tuesday, spokesman Mark Toner said the agency had approved sending Congress some emails related to the probe, but that the agencies had not yet come to terms about how to handle FBI notes of interviews with Clinton and other former and current State employees. He said authorities at State respect "the FBI's desire to accommodate oversight committees in Congress and we will continue to cooperate with the FBI."

"We have been provided with emails the FBI intends to give to Congress, and we’ve reviewed them," Toner told reporters. "My understanding is that we continue to work with the FBI...on those interview summaries — those 302s I guess that they’re known as."

The Clinton campaign criticized the FBI's decision to turn over the documents and said they should be made public.

"This is an extraordinarily rare step that was sought solely by Republicans for the purposes of further second-guessing the career professionals at the FBI," campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said, according to Politico. "We believe that if these materials are going to be shared outside the Justice Department, they should be released widely so that the public can see them for themselves, rather than allow Republicans to mischaracterize them through selective, partisan leaks."

Last month, in testimony to the House Oversight panel, Comey concluded Clinton had been "extremely careless" but said "no reasonable prosecutor" would have pursued a criminal case against Clinton. During a session that was often testy, he told lawmakers Clinton had been forthcoming with the bureau during the interrogation at FBI headquarters.

Marc Torrence contributed to this report.

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