News

Miami, FL – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following statement today regarding State Department Under Secretary of Management Patrick Kennedy allegedly “attempting to influence the FBI to change” the classification of one of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails as part of a “quid pro quo”:

“The FBI found that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was ‘extremely careless’ in handling sensitive, highly classified information, leaving it vulnerable to America’s enemies. The fact that Under Secretary Kennedy allegedly ‘pressured’ the FBI to change the classification of an email to benefit Secretary Clinton as part of a ‘quid pro quo’ after her behavior came to light is alarming, and a sign of just how corrupt the State Department became under her tenure. Kennedy should be removed from his position immediately until a real investigation is completed.

“In July, I urged Secretary of State John Kerry to suspend the security clearances of former Secretary Clinton and her aides, including Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, and Jake Sullivan. He has never responded, and today his spokesman said Kennedy has Kerry’s ‘full confidence’ – indicating nothing has been done or will be done to fix the security culture of the State Department, which the FBI Director said ‘was generally lacking in the kind of care for classified information that is found elsewhere in the U.S. government.’ Compromising our nation’s secrets and attempting to trade favors with the FBI further undermines the integrity of the State Department, and sends the wrong message to the millions of federal employees and contractors who take our nation’s security seriously.”