Imagen por CJ Gunther/EPA
The US Department of State just released more than 7,000 pages of Hillary Clinton's emails, the largest batch of documents yet to be made public from the Democratic presidential candidate's time as Secretary of State.Clinton's emails are being released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by VICE News senior investigative reporter Jason Leopold. A federal judge has ordered the government to release 15 percent of the 35,000 emails each month.The State Department was previously running behind schedule on releasing the emails due to US intelligence officials screening the messages for classified information. US government lawyers said previously that intelligence officials have flagged 305 documents from Clinton's emails for further review. According to the State Department, around 150 messages included in the latest release were censored because they contain information that is now considered classified.State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a media briefing Monday afternoon that the information was not necessarily considered classified at the time the emails were sent, but has been "subsequently upgraded" to classified status.Related: Intelligence Officials Flag 305 Hillary Clinton Emails for Possible Classified Info"It's not an exact science," Toner said. "When we've upgraded, we've always said that that certainly does not speak to whether it was classified at the time it was sent."Toner said the latest release means the State Department has exceeded a court-ordered target, and made public more than a quarter of the total messages contained in the Clinton email trove.Clinton has insisted that she never used her private email server, which was hosted at her home in Chappaqua, New York, to transmit information that had been marked "classified," and said she did nothing wrong."I did what other secretaries of state have done," Clinton told Iowa Public Radio earlier this month. "I was permitted to and used a personal email and, obviously in retrospect, given all the concerns that have been raised, it would have been probably smarter not to. But I never sent nor received any classified email, nothing marked 'Classified.' And I think this will all sort itself out."Previous batches of Clinton's emails have been heavily redacted, but have included discussions about the prosecution of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Belgium, and the delicate US-Israel relationship in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 Gaza War.VICE News reporters are currently reviewing the latest batch of emails.Related: Hillary Clinton Is Not a Fan of Obama's Arctic Drilling DecisionFollow VICE News on Twitter: @vicenews
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