Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   MM - no Date:   1/10/2016 3:54:08 PM

 A classifying authority can only declassified that which they classified in the first place.  If the authority obtains classified information from another source document with another classifying authority, then that authority would have to make a determination if the information was still classified. 

Let me give you an example.  I write talking points that I don't take from a classified source document, but I, as a classifying authority, determine putting all this information together in one place makes it sensitive and I decide to classify it. Maybe it is talking points on a change in strategy, or that we have decided to provide some assistance to another country)  I can then declassify it when if/when I decide that it is no longer classified.  (i.e., if I gave the speech and then the information was out there in open source). (BTW, some would argue that this would be an abuse of the classification system, but it is done on a fairly regular basis to prevent leaks to the media). 

Now suppose I am writing talking points, but I obtain specific classified information from a document produced by one of the intelligence agencies, who have their own classifying authorities and include that in my talking points.  My entire document is then classified by the inclusion of that data, and I cannot unclassify it unless I delete that data or I contact the classifying authority of that particular data and get them to declassify that data. 

Since Hiliary is not addressing any of the classified data and State Department reviewing authority is still reviewing documents to figure out which ones likely contain classified information and may have been unsecured or improperly marked, then it would not make sense for her, at this point, to mount any defense.  And then they would likely have to prove that she knowingly exposed classifed data that she knew was indeed classified. 

Sorry to disappoint, but I sincerely doubt that anything is going to come from any of this.  The classifying system is arcane and subjective and most people, unless they work with it all the time, have any idea how it works.  I've even seen experts argue whether something was really classified or not.  And FYI, to add a little more spice, just because information appears in the media or on the internet, doesn't mean it still isn't classified by the government.