This e-mail chain consisted of a link to a New York Times article.
From your comment, it seems you are saying that the whole blowup is about a Times article. I am not following this closely enough to tell front from back on the matter, and I have no idea what part of the 22 documents might or might not have been linked/attached/related or otherwise had some connection to a Times article.
None of that has any particular bearing unless and until the documents are actually given to the public, and if they are TS, that isn’t going to occur for a long time, if ever.
And the fact that a Times article might have alluded to, or pressed in on a TS matter is not relevant as to whether or not the information in the 22 documents was TS.
For example, the Times might know of something going on in relation to, let’s say, some action concerning an ISIS cell discovered in either the US or Europe. They may not have the name of the ISIS members, and not have any information concerning how this cell was discovered, but someone has let slip that there is something major afoot.
However, the documents could be a discussion which included information as to where the cell was, or who was in it, or who those in it were linked to, or a whole lot more, all of which could compromise a whole lot of work ongoing in relation to the future prevention of the cell committing a crime (as in what occurred in France, for example).
As to the “upgrading” of the emails: the substance of the information in the emails is what is TS, and so the emails themselves become TS whether or not they are marked as such. As I have no privy to other emails she sent (and I believe there is evidence she sent and/or received information that was classified material,whether marked as such or not), the matter comes up now not because someone is now deciding the material is TS; it was TS at the time of transmission whether marked as such or not.
I was an Image Interpreter, part of military intelligence, and I worked on imagery that was TS. None of it was marked; I got it raw from the photo lab. The mission which originated the imagery was TS, and anything coming out of the mission - imagery, personal observation of anyone on the flight, the flight itself, and any and all reports derived from the mission - were all TS whether or not they were marked.
I seriously doubt that anyone with as much exposure as Hilary has had over the years to government activity would not know what was TS. She was at one of the top most rungs as to access to TS material and programs. She was not some clerk somewhere that such material might slide across her desk and she just had to file it.
And I seriously doubt that she did not know the required procedures for transmission by any means of TS material.
The question at hand is whether or not the Obama administration is going to make anything of this. It has not exactly been a secret that there has not been a lot of love lost between the Clintons and the Obamas. It appears the administration has not chosen to drag out the investigation, cause delays, obfuscate, minimize, or otherwise find a means of politely burying the matter for, oh, say 10 months. Whether they are willing to see her taken down by either criminal charges or some other means of bringing this to a head is for speculation, and only time may (or may not) tell. Could they throw her to the wolves? Certainly the Federal Government is capable of bringing a whole lot of pressure to bear where they chose.
Could they obfuscate, delay, or otherwise protect her from damage? That too is entirely possible. How will this all play out? Only time will tell, and we most likely will never know; or it may be some intrepid historian years from now will dig out all the gory details.
It needs saying, perhaps; but the US Attorney General’s office is part of the Obama administration. While there may be no direct orders ever generated, only a fool would presume that the AG, and a whole lot of individuals under the AG, would not be testing which way the wind is blowing. To presume they operate independently of any political concern is to live in a land even more creative and strange than Alice, the Rabbit, and the Mad Hatter. One does not get to those levels in government without a fairly acute olfactory system in place and operating.
Nope, that wasn’t a violation either.
