Feds Find 30 Clinton Emails About Benghazi

WASHINGTON (CN) — Of the thousands of emails uncovered on Hillary Clinton's private server, the State Department said Tuesday that roughly 30 contained information about the 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

Federal attorneys confirmed the findings during a hearing Tuesday and specified to U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta that some of the emails were not included in the original 55,000 pages of information Clinton originally provided to the U.S. State Department for review.

The State Department also confirmed that the FBI has since turned over an additional 14,900 emails, which had not yet been disclosed to the government.

The revelation was seized upon by Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Jason Miller, senior communications advisor for the campaign, issued a statement Tuesday afternoon after the hearing.

"Today's disclosure that 30 additional emails about Benghazi were discovered on Hillary Clinton's private server raises additional questions about the more than 30,000 emails she deleted," Miller said. "Hillary Clinton swore before a federal court and told the American people she handed over all of her work-related emails. If Clinton did not consider emails about something as important as Benghazi to be work-related, one has to wonder what is contained in the other emails she attempted to wipe from her server."

Tuesday's hearing is one of several brought on by the conservative-leaning legal organization Judicial Watch. The group has filed a series of lawsuits for access to records on Clinton and for information on records kept during her time as Secretary of State.

Whether or not the email discovery will harm Clinton's campaign for the presidency remains to be seen, but it could initiate a possible setback for the Democratic candidate, who has openly reassured both Congress and the FBI that any emails she deleted or did not disclose were of a personal nature and not work-related.

FBI Director James Comey cleared Clinton of any wrongdoing in July and when asked to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Comey took the opportunity then to dismiss any potential wrongdoing by Clinton.

"No reasonable prosecutor would bring this case, in 100 years, on gross negligence," Comey testified at the July hearing.

Due to the potential for sensitive or classified information found in the emails, the State Department estimated that it would take until the end of September for any of the correspondences to be released.

In the meantime, Judicial Watch has formally submitted 25 questions to Clinton about her private email server, after U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled Aug. 19 that she will have to answer the group's questions in writing.

The questions, which are listed comprehensively on Judicial Watch's website, range from the relatively straightforward and simple — like, "When did you decide to use a clintonemail.com email account to conduct official State Department business and whom did you consult in making this decision?" — to more complex inquiries.

One of the more specific questions Clinton must answer is: "On June 28, 2011, you sent a message to all State Department personnel about securing personal email accounts. In the message, you noted 'recent targeting of personal email accounts by online adversaries' and directed all personnel to '[a]void conducting official Department business from your personal email accounts.' Why did you continue using your clintonemail.com email account to conduct official State Department business after June 28, 2011, when you were advising all State Department Personnel to avoid doing so?"

Her responses must be submitted no later than Sept. 29.

Clinton's campaign did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

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