Senior Clinton Aide Left Classified Material in Chinese Hotel Room

Fox News just received its answer to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed several weeks ago, in the form of State Department spokesman John Kirby admitting that, yes, one of Hillary Clinton’s senior aides did leave classified material unsecured and unattended in a Chinese hotel room.

“In May 2010, Secretary Clinton was on official travel in Beijing, China, accompanied by senior staff. Upon Secretary Clinton’s departure, a routine security sweep by Diplomatic Security agents identified classified documents in a staff member’s suite,” Kirby said.

Fox News says it does not know which “senior Clinton aide” was involved in the incident. One particular aide has become awfully scarce on the campaign trail of late.

According to a source, Diplomatic Security personnel and the Marine Security Guards both filed paperwork on the incident. Authorities uncovered this during the FBI’s investigation of Clinton and her staff for potentially violating the U.S. Espionage Act.

The Obama administration, and especially the State Department, have become notorious for very slow responses to FOIA requests, but Fox might have received a quick response on this one because the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Devin Nunes (R-CA), became involved. Nunes wrote to FBI Director James Comey asking about the incident on Monday, after a whistleblower claimed it was Hillary Clinton herself who left the classified material unattended in China.

Kirby, however, insisted to Fox News that it was “not Secretary Clinton’s hotel room and no citation whatsoever was given to Secretary Clinton, nor were any reports written about Secretary Clinton’s conduct.”

But then he went on to say that nobody was responsible:

Ultimately, Diplomatic Security concluded that classified information had been improperly secured, but that the evidence did not support assigning culpability to any individual. Furthermore, the Diplomatic Security investigation concluded that due to the fact that the documents were found within a Diplomatic Security controlled area, the likelihood that the information was compromised was remote.

This was not the only time Secretary of State Clinton and her people were chastised for handling sensitive material improperly. Fox also mentions documents left in a car in India in 2009 which may or may not have been classified. Material that definitely was classified was left in Moscow hotel in 2013 by Monica Hanley, a name that has not been prominent in Clinton scandals until now, but she actually has connections to most of them.