Two inspectors general have requested the Justice Department begin a criminal probe into whether Hillary Clinton improperly stored classified emails on her private personal server, a source familiar with the issue told NBC News.
The request, first reported by the New York Times, was made by inspectors general for the State Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence combing through Clinton’s private emails.
They made the request after finding potentially hundreds of classified emails among a small sample of some 55,000 pages of emails contained on Clinton’s private email server, which was located inside her New York home.
The State Department declined to comment on the request.
In a statement early Friday, Clinton campaign spokesman Nick Merrill said she “followed appropriate practices in dealing with classified materials.”
He added: “As has been reported on multiple occasions, any released emails deemed classified by the administration have been done so after the fact, and not at the time they were transmitted.”
Clinton has said she did nothing wrong.
“I fully complied with every rule I was governed by,” she old reporters during a news conference in March after her use of a private email account was disclosed. “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.”
The Justice Department has not yet decided whether it would open an investigation, the source said.
Clinton has come under fire for using a private server and a personal email account rather than a government address to conduct official business.
The State Department has been releasing vetted documents at the request of journalists and Clinton herself, who has said that she wants them to be made public.
