Hillary Clinton email controversy: Staff ordered to turn in private server and thumb drive

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has ordered her staff to turn in the private email server she used during her time as Secretary of State and a thumb drive to the Department of Justice, a spokesman announced on 11 August.

"She pledged to cooperate with the government's security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them," spokesman Nick Merrill told CNN.

Merrill said that Clinton's team "has worked with the State Department to ensure her emails are stored in a safe and secure manner."

The decision came hours after an independent government watchdog said Clinton had at least two "top secret" emails in her unsecured network, POLITICO reported. An Intelligence Community Inspector General confirmed it found two "top secret" emails when combing through a sample of emails from the collection of 35,000 emails.

According to POLITICO, the FBI has since opened a probe into the security of Clinton's private emails.

"These emails ... have been properly marked by IC classification officials, and include information classified up to 'TOP SECRET,'" a letter from the Intelligence Community Inspector General to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said.

Clinton has faced continued criticisms during her presidential campaign over her usage of a private email server during her tenure in the State Department. The issue has brought about concerns over her trustworthiness, CNN reported.

The Democratic candidate has insisted that she has turned over all of her work-related emails to the State Department and has deleted all others, but has — until now — refused to turn in her server. However, poll numbers have shown that more American voters believe she is not trustworthy.

A recent CNN/ORC revealed that 58% of all registered voters believe it is extremely important that the future president must be honest and trustworthy.

Despite releasing the server, Clinton has not won the trust of Republicans. CNN reported that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus released a statement saying her decision to release the server does not clear her.

"If Hillary Clinton believed in honesty and transparency, she would have turned over her secret server months ago to an independent arbiter, not as a last resort and to the Obama Justice Department," he said. "Of course, if she really cares about transparency, she would never have had a secret server in the first place."