Clinton to hand over private email server to Justice Dept

US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (2nd R) poses for a photograph with an audience member at a campaign town hall meeting in Claremont, New Hampshire August 11, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has instructed her attorney to give the US Justice Department her private email server and a thumb drive of work-related emails from her tenure as secretary of state, CNN reported on Tuesday, quoting a campaign spokeswoman.

Clinton's use of her private email for her work as America's top diplomat came to light in March and drew fire from political opponents who accused her of sidestepping transparency and record-keeping laws. The private account was linked to a server in her New York home.

Spokesmen for Clinton did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman said she did not have any information at this time to share with reporters.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently began looking into the security of the federal records and classified information contained among Clinton's emails. The US government considers federal records to be government property.

The Justice Department has said the FBI began investigating after the inspector general who oversees the US intelligence agencies, I. Charles McCullough III, formally notified them of his concern that there was classified information not in the government's control.

While secretary of state under President Barack Obama, Clinton eschewed an official state.gov email address in favor of a private clintonemail.com email account connected to a computer server in her New York home. At least one senior aide, Huma Abedin, also used the server for some work email. Clinton said the unusual arrangement broke no rules that were in force at the time.

Last December, she provided what she said were copies of all the work emails she had in her possession, nearly two years after she stepped down as secretary of state.

Clinton handed over about 30,000 emails she sent and received, although her staff have since acknowledged without explanation that some work emails are missing. She did not hand over another 30,000 emails from this period that she deemed personal and said she chose "not to keep."

The State Department has been steadily releasing the emails to the public in keeping with Clinton's request after redacting parts of them to remove sensitive or classified information.