By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON

The State Department said Friday it will not release 22 e-mails, constituting 37 pages that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton kept on a private server, because they include “top secret” information.

While not marked classified at the time they were sent, their classifications were upgraded following an intelligence community request, spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

“These e-mails will be denied in full, meaning that they will not be produced online on our FOIA website,” he said of the seven e-mail chains that are part of a larger cache set to be released at 7 p.m. local time (0000GMT).

The State Department is separately withholding 18 e-mails comprised of eight e-mail chains between Clinton and President Barack Obama, Kirby said.

Those e-mails have not been determined to contain classified information, he said.

The revelation comes at a particularly critical moment for Clinton who on Monday will compete in the first state contest to elect the country’s next president.

While the ultimate effect this will have on her campaign remains to be seen, it is nonetheless a blow for the former top diplomat who has maintained that housing her e-mails on a private server did not constitute a threat to national security.

“This is overclassification run amok,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said on Twitter. “We adamantly oppose the complete blocking of the release of these e-mails.”

The e-mail issue has dogged Clinton throughout the race with particular heat coming from her prospective Republican challengers.

Currently, she is running a tight race against Sen. Bernie Sanders in critical early states, including Monday’s race in Iowa, and in the following contest in New Hampshire.