The next five lines of the email were redacted after the FBI asked that it be upgraded from "unclassified" to "secret," according to State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. The officials said the 23 words in the message were redacted to protect information that could harm national security and damage foreign relations. Roebuck's email was sent to a number of senior officials, including the former assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, Elizabeth Jones, who then sent it to Sullivan with the comment: This is preliminary, but very interesting.