Clinton Emails: 305 Messages Need Further Review, Court Documents Say

— -- Intelligence community officials involved in the review of Hillary Clinton’s emails have flagged 305 messages for further inspection, new court documents released Monday say. The emails were found in a sampling of 20 percent of the total 30,000 emails.

The documents were filed by State Department lawyers in Washington DC federal court as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. They were intended to provide an explanation as to why the State Department did not meet the requirement to release 15 percent of her 30,000 emails by July 31.

The State Department lawyers did not specify the nature of the emails nor did they say specifically that they may be secret in nature, only that the intelligence community reviewers have "recommended 305 documents — approximately 5.1% — for referral to their agencies for consultation," the document said.

“The IC reviewers “perform preliminary screening of emails to identify their agencies’ equities,” and,“[w]hen an IC reviewer identifies an agency equity in an email, that email is sent to the relevant agency for consultation," the document says.

Separate from the FOIA litigation, the FBI is intensifying its investigation into the into the handling of classified information on Clinton's private email server.

Clinton has maintained throughout that she never used her private email to handle classified information. Her spokesman, Nick Merrill, said in a statement to ABC News today that it shouldn't surprise anyone that emails were flagged.

"This is not surprising given the sheer volume of intelligence community lawyers now involved in the review of these emails," Merrill said in a statement to ABC News. "We expect there will continue to be competing assessments among the various agencies about what should and shouldn't be redacted.

"It remains our hope that this process not get hampered by bureaucratic considerations and that her emails be released as quickly and transparently [as] possible."

So far the intelligence community has concluded at least two emails contained Top-Secret information, some of it from so-called "signals intelligence" -- among the most sensitive intelligence there is. Investigators are now trying to determine if the Chinese or Russians were able to access Clinton's private email server.

In another development, Platte River Networks, the Colorado company that set up Clinton's server, told ABC it's highly likely a full backup of the server was made, meaning those thousands of emails could still exist in private hands, which the intelligence community is attempting to prevent. The company says it's cooperating fully with the FBI, which collected the server from them several days ago.

On Friday a spokesman for Platte River Networks said they are trying to determine if a copy exists, but that when they handed the server over to the FBI the company had already wiped it clean.

Platte River Networks was hired by the Clintons five months after Secretary Clinton left her job heading the Department of State to “upgrade, secure and manage their email server for both the Clinton’s and their staff,” spokesman Andy Boian told ABC News in a phone interview.

“We implemented industry best practice,” Boian said. “Our job was to upgrade, secure and manage it. That’s what we did.”