A Department of Justice official reportedly contradicted a New York Times article on Hillary Clinton's email use, clarifying that the DOJ investigation into State Department email practices is not criminal, as was initially reported.

On July 23, the New York Times initially cited anonymous “senior government officials” to claim former Secretary of State Clinton was the target of a DOJ “criminal investigation” for her use of a private email account while at State.

The Times then made a major change to that report, walking it back to instead claim there was merely a referral from two inspector generals for a potential “criminal investigation into whether sensitive government information was mishandled in connection with the personal email account.” At the time, the paper said they would not issue a correction, claiming there had been no “factual error.”

Now, however, Times' John Harwood reports a second major problem: the investigation is not actually “criminal.” Harwood tweeted that a “Justice Dept official” was “contradicting earlier reports” to confirm that the "'referral' related to Hillary Clinton's email is NOT for a criminal investigation":

Justice Dept official says “referral” related to Hillary Clinton's email is NOT for a criminal investigation - contradicting earlier reports

-- John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 24, 2015

NYT did not/would not lie. DOJ official had characterized as criminal referral - now correcting record @PCalith @nytimes @MichaelSSchmidt

-- John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 24, 2015

Washington Post reporter Sari Horwitz similarly tweeted that the DOJ is “now correcting their earlier statement & saying the referral regarding Clinton emails was not a criminal inquiry.”

It is currently unclear whether the multiple “senior government officials” the Times initially cited in their report are the same sources now reversing their statements, or if there are several officials leaking differing information.