Clinton has claimed it was public knowledge to many State Department employees that she was using a private server because they received emails from her email domain. During her interview, Clinton was shown some of those emails, but typically did not recall the details.
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Comey in July took the unprecedented step of announcing in a press conference the FBI’s conclusion that there was not enough evidence to merit a criminal prosecution, before handing over his findings to the Justice Department.
The 58-page document reveals that throughout the presidential candidate’s interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, she said “I do not recall” 39 times – usually in response to questions concerning the briefing process or the content of specific emails. Clinton stated she did not recall this specific notice. But Clinton appeared nearly blasé in explaining her use of her private system to gather information on drone strikes.
Clinton has been dogged by questions about her use of the private email server, and her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, has used the issue to argue that she is untrustworthy.
The transcript states: “Powell further advised Clinton: ‘Be very careful”.
The FBI documents show that an unnamed computer specialist deleted the archive of Clinton’s emails weeks after the existence of the private server became public in March 2015.
Clinton said she later directed her aides to create a private email account and said it was “a matter of convenience” to use the home server shared with her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation report says Clinton contacted her predecessor, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, in January 2009 to inquire about his use of a BlackBerry.
He warned her that if she used a BlackBerry to “do business”, her emails could become official public records. Clinton had said none was classified at the time they were sent. The materials were presumably provided to FBI Director James B. Comey, who made a decision to not recommend charges in the case.
In addition to the thousands of Clinton e-mails the State Department has found to hold classified data, the FBI ID’d 81 classifed e-mail chains – eight of them “top secret”. The State Department’s Inspector General later said this was not an appropriate way to preserve government records and that Clinton should have printed and filed work emails from her private server.
Agents noted that Clinton could not recall being trained to handle classified materials as secretary of state, and had no memory of anyone raising concerns about the sensitive information she received at her private address.
The release detailed the FBI’s 3.5-hour interview with Clinton on July 2 and the FBI’s memo to the Justice Department recommending that no one be prosecuted.
Abedin said under oath in the Judicial Watch civil case that Hillary Clinton used a private server to prevent personal emails from being accessible to Congress and other officials, acknowledging that she knew about the rogue off-the-books server system.
“When asked of her knowledge regarding Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential classification levels of USA government information, CLINTON responded that she did not pay attention to the “level” of classified information and took all classified information seriously”.
The FBI documents – released under pressure of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits – assure that Clinton will be grappling with the issue of her e-mails as the presidential campaign enters the final stretch into the November 8 election.
The employees’ email account was hosted on the same private server which was used by Hilary Clinton when she was serving as the USA secretary of state.
With the facts uncovered in the Clinton email probe, such revelations are being leveraged by her opponents, just as the November 8 presidential polls draw near.
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Clinton told investigators that she understood Powell’s comments to mean any work-related communications would be government records.
