On Friday afternoon, the FBI released a lengthy batch of documents detailing their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State.
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The specialist deleted an unknown number of emails, according to the report. After Sullivan said he was having issues getting her the document through secure fax, Clinton suggested he turn it “into nonpaper w/no identifying heading and send nonsecure”. Clinton stated that when her BlackBerry device malfunctioned, her aides would assist her in obtaining a new BlackBerry, and, after moving to a new device, her old SIM cards were disposed of by her aides. The report also revealed that another IT aide had used a software tool called “BleachBit” to conduct a mass deletion of emails on Clinton’s server.
In addition, a personal laptop used to archive Clinton’s e-mails when she was secretary of state went missing after being put in the mail. Though the item was sent in Clinton’s name, she told investigators she did not specifically remember asking for it, adding all State Department memos were sent out in her name and frequently they did not require her authorization before being distributed. Eleven pages were notes taken by FBI agents during their three-and-a-half hour interview of Clinton on July 2, 2016 at FBI Headquarters as they neared the end of their investigation into whether classified material was improperly handled or stored on her server. 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. She said that in December of 2012, she suffered a concussion, and around New Years had a blood clot. But she said she had no intention of removing classification markings, and she said she couldn’t recall actually receiving a “nonpaper” fax in that instance.
Moreover, when asked by Trey Gowdy, a Republican member of the committee, whether Clinton’s statement that no classified material was transmitted through her private email account to others was true, Comey replied in the negative.
“Donald Trump, as he expressed in one of his interviews recently, would find it very, very hard to throw out a family that’s been here for, you know, 15 years and they have three children, two of whom are citizens”, Giuliani said.
Sometime between March 25 and 31 – weeks after the server was disclosed – the person realized that he did not make the email retention policy changes that had been requested months earlier. But investigators said their forensic analysis was limited by the FBI’s inability to recover all server equipment and by the lack of complete server log data.
The FBI’s review also found no direct evidence that Clinton’s server was hacked but said her system would be a high-value target for foreign intelligence agencies and a sophisticated attacker would have been unlikely to leave behind evidence of a breach.
The FBI said it did not know if it was a real hacking attempt, with the majority of the next two lines redacted. But she told agents there were never so many suspicious emails to cause concerns. Hanley recalled purchasing most of the BlackBerry devices for Clinton from AT&T stores located in the Washington, D.C., area.
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Some of the Federal Bureau of Investigation questioning concerned a 2011 exchange in which Clinton directed one of her advisers, Jake Sullivan, to transmit a set of talking points and turn it “into nonpaper w/no identifying heading and send nonsecure”. One staffer said he had destroyed two of them, one by hitting it with a hammer.
