Clinton email scandal - Page 3 of 4

Posted on November 11, 2015 November 10, 2015

FBI steps up interviews in Clinton email probe

hillary-clinton-what-difference-does-it-make

Questions focus on whether State officials improperly sent classified material.
By RACHAEL BADE
11/10/15 05:14 AM EST

Even as Hillary Clinton tries to put questions about her private email server behind her, the FBI has stepped up inquiries into the security of the former secretary of state’s home-made email system and how aides communicated over email, POLITICO has learned.

The FBI’s recent moves suggest that its inquiry could have evolved from the preliminary fact-finding stage that the agency launches when it receives a credible referral, according to former FBI and Justice Department officials interviewed by POLITICO.

“This sounds to me like it’s more than a preliminary inquiry; it sounds like a full-blown investigation,” said Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the FBI. “When you have this amount of resources going into it …. I think it’s at the investigative level.”

The FBI declined to respond to questions about the scope of its ongoing work.

But POLITICO learned that around early October, the FBI requested documents from a company involved in the server arrangement after Clinton left State. It also interviewed a former high-ranking policy official at State about the contents of top Clinton aides’ emails.

The official, who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, said the questions explored whether anyone at State was concerned about classified information being put at risk by communicating via email. The source did not know of any such concerns.

Posted on November 1, 2015 November 1, 2015

As Benghazi inquiry fades, Clinton still faces legal questions about emails

FBI examines handling of sensitive information during former secretary’s term

At least 671 emails she sent or received now contain classified information

State Department releases latest batch of Democratic presidential hopeful’s emails

BY ANITA KUMAR AND GREG GORDON

McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON

Hillary Clinton appears to have overcome an investigation of her role in the 2012 deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, but she still faces a months-long FBI inquiryinto the handling of sensitive information while she was secretary of state.

The FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, which opened its review this summer after classified information was found in emails transmitted over Clinton’s private email server, is under pressure to act quickly, as Clinton is in the midst of running for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016.

Posted on October 19, 2015 October 19, 2015

High stakes for Hillary, lawmakers in Benghazi panel showdown

By Scott Wong and Julian Hattem – 10/19/15 06:00 AM EDT

Hillary Clinton isn’t the only one with a lot riding on this week’s Capitol Hill hearing on the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attacks.

The 12-member Select Committee on Benghazi is loaded with ambitious lawmakers from both parties looking for a breakout moment on the national stage with the Democratic presidential front-runner.

More than half the Republicans serving on the panel have been mentioned as potential candidates to replace Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). And the committee’s chairman, GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy (S.C.), is widely viewed as having a bright political future back home in South Carolina.

Clinton’s Democratic allies on the panel include one declared Senate candidate, Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and another potential one, veteran Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland.

Here’s a look at seven members of the Benghazi panel who could shine in the spotlight during Thursday’s showdown

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/257218-high-stakes-in-benghazi-showdown

Posted on October 19, 2015 October 19, 2015

New battle over claim that Clinton mishandled CIA secrets

By Julian Hattem – 10/19/15 07:26 AM EDT

Congressional Democrats are accusing Republicans on the House Select Committee on Benghazi of falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton improperly handled some of the government’s most closely kept secrets, days before the former secretary of State appears before the panel.

An email revealed by committee Republicans earlier this month made it seem as if Clinton received and then forwarded the name of a CIA source as part of a 2011 memo from longtime associate Sidney Blumenthal.

The name of that source “is some of the most protected information in our intelligence community,” committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said at the time, “the release of which could jeopardize not only national security but also human lives.”

According to the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), however, the CIA told lawmakers this weekend that “they do not consider the information … classified.”

“Specifically, the CIA confirmed that ‘the State Department consulted with the CIA on this production, the CIA reviewed these documents, and the CIA made no redactions to protect classified information,’” Cummings said in a scathing letter to Gowdy.

A State Department official confirmed that Cummings’s letter “describes ‎the situation accurately.” A spokesman with the CIA declined to comment on the matter.

Gowdy insisted that the presence of the name in one of Clinton’s emails is nonetheless damaging, regardless of the CIA’s stance.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/257276-gop-hit-over-claims-that-clinton-mishandled-cia-secrets

Posted on October 8, 2015 October 7, 2015

Second IT firm agrees to give Clinton’s server data to FBI

Former secretary of state hired Datto Inc. to provide a private cloud backup of her emails

FBI asked the Connecticut company to turn over data. It agreed.

State Department also asking again whether she turned over all of her business emails

BY GREG GORDON AND ANITA KUMAR

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Hillary Clinton hired a Connecticut company to back up her emails on a “cloud” storage system, and her lawyers have agreed to turn whatever it contains over to the FBI, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

The disclosure came as a Republican Senate committee chairman, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, also asked the firm to turn over to the committee copies of any Clinton emails still in its possession.

There were conflicting accounts as to whether the development could lead to recovery of any of Clinton’s more than 31,000 personal emails, which she said she deleted from her private server upon turning over her work-related emails to the State Department, at its request, in December 2014.

Congressional Republicans have voiced skepticism as to whether the 30,940 business emails that the Democratic presidential candidate handed over represented all of those related to her position as secretary of state. The FBI is separately investigating whether Clinton’s arrangement put classified information at risk but has yet to characterize it as a criminal inquiry.

Datto Inc., based in Norwalk, Conn., became the second data storage firm to become entangled in the inquiry into Clinton’s unusual email arrangement, which has sparked a furor that has dogged her campaign. In August, Clinton and the firm that had managed her server since June 2013, Colorado-based Platte River Networks, agreed to surrender it for examination by the FBI.

Posted on October 8, 2015 October 7, 2015

FBI Seizes Four State Department Servers in Clinton Email Probe

Probe focusing on how classified information was sent to secretary of state

BY: Bill Gertz
October 7, 2015 5:00 am

The FBI has seized four State Department computer servers as part of its probe into how classified information was compromised on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email system, according to people familiar with the investigation.

The four servers, which were located at the State Department’s headquarters building, were seized by the FBI several weeks ago. They are being checked by technical forensic analysts charged with determining how Top Secret material was sent to Clinton’s private email by State Department aides during her tenure as secretary from 2009 to 2013, said two people familiar with the probe. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because it is an ongoing investigation.

State Department spokesman John Kirby referred questions about the computer servers to the FBI. An FBI spokeswoman, Carol Cratty, declined to comment.

No other details about the servers, including whether they are part of the department’s classified system, or used for unclassified information networks, could be learned.

A spokesman for the Clinton campaign did not respond to an email request for comment.

Clinton has offered varying explanations for her use of a private email server, initially claiming she had done nothing wrong. Then, under pressure from critics, she said she was sorry people were confused by the practice, later admitting in early September that her use of a private email system had been a mistake.

https://freebeacon.com/politics/fbi-seizes-four-state-department-servers-in-clinton-email-probe/

Posted on September 23, 2015 September 23, 2015

FBI Said to Recover Personal E-Mails From Hillary Clinton Server

by Del Quentin Wilber

The FBI has recovered personal and work-related e-mails from the private computer server used by Hillary Clinton during her time as secretary of state, according to a person familiar with the investigation.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s success at salvaging personal e-mails that Clinton said had been deleted raises the possibility that the Democratic presidential candidate’s correspondence eventually could become public. The disclosure of such e-mails would likely fan the controversy over Clinton’s use of a private e-mail system for official business.

The FBI is investigating how and why classified information ended up on Clinton’s server. The probe probably will take at least several more months, according to the person, who described the matter on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing and deals with sensitive information.

A review by Clinton and her aides determined that about half of the 60,000 e-mails she exchanged during her four-year tenure as secretary of state were of a personal nature, the presidential candidate has said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-09-22/fbi-said-to-recover-personal-e-mails-from-hillary-clinton-server

Posted on September 11, 2015 September 10, 2015

Big-Name Plan B’s for Democrats Concerned About Hillary Clinton

By PATRICK HEALYSEPT. 9, 2015

If Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new apology for her private email server fails to reassure jittery supporters, it could amplify the chatter among some Democrats who have been casting about for a potential white knight to rescue the party from a beleaguered Clinton candidacy.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Secretary of State John Kerry, SenatorElizabeth Warren, former Vice President Al Gore: Each has been discussed among party officials in recent weeks as an alternative to Mrs. Clinton if she does not regain her once-dominant standing in the 2016 presidential field and instead remains mired in the long-running email controversy, with its attendant investigations.

On Monday, Mr. Biden, who has spoken publicly of pondering a run, looked very much like a candidate at a Pittsburgh union gathering and Labor Day parade. And some Democrats were intrigued by word that Mr. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, had met recently in Nantucket, Mass., with David M. Rubenstein, a billionaire co-founder of the Carlyle Group — and the sort of Washington wise man Mr. Kerry might consult if he were mulling another run. (Friends say he isn’t.)

Who Is Running for President?

It is not just Mrs. Clinton’s weakness in the polls that has generated talk of other alternatives, but also the strength of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is routinely drawing huge crowds at campaign events. That has been disconcerting to Democratic officials who believe that Mr. Sanders, a socialist, is so liberal that his presence at the top of the party’s ticket in 2016 would be disastrous.

“If party leaders see a scenario next winter where Bernie Sanders has a real chance at the Democratic nomination, I think there’s no question that leaders will reach out to Vice President Biden or Secretary of State Kerry or even Gore about entering the primaries,” said Garnet F. Coleman, a Texas state lawmaker and Democratic national committeeman.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/us/politics/big-name-plan-bs-for-democrats-concerned-about-hillary-clinton.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Posted on September 3, 2015 September 2, 2015

Clinton emails contained spy satellite data on North Korean nukes

Revelation among biggest concerns inside intel community

By John Solomon – The Washington Times – Tuesday, September 1, 2015

One of the most serious potential breaches of national security identified so far by the intelligence community inside Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private emails involves the relaying of classified information concerning the movement of North Korean nuclear assets, which was obtained from spy satellites.

Multiple intelligence sources who spoke to The Washington Times, solely on the condition of anonymity, said concerns about the movement of the North Korean information through Mrs. Clinton’s unsecured server are twofold.

First, spy satellite information is frequently classified at the top-secret level and handled within a special compartment called Talent-Keyhole. This means it is one of the most sensitive forms of intelligence gathered by the U.S.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/1/hillary-clinton-emails-contained-spy-satellite-dat/

Posted on August 22, 2015 August 22, 2015

State Department did nothing to protect Clinton emails after hack

BY ANITA KUMAR, MARISA TAYLOR AND GREG GORDON

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Despite a hack two years ago that publicly exposed Hillary Clinton’s emails, the State Department took no action to shore up the security of the former secretary of state’s private computer server.

A State Department official said the department could not do anything in response to the March 2013 hack of longtime Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal because it occurred on a non-governmental computer system. The hacked emails, which included Blumenthal’s frequent correspondence with Clinton while she was in office in 2012, were sent by the Romanian hacker to media organizations, which later posted them online.

The disclosure renews questions of when State Department officials first learned that Clinton was doing department business on a private server and what steps they took to safeguard her sensitive diplomatic communications, some of which have been deemed classified.

Posted on August 22, 2015 June 27, 2021

Dozens of Clinton emails were classified from the start, U.S. rules suggest

NEW YORK | BY JONATHAN ALLEN

For months, the U.S. State Department has stood behind its former boss Hillary Clinton as she has repeatedly said she did not send or receive classified information on her unsecured, private email account, a practice the government forbids.

While the department is now stamping a few dozen of the publicly released emails as “Classified,” it stresses this is not evidence of rule-breaking. Those stamps are new, it says, and do not mean the information was classified when Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2016 presidential election, first sent or received it.

But the details included in those “Classified” stamps — which include a string of dates, letters and numbers describing the nature of the classification — appear to undermine this account, a Reuters examination of the emails and the relevant regulations has found.

https://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/21/us-usa-election-clinton-emails-idUSKCN0QQ0BW20150821

Posted on August 20, 2015 August 19, 2015

Ex-NSA director: Clinton email setup ‘stupid and dangerous’

By Jesse Byrnes – 08/19/15 12:01 PM EDT

Former National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Hayden said on Wednesday that Hillary Clinton should not have used a single account for all her emails as secretary of State.

“It’s stupid and dangerous,” Hayden, who led the CIA during George W. Bush’s presidency, said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Hayden said that “you put a really juicy target out there” by combining official and unofficial exchanges on the same email account, as Clinton did.

He said doing so puts the secretary and nation’s secrets at risk, and questioned its legality, noting that government accounts provide a certain level of security.

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/251451-ex-nsa-director-clinton-email-setup-stupid-and-dangerous

Posted on August 19, 2015 August 19, 2015

Clinton Pressured at Press Conference on Emails

Clinton pulls plug on testy presser over server questions
August 18, 2015, 06:22 pm
By Ben Kamisar

Hillary Clinton dismissed the controversy surrounding her private email server and defended her conduct as legal during a press conference Tuesday in Las Vegas.

A visibly aggravated Clinton repeatedly insisted that she had done nothing wrong and seemed frustrated by questions about the issue.

“What I did was legally permitted, number one, first and foremost,” the Democratic presidential candidate said in response to a question from Fox News reporter Ed Henry. “We turned over everything that was work-related, every single thing.”

She added that in “retrospect,” it had not turned out to be convenient to have the private server during her years as secretary of State.

“I regret that this has become a cause celebre. But that does not change the facts, and no matter what anybody tries to say, the facts are stubborn,” she said.

“I know there is a certain level of anxiety or interest in this, but the facts are the facts.”

Asked if the server, which has been turned over to the Department of Justice, had been wiped clean, Clinton initially shrugged and later joked: “Like with a cloth or something?”

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/251413-clinton-pulls-plug-on-testy-presser-over-server-questions

Posted on August 19, 2015 August 18, 2015

Hillary’s email firm was run from a loft apartment with its servers in the BATHROOM, raising new questions over security of sensitive messages she held

Democratic White House front-runner used Platte River Networks of Denver, Colorado, to maintain her controversial ‘home brew’ server
Up to 60 emails with classified material have been found in a sample of those she did not delete – meaning there could be many more
Now Daily Mail Online reveals new questions over security of her emails when Platte River was involved in maintaining server
‘Mom and pop’ firm used converted residential apartment and had its own servers in a bathroom closet
Links between ‘local’ IT company and Clinton remain unclear but its VP of sales and marketing, who was sued for ‘fraud’ is said to be ‘big Democrat’

By HUGO DANIEL IN DENVER, COLORADO, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 08:12 EST, 18 August 2015 | UPDATED: 12:03 EST, 18 August 2015

The IT company Hilary Clinton chose to maintain her private email account was run from a loft apartment and its servers were housed in the bathroom closet, Daily Mail Online can reveal.

Daily Mail Online tracked down ex-employees of Platte River Networks in Denver, Colorado, who revealed the outfit’s strong links to the Democratic Party but expressed shock that the 2016 presidential candidate chose the small private company for such a sensitive job.

One, Tera Dadiotis, called it ‘a mom and pop shop’ which was an excellent place to work, but hardly seemed likely to be used to secure state secrets. And Tom Welch, who helped found the company, confirmed the servers were in a bathroom closet.

It can also be disclosed that the small number of employees who were aware of the Clinton contract were told to keep it secret.

The way in which Clinton came to contract a company described as a ‘mom and pop’ operation remains unclear.

However Daily Mail Online has established a series of connections between the firm and the Democratic Party.

Posted on August 18, 2015 August 17, 2015

Bob Woodward: Clinton emails ‘reminds me of the Nixon tapes’

By EDDIE SCARRY • 8/17/15 7:50 AM

Veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on Monday compared the email controversy engulfing Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Woodward, who through his reporting helped break open the Watergate scandal, said it’s at least suspicious that Clinton’s emails from her tenure as secretary of state were wiped away from a server she owned privately.

“Follow the trail here,” Woodward said. “There are all these emails. Well, they were sent to someone or someone sent them to her. So, if things have been erased here, there’s a way to go back to these emails or who received them from Hillary Clinton. So, you’ve got a massive amount of data in a way, reminds me of the Nixon tapes: Thousands of hours of secretly recorded conversations that Nixon thought were exclusively his.”

News broke earlier this year that Clinton relied on a private email address and server, rather than a government-owned one, when she served at the State Department. Subsequent reports said that she received classified and top secret information through that system. Federal officials have since taken Clinton’s server and are continuing an investigation into whether its security was compromised.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/bob-woodward-clinton-emails-reminds-me-of-the-nixon-tapes/article/2570299

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