The FBI is investigating the security that was used by Hillary Clinton’s private email server during her time as secretary of state.
In the past week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation contacted the Denver-based company that helped manage Clinton’s private, unsecured home server, the Washington Post reported late Tuesday. And last week, the bureau reportedly questioned Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, over the contents of a thumb drive said to contain copies of Clinton’s work emails.
The inquiries by the FBI follow concerns from government officials that potentially hundreds of emails that passed through Clinton’s private server contained classified or sensitive information. At this point, the probe is preliminary and is focused on ensuring the proper handling of classified material.
The FBI has stopped short of accusing Clinton of any wrongdoing, the Post reported, adding that two government officials had said the bureau was not specifically targeting her.
“The government is seeking assurance about the storage of those materials,” Kendall told reporters, confirming the FBI’s contact. “We are actively cooperating.”
The Denver company, Platte River Networks, did not respond to request for comment.
The inquiries follow a report that the inspector general of the intelligence agencies found four emails in a sample of 40 that contained classified information. Although the emails were not marked classified, the inspector general said they should have been because they contained classified material at the time they were sent.
Clinton previously told reporters that she “fully complied” with the government’s rules regarding her email, adding: “I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material.”
Around 2,200 of Clinton’s emails were released to the public last Friday, bringing the volume to roughly 12 percent of the 55,000 pages turned over to the U.S. State Department by the former secretary earlier this year. The government made at least 64 redactions in the latest batch in the interest of national security.
The controversy over Clinton’s emails has been a thorn in the side of her 2016 presidential campaign. Her opponents have seized on the scandal to paint her as dishonest and irresponsible candidate and unfit for the presidency.
In a radio interview on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested that Clinton may have committed a “criminal act” by using a private email address. “What she did, I think, was illegal,” he said.
Last month, the Clinton campaign moved aggressively against the New York Times after the paper mistakenly reported that the inspectors general at the State Department and intelligence agencies had issued a criminal referral to the DOJ regarding Clinton’s handling of classified information. The Times subsequently issued two corrections clarifying that the investigation did not reference any criminal allegations.
H/T Washington Post | Photo via Marc Nozell/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
