Judicial Watch Releases State Department Inspector General Investigation Records Related to Hillary Clinton Emails

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today announced it obtained U.S. State Department records referenced in the May 2016 State Department’s Office of the Inspector General report criticizing former Secretary of State Clinton’s email practices.  The OIG report references the records, which include new Clinton emails, but the records were not released to the public until now.  The records were obtained under a June14, 2016, court order issued by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in accordance with an unopposed motion by Judicial Watch to obtain the records.

Judicial Watch requested:

A. March 17, 2009 memorandum prepared by S/ES-IRM staff regarding communications equipment in the Secretary’s New York residence identified a server located in the basement

B. In November 2010, Secretary Clinton and her Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations discussed the fact that Secretary Clinton’s emails to Department employees were not being received. The Deputy Chief of Staff emailed the Secretary that “we should talk about putting you on state email or releasing your email address to the department so you are not going to spam.” In response, the Secretary wrote, “Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.”

C. In another email exchange, the Director of S/ES-IRM noted that an email account and address had already been set up for the Secretary and also stated that “you should be aware that any email would go through the Department’s infrastructure and subject to FOIA searches.”

D. OIG reviewed emails showing communications between Department staff and both individuals concerning operational issues affecting the Secretary’s email and server from 2010 through at least October 2012.

E. On January 9, 2011, the non-Departmental advisor to President Clinton who provided technical support to the Clinton email system notified the Secretary’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations that he had to shut down the server because he believed “someone was trying to hack us and while they did not get in i didnt [sic] want to let them have the chance to.” Later that day, the advisor again wrote to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, “We were attacked again so I shut [the server] down for a few min.” On January 10, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations emailed the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff for Planning and instructed them not to email the Secretary “anything sensitive” and stated that she could “explain more in person.”

“The new Hillary Clinton email records show she had zero interest in disclosing her emails to the public as the law requires,” stated Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.  “And the emails show the Obama State Department gave special accommodations to Clinton’s email system, which the agency knew was unsecure, was likely hacked, and was not transparent under FOIA.”

The documents were produced in connection with a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit that seeks records about the controversial employment status of Huma Abedin, deputy chief of staff to former Secretary Hillary Clinton (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of State (No. 1:13-cv-01363)).

The full case history of the Abedin employment lawsuit is accessible on the Judicial Watch website.

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