FBI Report On Clinton E-Mail ‘Mishandling’ Reveals 13 Mobile Devices Lost, Cannot Be Found
The Federal Bureau of Investigation report on Hillary Clinton reveals the former Secretary of State under President Barack Obama not only lost 13 mobile devices, which meant these could not be checked forensically, but the former appointee in the Obama Administration was also making important communication decisions based on her own comfort and convenience and not the priority of safeguarding of communications for the Department of State.
Under a heading of “Clinton e-mail investigation mishandling of classified – unknown subject or country (SIM),” the FBI Vault report on Clinton begins by stating when they began looking into possible criminal conduct. The information presented indicates that the FBI began their criminal investigation on July 10, 2015 “… based upon a referral received from the US Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG)….”
That USIG referral came on July 6, 2015, and focused upon “… the potential unauthorized transmission and storage of classified information on the personal e-mail server of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Clinton).”
“Cooper indicated Clinton usually carried a flip phone along with her BlackBerry because it was more comfortable for communication and Clinton was able to use her BlackBerry while talking on the flip phone.”
The FBI report on Clinton also mentions that her trusted aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, “were unaware” of their boss’s choices and use of any other mobile devices “other than the BlackBerry” she preferred to use.
“Abedin and Mills advised they were unaware of Clinton ever using a cellular phone other than the BlackBerry.”
The heat seems to have been turned up on locating Hillary Clinton’s missing 13 mobile devices earlier this year on February 9, according to the official FBI report on Clinton, because the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice officially requested “all 13 mobile devices” in a communication they sent to the firm of Williams & Connolly.
However, the Williams & Connolly response back to the DOJ was “… that they were unable to locate any of these devices. As a result, the FBI was unable to acquire or forensically examine any of these 13 mobile devices,” per the FBI report on the e-mail and mobile device problems that they encountered in trying to properly investigate the matter of national security.
It might be argued by some in the media and among other federal-level State Department government workers that the Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013 should have known. Her Deputy Chief of Staff Huma Abedin sure thought so, it appears, in what she told the FBI for the report on Clinton.
“Clinton stated she used a personal e-mail address and personal BlackBerry for both personal and official business and this decision was made out of convenience. Abedin recalled that at the start of Clinton’s tenure, State advised personal e-mail accounts could not be linked to State mobile devices and, as a result, Hillary Clinton decided to use a personal device in order to avoid carrying multiple devices.”
Some may also find it upsetting that the State Department had offered Hillary Clinton an official State Department e-mail address at the beginning of her appointed time as Obama’s Secretary of State appointment, but they cite that her “staff” declined the offer, and the FBI information on Clinton reveals further there was a decision made to “use the personal server from her 2008 presidential campaign” when she ran against Barack Obama.
Per a previous Inquisitr story on the problem with Clinton, Trump’s campaign believes that Hillary Clinton has “bad judgment.” Trump’s spokesperson, Jason Miller, emailed a statement to reporters on just that point.
“Hillary Clinton is applying for a job that begins each day with a Top Secret intelligence briefing, and the notes from her FBI interview reinforce her tremendously bad judgment and dishonesty.”
Sadly, the FBI report on Clinton also mentions the fact that “State issued regular notices to staff during Clinton’s tenure highlighting cybersecurity threats and advising that mobile devices must be configured to State security guidelines.”
Yet Clinton aides Abedin, Mills, Sullivan, and Hanley told the FBI they were also using their personal e-mail accounts “… for official State business.”
Which maybe makes the FBI report on Clinton and her aides seem even more important, given one other important statement in the FBI report on the e-mail and server issues.
“The FBI did find that hostile foreign actors successfully gained access to the personal e-mail accounts of individuals with whom Clinton was in regular contact and, in doing so, obtained e-mails sent to or received by Clinton on her personal account.”
[Photo by AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster]
