July 6, 2016 5:00 am<\/time><\/p>\nAn extensive FBI investigation found evidence that foreign government hackers accessed private emails sent by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton but no direct evidence spies hacked into the several unsecure servers she used.<\/p>\n
FBI Director James Comey revealed Tuesday the 11-month probe into Clinton\u2019s private email servers uncovered negligent handling of very sensitive classified information that was placed on several unsecure servers between 2009 and 2013, when Clinton served as secretary of state.<\/p>\n
In an unusual public announcement, Comey outlined findings that included discovery of highly classified information sent and received on Clinton\u2019s private email servers, and signs that \u201chostile actors\u201d gained access to email accounts of people who were sharing emails with Clinton.<\/p>\n
Comey said no clear evidence was found that Clinton and her aides intended to violate laws but \u201cthere is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the evidence of potential criminal wrongdoing regarding communicating top secret, secret, and confidential information in emails, Comey announced at FBI headquarters that he is not recommending Justice Department prosecution of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough there is evidence of potential violation of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,\u201d Comey said.<\/p>\n
The decision drew fire from Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee. \u201cFBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security,\u201d he stated on Twitter. \u201cNo charges. Wow!\u201d Trump added that the \u201csystem is rigged\u201d since Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director, \u201cgot in trouble for less. Very very unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon praised the FBI announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the secretary has long said, it was a mistake to use her personal email and she would not do it again. We are glad that this matter is now resolved,\u201d Fallon said.<\/p>\n
On the foreign counterintelligence aspects of the case, Comey said investigators found no \u201cdirect evidence\u201d foreign state hackers gained access to the private email system. Advanced state cyber attackers, however, would be unlikely to leave traces of such intrusions, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial email accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account,\u201d Comey said, without elaborating or identifying the people in question.<\/p>\n
During foreign travel, Clinton also used the personal email system extensively on \u201cthe territory of sophisticated adversaries,\u201d likely a reference to China and Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton\u2019s personal email account,\u201d Comey said.<\/p>\n
Former CIA director Michael Hayden, commenting on Comey\u2019s remarks, said Clinton\u2019s use of private email servers highlights the danger posed by the use of such servers, noting he believes it is very likely foreign states hacked into her server.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would lose respect for any serious intelligence agency on this planet if they had not accessed the emails on the server,\u201d said Hayden, also a former director of the NSA.<\/p>\n
According to Comey, seven email \u201cchains\u201d examined by the FBI contained classified information labeled \u201ctop secret, special access program,\u201d among the highest security classification levels.<\/p>\n
Special access programs are used in government to protect extremely sensitive information requiring extraordinary security measures. They can include such things as the identity of clandestine human agents or secret intelligence operations, military operations, or the characteristics of electronics used by foreign radar systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose chains involved Secretary Clinton both sending emails about those matters and receiving emails about those same matters,\u201d Comey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is evidence to support a conclusion that any reasonable person in Secretary Clinton\u2019s position or in the position of those with whom she was corresponding about the matters should have known that an unclassified system was no place for that conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
A small number of the emails contained markings indicating the presence of classified information, Comey said.<\/p>\n
That contradicts Clinton\u2019s repeated statements that she did not misuse any information marked as classified data. The campaign website also contains the statement that \u201cno information in Clinton\u2019s emails was marked classified at the time she sent or received them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Comey said even if the data was not marked as classified \u201cparticipants who know, or should know, that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michelle Van Cleave, former national counterintelligence executive, said she was surprised that the FBI announcement did not address whether federal Records Act violations occurred, or whether evidence was found of corruption involving improper actions by Clinton to support the Clinton Foundation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs the FBI\u2019s investigation into those matter still ongoing?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
On the foreign intelligence targeting of the Clinton emails, Van Cleave said there is no question the former secretary of state knew her email messages were and are targeted by spy services.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe working assumption of the intelligence community is that they have it all and damage assessments are still underway,\u201d Van Cleave said. \u201cShe simplified their job by neatly packaging all of her email out of the hands of government security personnel. If that isn\u2019t an open-and-shut case of \u2018gross negligence\u2019 under the espionage laws I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Cleave said she is concerned by the precedent of not prosecuting a former senior government official who mishandled classified information. \u201cIf government workers see their leaders play fast and loose with classified information with impunity, what is the incentive for them to behave differently,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The FBI announcement comes just over a week after former President Bill Clinton met with Attorney General Loretta Lynch in Phoenix, raising charges of political interference in the investigation. Lynch was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York by Clinton in 1999.<\/p>\n
President Obama also appeared to interfere with the investigation by announcing in October that \u201cI can tell you this is not a situation in which America\u2019s national security was endangered.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenneth E. deGraffenreid, former White House National Security Council staff intelligence director, said the FBI\u2019s decision not to recommend prosecution is a case of politicization. \u201cThe Bureau is indelibly stained by this blatantly political act,\u201d deGraffenreid said. \u201cWhat would have happened to any other government official?\u201d<\/p>\n
DeGraffenreid said Comey overstepped FBI authority by asserting that \u201cno reasonable prosecutor\u201d would bring a case against Clinton. \u201cHe is not a prosecutor,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is the attorney general\u2019s job. Not Comey\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Justice Department\u2019s National Security Division now must decide whether to follow the FBI recommendation or prosecute Clinton, who spent three and a half hours last weekend undergoing questioning by FBI agents.<\/p>\n
Analysts say the Justice Department has been politicized through liberal appointees and thus is unlikely to go against the FBI recommendation.<\/p>\n
The FBI announcement clears the way for Clinton to gain the Democratic nomination for president later this month at the party\u2019s convention in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Comey, in an unusually detailed statement regarding a criminal investigation, announced that his recommendation was not cleared in advance with the Justice Department and was more detailed than usual \u201cbecause I think the American people deserve those details in a case of intense public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The FBI investigation was launched in August of 2015 following a July 24, 2015, referral from the inspectors general of the State Department and Intelligence Community. The notice said classified information may exist on at least one server and a thumb drive.<\/p>\n
The FBI director also faulted what he said was a lax security culture at the State Department regarding the care and handling of classified information.<\/p>\n
Comey said the probe examined if classified information was improperly stored or transmitted on a personal system in violation of laws that make it a felony to mishandle classified information intentionally or in a grossly negligent way. A second law makes it a misdemeanor to remove classified information from secure systems.<\/p>\n
The FBI found Clinton used not one but several servers and numerous mobile devices to read personal emails.<\/p>\n
From the 30,000 emails Clinton gave to the State Department, the FBI found 110 emails that contained classified information at the time they were sent, including eight emails with top secret data, 36 with secret information, and eight with less-sensitive confidential data, Comey said.<\/p>\n
Some 2,000 additional emails were later re-classified to \u201cconfidential.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe FBI also discovered several thousand work-related emails that were not among the group of 30,000 emails returned by Secretary Clinton to State in 2014,\u201d Comey said, noting the emails were found from deleted emails and traces on servers and devices.<\/p>\n
Comey said no evidence was uncovered indicating Clinton deleted emails containing classified information an in effort to cover up a crime.<\/p>\n
But he added: \u201cNone of these emails should have been on any kind of unclassified system.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut their presence is especially concerning because all of the emails were housed on unclassified personal servers, not even supported by full-time security staff like those found at agencies and departments of the United States government or even with a commercial email service like Gmail,\u201d Comey said.<\/p>\n
Based on factors such as strength of evidence, criminal intent, and how similar situations of mishandling or removing classified data were handled in the past, \u201cwe cannot find a case that would support bringing criminal charges on these facts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Comey said the announcement would trigger public debate but insisted the probe was done \u201chonestly, confidently, and independently.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCriminal intent aside, anyone experienced in these matters knows that the real sin here was the original sin,\u201d said Hayden, the former CIA director who noted that that the initial creation of the private server without security procedures was a major vulnerability.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It meant] bad things with regard to preserving federal records and really bad things with regard to security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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