Hillary Clinton's Destruction Of Devices: Lawful Or Not?

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official communications during her tenure as Secretary of State sparked controversy and led to an FBI investigation. While Clinton herself did not smash her phones with a hammer, her aide, Justin Cooper, admitted to destroying Clinton's old mobile devices by breaking them or hitting them with a hammer on two occasions. This was done to prevent data from falling into the wrong hands, according to Cooper, who also stated that he always transferred and backed up data before destroying the devices.

The FBI investigation concluded that Clinton's server did not contain any clearly marked classified information. However, federal agencies retroactively determined that some emails should have been deemed classified. The controversy surrounding Clinton's email practices and the subsequent investigation became a major point of discussion during the 2016 presidential election, in which she was the Democratic nominee.

Did Hillary Clinton's aides destroy devices with hammers?

Hillary Clinton, the former Democratic Secretary of State and 2016 presidential nominee, was investigated by the FBI in the run-up to the 2016 election for using a personal email server for official communications, including classified information.

During the investigation, it was discovered that Clinton's aides destroyed her old mobile devices with hammers. In a 47-page document released by the FBI in September 2016, it was stated that:

> "Justin Cooper, a senior aide to Clinton, did recall two instances where he destroyed Clinton's old mobile phone devices by breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer."

In total, the FBI found 13 devices associated with Clinton's phone numbers and personal email addresses, eight of which were used while she was Secretary of State during Barack Obama's first term. However, Clinton's lawyers told investigators that they were "unable to locate any of these devices", preventing the FBI from examining them.

Another aide, Huma Abedin, also told FBI agents that the whereabouts of Clinton's unwanted devices would "frequently become unknown".

Clinton herself was not found by the FBI to have used a hammer to destroy electronic devices, and the investigation concluded that while Clinton and her aides had been "extremely careless" in their handling of classified information, there was no evidence of intentional misconduct.

The use of a private email server by Clinton for government business has been the subject of much scrutiny and debate, with some arguing that she broke the law by mishandling classified information. However, others have defended her actions, claiming that she was unaware of the classification of the emails at the time and that the use of a private server was permitted by State Department IT procedures.

Was the destruction of devices intentional?

In 2016, the FBI investigated Hillary Clinton for using a personal email server for official communications, including some that contained classified information. The investigation found that Clinton had been ""extremely careless" in her handling of classified information but did not find evidence of intentional misconduct.

During the investigation, it was discovered that Clinton's senior aide, Justin Cooper, recalled two instances where he destroyed Clinton's old mobile phone devices by "breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer." Cooper claimed that he did this to avoid "putting them in the trash," where someone could find them, and stressed that he always transferred and backed up all data from the old device to the new one.

While Clinton herself was not found by the FBI to have used a hammer to destroy electronic devices, her aides did so on at most two occasions, according to documents. The FBI concluded that there was no evidence of intent to destroy evidence, including with a hammer.

Did Hillary Clinton use a private email server?

Hillary Clinton did use a private email server while serving as the United States Secretary of State. Shortly before she was sworn into office in 2009, she set up an email server at her home in Chappaqua, New York, and relied on it for all her electronic correspondence during her four years in office. She did not use or activate a state.gov email account, which would have been hosted on servers owned and managed by the US government.

Clinton's email address was hdr22@clintonemail.com, and she also reportedly set up email addresses on the server for her long-time aide, Huma Abedin, and State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills. She claimed that the primary reason she set up her own email was for ""convenience", as she preferred to carry only one smartphone with one email address. However, sceptics have countered that the real reason was because it gave her total control over her correspondence.

Clinton's email system became a national story in March 2015 when the New York Times ran a front-page article on the subject, stating that the system "may have violated federal requirements" and was "alarming" to current and former government archive officials. The FBI conducted an investigation and concluded that no "reasonable prosecutor" would bring a criminal case against Clinton, but that she and her aides were ""extremely careless" in their handling of classified information.

The FBI also found that Clinton used ""numerous personal devices" while in office and relied on several email servers. Clinton staffers told the FBI that they destroyed some of the replaced devices with a hammer, while they could not account for others. The State Department inspector general report, released in May 2016, found that Clinton's email system violated government policy and that she did not receive permission to institute it.

Clinton's use of a private email server was a major point of discussion and contention during the 2016 presidential election, in which she was the Democratic nominee.

Did Hillary Clinton's server contain classified information?

Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server for official communications while Secretary of State sparked a controversy and multiple investigations.

The FBI investigation found that Clinton's server did not contain any information or emails that were clearly marked as classified. However, federal agencies retrospectively determined that 100 emails contained information that should have been deemed classified at the time they were sent, including 65 deemed "Secret" and 22 deemed "Top Secret". A further 2,093 emails were retroactively designated as confidential by the State Department.

Clinton's primary defence was that she was unaware of the classification of the emails at the time they were sent or received. However, the FBI investigation found that 110 messages contained information that was classified at the time it was sent. Sixty-five of those emails were found to contain information classified as "Secret"; more than 20 contained "Top-Secret" information. Three emails, out of 30,000, were found to be marked as classified, although they lacked classified headers and were only marked with a small "c" in parentheses, described as “portion markings” by FBI Director James Comey.

Comey added that even if the information was not marked as classified, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it. He also stated that Clinton and her team were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information".

The State Department's investigation found no evidence of deliberate mishandling of classified information, but it did conclude that Clinton's use of a private server increased the risk of hacking.

Did Hillary Clinton break the law?

Hillary Clinton, the former United States Secretary of State, was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for using a private email server for official communications during her tenure. The FBI investigation found that Clinton's server contained some information that should have been deemed classified at the time, but ultimately concluded that Clinton had been extremely careless and recommended no charges be filed, as there was no evidence of criminal intent.

Clinton's use of a private email server led to concerns about the potential mishandling of classified information and sparked a broader discussion about government transparency and record-keeping practices. The controversy was a major point of contention during the 2016 presidential election, in which Clinton was the Democratic nominee.

While Clinton herself did not smash her phones with a hammer, as was claimed by her rival Donald Trump, her aide, Justin Cooper, admitted to destroying Clinton's old mobile devices by breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer on two occasions. Cooper stated that this was done to ensure data protection and not to destroy or conceal information.

In addition to the destruction of devices, there were also allegations that Clinton's lawyers had deleted 31,830 personal emails from her server in 2014, which were under subpoena by the Select Committee on Benghazi. However, a Clinton spokesman denied that the deletion was in response to the subpoena, and the FBI was able to recover some of the deleted emails.

The controversy surrounding Clinton's email server and the destruction of devices sparked intense political debates and investigations. While some argued that Clinton's actions violated federal laws and State Department protocols, others defended her conduct as permissible under existing laws and regulations. Ultimately, the FBI and the Department of Justice concluded that there was no basis for prosecution, and the investigation was closed.

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