According to one of several FBI interview notes released Monday, the bureau was alerted to the likelihood that Hillary Clinton’s private server had been hacked more than a month before Director James Comey announced his decision not to pursue charges against the former secretary of state.
The document, called a Form 302 or colloquially as just “302,” includes the statement of a defense contractor who was working in conjunction with Judicial Watch and other parties who were concerned that Clinton’s server had been hacked and the information stored on it compromised by foreign governments hostile to the U.S. and its interests abroad. The interview took place June 6 at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The project involved searching open-source data for four phases of investigation:
- Was Hillary Clinton’s server directly or indirectly attacked?
- Was Sidney Blumenthal’s server directly or indirectly attacked?
- Was data exfiltrated outside of the U.S.?
- Was data exposed to a foreign actor?
Blumenthal’s data was found on a server in Romania. There were approximately 200 files found on the Romanian server, but no emails. What the contractor found next, however, was even more disturbing:
During [redacted]’s review of the data obtained by [redacted], he found one sensitive Excel file listing the names of known or suspected jihadists in Libya. [Redacted] added that a portion of the file was in Russian. The file did not come from Blumenthal’s server, but contained a reference to an IP address range that included the IP address of Clinton’s server. Upon reviewing this file, [redacted] became concerned he found a classified document and stopped the project. This work completed Phase 1 and [redacted] planned to deliver the final report to Judicial Watch soon.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton made the following statement regarding the project and the FBI’s report:
“Judicial Watch sought to uncover any evidence from open sources on the internet as to whether Hillary Clinton’s government emails had been hacked and were publicly available. Having uncovered evidence from open source data of possible hacking and the existence of a document that might be classified, Judicial Watch’s expert on the matter immediately contacted the FBI and turned his initial findings over to the agency.
“Our investigation is ongoing. We are disconcerted by what we have found thus far from publicly accessible sources about the possible hacking of Hillary Clinton’s illicit server. It is unfortunate that Judicial Watch—not Congress or federal law enforcement—undertook this basic investigative step.”
See an error in this article?
To contact us or to submit an article
