Again, your reliance on the self-appointed fact checkers from the very papers that got most of these stories is screwing you over...
Sure, some emails about Benghazi were turned over TO THE STATE Dept previously to the PUBLIC disclosure that Clinton had bypassed all State Dept security and protocols to conduct the bulk of her work on a home-brewed server that was not approved for that work use...
But CONGRESS hadn't received a SINGLE Clinton email until this story of her server went public...
But everything CHANGED and reset after that news went public and within HOURS the House sent SEVERAL preservation orders to Clinton and her lawyers. It was this SECOND request for preservation that was severely violated.
Mills et al was under the impression that her order to DESTROY the server had been carried out. And so was Platte River networks surprised that they had NOT destroyed it back in 2014..
From FBI fragments, a question: Did Team Clinton destroy evidence under subpoena?
In December 2014 — after the emails were sent to the State Department — Mills ordered people whose identity was not revealed by the FBI to delete Clinton email archives from their computers. Also in December 2014, according to what Mills told the FBI, "Clinton decided she no longer needed access to any of her e-mails older than 60 days." Mills then ordered an unidentified tech staffer to "modify the e-mail retention policy on Clinton's clintonemail.com e-mail account to reflect this change."
So that was it: the Clinton team produced what it said were all her work-related emails to the State Department and then ordered its tech people to destroy everything, and then put a new policy in place in which no emails would be saved for more than 60 days.
Then everything changed.
On March 2, 2015, the New York Times reported the existence of the secret Clinton email system. The next day, Gowdy's Benghazi Committee sent a letter to Kendall's law firm "requesting the preservation and production of all documents and media" relating to Clinton's emails. The day after that, March 4, the full Benghazi Committee issued a subpoena ordering Clinton to "produce all records in unredacted form" on the following:
For the time period of January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2012, any and all documents and communications in your possession, and/or sent from or received by the email addresses [email protected]"> [email protected], [email protected],"> [email protected], or any other email address or communications device used by you or another on your behalf, referring or relating to:
(a) Libya (including but not limited to Benghazi and Tripoli);
(b) weapons located or found in, imported or brought into, and/or exported or removed from Libya;
(c) the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 and September 12, 2012, or;
(d) statements pertaining to the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 or September 12, 2012.
Remember that at that time the Benghazi Committee had not received a single Clinton email related to Benghazi.
Shortly after the New York Times report, according to the FBI, Mills asked Platte River Networks, the company that was handling the Clinton server, to do an inventory of what was on the servers. (Mills had, of course, ordered the old emails destroyed and a new retention policy put in place back in December 2014.) On March 25, 2014, the Platte River Networks people took part in a conference call with Bill Clinton's staff. At that point, an intense round of deleting began.
Sometime between March 25 and March 31, according to the FBI, a tech worker not identified in the report had what he called an "oh shit" moment. He realized that he had not done what Mills had ordered back in December 2014. In his first interview with the FBI, on Feb. 18, 2016, the unidentified staffer "indicated that he did not recall conducting deletions based upon this realization." But then, in a follow-up interview on May 3, 2016, the staffer "indicated he believed he had an 'oh shit' moment and sometime between March 25-31, 2015 deleted the Clinton archive mailbox." The staffer used the now-notorious BleachBit to do the work, and manually deleted a backup as well.
But the story is a little more complicated than that. The FBI found that on March 9, 2015, Mills sent the Platte River Networks staff, including the unidentified worker, an email, in the words of the FBI, "referencing the preservation request from the Committee on Benghazi." In his first interview with the FBI, the staffer told agents that "he did not recall seeing the preservation request referenced in the March 9, 2015 e-mail." But then, in the May 3 follow-up interview, the staffer "indicated that, at the time he made the deletions in March 2015, he was aware of the existence of the preservation request and the fact that it meant he should not disturb Clinton's e-mail date on the [Platte River Networks] server." The staffer also told the FBI he did not consult any colleagues, company legal counsel or anyone else "regarding the meaning of the preservation request."
According to the FBI, the Platte River Networks staff had a conference call with Kendall and Mills on March 31. By then, the deleting was done. What did they talk about? The FBI report says Platte River's attorney advised the staffer "not to comment on the conversation with Kendall based upon the assertion of attorney-client privilege."
Mills told the FBI she knew nothing about the deletions the staffer made in March 2015. Clinton also said she knew nothing.
So what does the story mean? Does it mean an incompetent, or rogue, staffer deleted the emails on his own even though they were under subpoena — and then initially lied about it to the FBI? Or was there something else at work?
And NO the guy who TOASTED her server did NOT work for the State Dept.. It's possible that Platte River had federal contracts.. THIS whole affair was DEFINITELY not one of those....
You're fact-checkers are eating your brain and your pride....
