Trump Campaign's Efforts to Obtain Deleted Clinton Emails

Throughout election year, the Trump Campaign expressed interest in Hillary Clinton's private email server and whether - as reported by media - approximately 30,000 emails from that server had in fact been permanently destroyed. [Clinton had used her private/personal server while serving as Secretary of State.] Individuals associated with the Campaign were contacted about various efforts to obtain the missing Clinton emails and other stolen material,. The Office did not find evidence that the Trump Campaign recovered any such Clinton emails.

Campaign Efforts to Obtain Deleted Clinton Emails (Mueller Report)

7/x/16 press conference Trump: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded." After that: Trump asked his Campaign to find the deleted Clinton emails. Michael Flynn recalled that Trump made this request repeatedly.

Flynn subsequently contacted multiple people in an effort to obtain the emails. Among them were Barbara Ledeen and Peter Smith. Ledeen, a long-time Senate staffer who had previously sought the Clinton emails as early as 12/x/15 informed Flynn about her efforts. Smith, an investment advisor who was active in Republican politics, also attempted to locate and obtain the deleted Clinton emails.

Ledeen's proposal

12/3/15 Ledeen emailed Smith a proposal (attached to the email) to obtain the emails - "The person can get the emails which were classified and were purloined by our enemies" The proposal stated that the "Clinton email server was most probably breached long ago," and that the Chinese, Russian, and Iranian intelligence services could "re-assemble the server's email content." The proposal called for a three-phase approach. The proposal noted, "Even if a single email was recovered and the providence [sic] of that email was a foreign service, it would be catastrophic to the Clinton campaign[.]". On 12/16/16 Smith informed Ledeen that he declined to participate in her "initiative." However, Smith had tried to locate and obtain the emails himself.

Smith's efforts

After Trump made that July request, Smith created a company. He made claims to others involved in the effort (and those from whom he sought funding) that he was in contact with hackers with "ties and affiliations to Russia" who had access to the emails, and that his efforts were coordinated with the Trump Campaign.

On 8/28/16 Smith sent an email from an encrypted account with the subject "Sec. Clinton's unsecured private email server" to an undisclosed list of recipients (Sam Clovis was one of them). The email stated that it is clear that the Clinton's home-based, unprotected server was hacked with ease by both State-related players, and private mercenaries. The email also mentioned those Clinton emails might be released before the election day.

On 9/2/16: Smith established KLS Research LLC in furtherance of his search for the deleted Clinton emails.

On 9/x/16: Smith circulated a document stating that his initiative was "in coordination" with the Trump Campaign including Flynn, Clovis, Bannon, and Kellyanne Conway. Smith communicated with at least Flynn and Clovis about his search for the deleted Clinton emails.

Smith and Ledeen go back to in touch trying to share what they respectively had -

On 9/x/16 : Ledeen claimed to have obtained a trove of emails (from what she described as the "dark web") that purported to be the deleted Clinton emails. Erik Prince hired a tech advisor to authenticate the emails but were found not authentic.

Smith's computer had files from Podesta email's attachment downloaded from WikiLeaks that was a few days prior to the time (10/7/16) they were released by WikiLeaks. But forensic examination found that the creation date did not reflect when the files were downloaded to Smith' s computer. (It appears the creation date was when WikiLeaks staged the document for release).

Smith continued to email to an undisclosed recipient list about Clinton's deleted emails until shortly before the election. 10/28/16: Smith wrote that there was a "tug-of-war going on within WikiLeaks over its planned releases in the next few days," and that WikiLeaks "has maintained that it will save its best revelations for last, under the theory this allows little time for response prior to the Election. An attachment to the email claimed that WikiLeaks would release "All 33k deleted Emails" by "November 1st." [But No emails obtained from Clinton's server were subsequently released.]

Despite Smith's multiple self-claim, the Office did not identify evidence that Smith was in contact with Russian hackers. or that Smith, Ledeen, or Trump Campaign ultimately obtained the deleted Clinton emails; and that the Trump Campaign directed Smith's efforts/initiative.

Return to Loose Collusion Content List

Related Post: Trump Campaign And The Dissemination of Hacked Material (Mueller Report) 

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Clinton's Private Email Server And The FBI Investigation 
(This review and summary on Clinton Private Email Server and FBI investigation is external to Mueller Report)

Timeline (overall)

• 6/x/08: Clinton’s first private email server was set up in her house at Chappaqua, New York by an Apple representative. Justin Cooper is the only person with administrative access to the server. 
• 1/13/09: Justin Cooper registered three email domains for Hillary Clinton. One domain - clintonemail.com - will be used for all of Clinton’s emails for at least the next five years. Hillary Clinton's email is set up as hdr22@clintonemail.com
• 1/21/09 - 1/31/13 Clinton was Secretary of State in Obama Administration.
• 3/x/09: Clinton’s personal email server was replaced; she will use the new one for the rest of her term as secretary of state.
• 5/x/09 - 1/31/13: Pagliano was paid by the Clintons to manage their private server.
• 12/13/12: Congressional investigators ask Clinton if she uses a personal email.
• 3/3/15 Clinton’s use of a private email did not become public knowledge until the New York Times reported
• 3/10/15: Clinton defends her use of a private server, saying it was for “convenience”  at the United Nations's 'press encounter'
• 3/22/15: The first batch of emails, mostly Benghazi-related, are released.
• 3/31/15: 31,830 (~ 30,000) personal email on the private server was deleted by PRN technician
• 7/x/15: State Department IG ask DOJ for security review of Clinton emails
• 7/x/15 - 8/4/15: FBI opens and confirms Clinton email probe. One of the agents involved in the investigation is Peter Strzok
• 4/10/16: Obama defends Clinton in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" but "guarantees" that he will not interfere with the ongoing investigation into her private email server.
• 5/25/16: IG issues a report critical of Clinton’s use of private email
• 7/3/16: FBI interviewers question Clinton for three hours about her use of a private email server.
• 7/5/16: Comey announced that FBI will not recommend criminal charges
• 7/7/16: Comey testifies before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The same day, the State Department reopens its investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server. [The review had been suspended until the completion of the Justice Department investigation. The United States Department of State finished its investigation in September 2019]
• 9/26/16 - 9/29/16: As part of an investigation into possible crimes by former New York representative Anthony Weiner, FBI agents seize one of Weiner’s laptops. On it are emails backed up by Huma Abedin. The messages on Weiner’s laptop include some from a BlackBerry account, which the FBI hadn’t obtained.
• 10/28/16: Comey reopened Clinton Investigation due to newly discovered email on Weiner's laptop
• 11/6/16: FBI Announces Review Complete, Nothing Criminal Found. Lisa Page and Strzok had exchanged text messages discussing whether a public statement made sense.
• 6/13/18 DOJ Inspector General released report on FBI's handling of Clinton email investigation, finding no evidence of political bias and lending support for the decision to not prosecute Clinton
  

Setup of the Private Email Server

• 6/x/08: An Apple representative installs a private server in the basement of the Clintons' Chappaqua home
• 9/x/08: Justin Cooper – at the suggestion of Huma Abedin – contacts IT specialist Bryan Pagliano (the former IT director for Clinton's first presidential campaign) about building a new server to host a private Hillary Clinton email domain and to maintain that server (separate from the Apple server).
• 1/13/09: Justin Cooper registered three email domains for Hillary Clinton. One domain - clintonemail.com - will be used for all of Clinton’s emails for at least the next five years. That domain is hosted on the Clinton's Apple server maintained by Cooper. Clinton decides to stop using her BlackBerry email account (hr15@att.blackberry.net). Hillary Clinton's email is set up as hdr22@clintonemail.com.
• 3/x/09: Bryan Pagliano & Justin Cooper physically install the new server into the basement of the Clintons' Chappaqua, NY home – that server is maintained by Bryan Pagliano. Cooper & Pagliano begin the transfer of email data from the Apple server to the newly constructed server. [The Clintons' old Apple server is repurposed to serve as a personal computer for household staff.]
• 3/18/2009: Last known email discovered by FBI to have been sent by Clinton from her BlackBerry account.

Hand Over and Release of Clinton Email

• 5/19/15 :The State Department says it will need until 1/15/16 to release all the emails. A US district court judge suggests rolling releases
• 3/22/15: The first batch of emails, mostly Benghazi-related, are released. This release consisted of approximately 300 emails, which is around 850 pages.
• 6/30/15: The State Department releases a new batch of emails: 1,925 separate emails, all from 2009, totaling more than 3,000 pages.
• 7/31/15: The State Department releases another batch of emails.
• 8/11/15: Clinton agrees to turn over her private email server to authorities
• 8/31/15: The latest batch of emails is released by the State Department. This release contains more than 7,000 emails.
• 9/30/15 -- The State Department releases the latest batch of Clinton's emails. This batch contains 3,849 documents.
• 10/30/15: Another batch of emails is released. This release contains 222 emails.
• 11/30/15: The latest and largest batch of Clinton's emails is released. This release contains more than 5,000 emails, and approximately 328 of those were retroactively classified. Also included with the emails is a chain at the center of Republican criticism of Clinton's handling of the 2012 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
• 12/31/15 -- The State Department releases 3,105 emails, approximately 5,000 pages of material. Originally, 8,000 pages-worth of emails were supposed to have been released.
• 1/7/16 -- Having not met its goal for the month of December, the State Department releases another batch of Clinton emails
• 1/29/16 -- The State Department releases the second-to-last batch of emails from Clinton's private server. The State Department also announces that 22 emails would not be released due to their containing "top secret" information. The emails are said to have not contained classified information at the time they were sent.
• 2/13/16 -- The State Department releases 551 of Hillary Clinton's emails. Of those, 84 emails were redacted and deemed classified.
• 2/29/16 -- The State Department releases the final batch of Clinton's emails. In total, more than 52,000 pages of emails have been reviewed with 2,101 being retroactively classified and 22 being upgraded to top secret. One of the final unclassified emails is being withheld from the public at the request of law enforcement. 

The Deletion of the Clinton Private Server Email

Months prior to public knowledge (3/3/15) of the server's existence, Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and attorneys worked to identify work-related emails on the server to be archived and preserved for the State Department. Upon completion of this task in December. Mills instructed Clinton's computer services provider, Platte River Networks (PRN), to change the server's retention period to 60 days, allowing 31,830 older personal emails to be automatically deleted from the server, as Clinton had decided she no longer needed them [see her explanation here - Why did Hillary Clinton delete about 30,000 emails? (business insider 3/15/15)]. However, the PRN technician assigned for this task did not carry it out at that time. After the existence of the server became publicly known in March, the Select Committee on Benghazi issued a subpoena for Benghazi-related emails. Mills sent an email to PRN on 3/9/15 mentioning the Committee's retention request. The PRN technician then realized that he had not set the personal emails to be deleted as instructed months earlier. The technician then erased the emails using a free utility, BleachBit, sometime between 3/25/15 and 3/31/15.

FBI Investigation Concludes On 7/5/16

Of the tens of thousands of emails investigators reviewed, 113 contained classified information, and three of those had classification markers. FBI Director James Comey has said Clinton should have known that some of the 113 were classified, but others she might have missed.  Clinton was not "technically sophisticated" enough to be aware of what the three classified markings meant which is consistent with Clinton's claim that she wasn't aware of the meaning of such markings (confidential marking) [see this reference: Revisiting Clinton and Classified Information by factcheck.org 7/7/16]. The FBI also determined that about 2,000 of Clinton’s emails contained information that was retroactively classified, meaning the information is classified now but not when the emails were first sent — so no one mishandled these emails.

Comey said the Justice Department shouldn’t prosecute Clinton because there isn’t enough evidence that she intentionally mishandled classified information. FBI investigators didn’t find vast quantities of exposed classified material, and they also did not turn up evidence that Clinton intended to be disloyal to the United States or that she intended to obstruct justice. However, he called Clinton’s email setup "extremely careless." Clinton frequently dealt with sensitive and classified information as secretary of state, and the amount that the FBI found in her email server is miniscule in comparison. It appears that she generally dealt with classified information in an appropriate way. Comey said there is no evidence these emails were deleted in an attempt to conceal information.

Hacker Exposure

Threat monitoring software on the server blocked at least five attempts of cyber intrusion. The software was installed in October 2013, and for three months prior to that, no such software had been installed. According to Pagliano, security logs of Clinton's email server showed no evidence of successful hacking. Comey said the private servers did not have full-time security staff. He noted that Clinton used her personal email abroad, which could have allowed "hostile actors" to access her account.

Had Clinton used an @state.gov email address, it’s very probable that it would have been hacked, too. In fact, it’s known that Russian actors recently hacked the State Department email system. [see: State Deptartment suspects Russians are behind a continuing, nearly yearlong and "worst ever" hack.]. According to the New York Times, some State Department employees turned to private email addresses at least temporarily in order to avoid Russian hacker disruptions.

References

PolitiFact Sheet: Hillary Clinton’s email controversy (7/19/16)
Hillary Clinton email controversy (Wikipedia)
Hillary Clinton's latest email controversy, what we know (10/30/16)

State Department Finished Its Investigation  

The State Department Investigation had been suspended until the completion of the Justice Department investigation. The States Department finished its investigation in September this year.

10/18/19 Politico: State Dept. finds no ‘systemic’ classified violation in Hillary Clinton private-server emails
10/19/19 Vox: Clinton’s email practices were risky but not malicious, State Department finds
9/28/19 Washington Post:

State Department also probed its former state official's email practice

9/29/19 New York Times: State Dept. Investigating Email Practices of Hillary Clinton’s Former Staff