So, Clinton staffers destroyed Blackberrys with hammers? Well, that’s what’s coming from the notes taken by the FBI regarding their investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unsecured email server. Donald Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn made this point in a discussion with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin and former Clinton pollster Ben Whitman. Baldwin said another tidbit from these notes is that the FBI can’t say definitively that Clinton’s server wasn’t hacked.
FBI Director James Comey said in July, however, that it’s likely “hostile actors” gained access into Clinton’s email account due to them being able to hack into the email accounts of those who regularly contacted the then-secretary of state.
We do assess that hostile actors gained access to the private commercial e-mail accounts of people with whom Secretary Clinton was in regular contact from her personal account. We also assess that Secretary Clinton’s use of a personal e-mail domain was both known by a large number of people and readily apparent. She also used her personal e-mail extensively while outside the United States, including sending and receiving work-related e-mails in the territory of sophisticated adversaries. Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail account.
Epshteyn then listed reasons why she’s unqualified to be president due to this email fiasco, noting the lies about the reason the server was set up, the number of devices she used, and the deletion of the email archive upon The New York Times story reporting that Clinton did her official business on that server. Cortney noted yesterday that Clinton used 13 devices, some of which were destroyed with hammers by aide Justin Cooper. This prompted Baldwin to ask colleague Evan Perez for a fact check. The Washington Free Beacon’s Jack Heretik clipped the exchange below:
Evan, Evan, Evan, hold on, can you fact check? Hang on, hang on, hang on, Evan Perez, hammers?” Baldwin said. “Fact check that for me please, on the fly,”“Yes, they did, Brooke,” Perez said. “As you mentioned there were 13 devices, mobile device and five iPads that the FBI said that in some way were used with her private email server and they did, in some cases, just destroy them with hammers when they were done using them.”
“That’s a pretty good way of destroying a device,” Whitman said.
“No, it’s not,” Epshteyn said. “That is absolutely not following the rules and regulations of the State Department, you know it.”
Be sure to read Guy’s deeper analysis on these notes, along with more revelations, which will be served up shortly. In the meantime, you can peruse the notes for yourself here.