Newly released State Department documents obtained by government watchdog Judicial Watch show hackers attempting to breach former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private server, where she hosted top secret information, nearly a dozen times in just two days.
The hacking attempts are detailed by Clinton aide Bryan Pagliano, who set up the server, and Justin Cooper, a longtime aide to Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation. The attempts occurred between November 27 and 29 of 2010.
During congressional testimony in September, Cooper said he never held a security clearance while managing the server that contained classified information. Despite being granted immunity in the FBI's criminal probe of the server, Pagliano refused to testify about the server. Hillary Clinton maintains her email server was never hacked.
When FBI Director James Comey announced a non-indictment of Clinton over her email server in July, he noted that although there was no evidence found during the year long criminal investigation the server was compromised, skilled hackers would be able to completely cover their tracks after hacking into the system.
"With respect to potential computer intrusion by hostile actors, we did not find direct evidence that Secretary Clinton’s personal e-mail domain, in its various configurations since 2009, was successfully hacked. But, given the nature of the system and of the actors potentially involved, we assess that we would be unlikely to see such direct evidence," Comey said. "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."
There were more than 50 hacking attempts on Clinton's private server, many from foreign sources, according to an incident report produced by the company that managed the system.