The FBI barely glanced at potentially crucial evidence in its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state, according to a portion of a watchdog report made public Monday.
A confidential source gave thumb drives to the FBI that contained State Department data acquired via cyber intrusions — including emails from President Barack Obama and others, according to a declassified appendix to a June 2018 Justice Department inspector general report.
But the feds declined to “comprehensively” analyze those drives due to concerns about individual data caught up in the hack — despite an internal draft memo concluding it was necessary to “assess the national security risks” pertaining to Clinton’s private server use.
“This document shows an extreme lack of effort and due diligence in the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary Clinton’s email usage and mishandling of highly classified information,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) of the appendix.
The report was penned by then-DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who currently holds the same position at the Federal Reserve Board and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
It is unclear whether the FBI has since carried out a more thorough probe of the hard drives since the 2018 watchdog report was released.
Hellbound and Down 