An 86 page independent Inspector General (IG) Report (full pdf below) released today outlines the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private communication network while she was Secretary of State.
During the course of their investigation Secretary Hillary Clinton refused to cooperate with the OIG’s office and refused to be interviewed (See footnote #152 pg 38).
[…] In November 2010, Secretary Clinton and her Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations discussed the fact that Secretary Clinton’s emails to Department employees were not being received. The Deputy Chief of Staff emailed the Secretary that “we should talk about putting you on state email or releasing your email address to the department so you are not going to spam.” In response, the Secretary wrote, “Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.”152
152 – Secretary Clinton declined OIG’s request for an interview. The former Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations has not responded to OIG’s request for an interview
The OIG report refutes Clinton’s earlier assertions that her chosen system was reviewed and approved by officials inside the State Department. To the contrary, the audit found no evidence of a legal staff review or approval. The report specifically states any such request would have been denied by senior information officers because of security risks:
[…] “OIG found no evidence that the Secretary requested or obtained guidance or approval to conduct official business via a personal email account on her private server. According to the current CIO and Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, Secretary Clinton had an obligation to discuss using her personal email account to conduct official business with their offices, who in turn would have attempted to provide her with approved and secured means that met her business needs.
However, according to these officials, DS and IRM did not—and would not—approve her exclusive reliance on a personal email account to conduct Department business, because of the restrictions in the FAM and the security risks in doing so. (OIG Report Pg 37)
Here’s the full OIG Report:
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