FBI steps up interviews in Clinton email probe
Questions focus on whether State officials improperly sent classified material.
By Rachael Bade
11/10/15 05:14 AM EST
Even as Hillary Clinton tries to put questions about her private email server behind her, the FBI has stepped up inquiries into the security of the former Secretary of State's home-made email system, and how aides communicated over email, POLITICO has learned.
"...it sounds like a full-blown investigation,” said Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the FBI. “When you have this amount of resources going into it …. I think it’s at the investigative level.”
But POLITICO learned that the FBI... also interviewed a former high-ranking policy official at State about the contents of top Clinton aides’ emails.
The official, who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity, said the questions explored whether anyone at State was concerned about classified information being put at risk by communicating over email. The source did not know of any such concerns.
...the agency is moving ahead with its inquiry – and possibly expanding it.
The former State official interviewed by the FBI, for example, had little to do with the Clinton server set-up or any approval process allowing her to use personal email for work — suggesting the FBI’s initial inquiry about the actual physical security of Clinton’s home-made server now also includes looking at the content of messages shared by staff.
Former FBI and Justice officials familiar with the investigative procedures on such matters said the agency must determine two main things: whether the use of an outside email system posed any risks to national security secrets and if so, if anyone was responsible for exposing classified information.
...But exactly who they’re talking to at the staff level has been unclear. For example: Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s former chief of staff at State and lawyer who helped determine which of her emails were personal and work related, wouldn’t say in a recent Washington Post interview if she had been contacted due to confidentiality surrounding the FBI’s work.
The FBI ultimately decides whether to take a preliminary inquiry to a full-fledged investigation — and if they do so, they’re under no obligation to say so publicly. The classification level of any compromised information "may be a factor in determining whether an FBI investigation is warranted," reads an overview of FBI procedures.
...
POLITICO reported on Friday that some of the original messages that triggered the referral — a couple messages the ICIG said were "top secret," the most sensitive national security material....
Sources told POLITICO this week that as of a month ago, the Justice Department had not determined how to proceed with Bryan Pagliano, Clinton’s top IT expert who oversaw her server but took the Fifth and refused to answer questions when subpoenaed by Congress earlier this year.
Republican lawmakers have weighed an immunity agreement for Pagliano, which would bar him from prosecution and allow him to talk about what he knew of the server: who approved it, why and the security surrounding the system.
The agency has asked documents from Tania Neild, the New York-based technology broker for millionaires, who put the Clintons in touch with Platte River Networks.
Neild confirmed the FBI request in an interview with POLITICO, saying they asked her to appear with written documents relating to the advice she gave to her client about negotiating with Platte River. Her company, InfoGrate Inc., acts as a middle man between high-worth individuals and companies that oversee their personal technologies, such as emails.
Neild operates under a confidentiality agreement with all her clients. She said the non-disclosure precluded her from cooperating with the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is also investigating the server issue and reached out to her for an interview. But the FBI notice, she said, trumped her confidentiality agreement.
...Due to secrecy that surrounding any FBI investigation, it is impossible to know exactly where the FBI stands. And since the issue involves the lead 2016 Democratic frontrunner, the work is even more sensitive.
Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division, said Justice is likely worried about issuing formal legal notices “because they know it will get out, and then you’re talking about a grand jury investigation.” But he said it’s “not uncommon” for companies to require subpoenas, court orders or other legal notices to cooperate to save their corporate reputation, which could otherwise be jeopardized for sharing personal information.
“I am sure there is hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth across the street at the Hoover Building because you’re going to have people saying ‘I don’t want to produce X documents. Give me a piece of paper that covers me.’ And that’s where push is going to come to shove,” Hosko said.
