Chaffetz Says He Wouldn’t Be Surprised If All of the Files on Hillary’s Server Are Eventually Leaked
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was asked Wednesday during the Hugh Hewitt Show about Tuesday’s hearing in which several IT professionals who worked on Hillary Clinton’s email server “pled the Fifth.”
During the discussion, Chaffetz told Hewitt he believed Platte River Networks was colluding with Clinton’s attorneys:
Well, I’m very concerned about their conclusions, because there is what appears to me to be collusion to change the record. That came out of an email that we released yesterday between PRN personnel. I mean, they even called it shady. That was their words, not mine …
[T]hey used the word shady, and they wanted some documentation. In fact, they wanted to retroactively insert a bogus email to protect themselves from what they called this shady deal. So I mean, there is a lot to look at in terms of intent. There’s no question that the FBI director has clearly articulated that what was said and done was an absolute lie and deception. He just said he couldn’t prove intent. We proved another thing yesterday, too, at least from the testimony of Mr. Cooper, that Huma Abedin absolutely knew about this server. The FBI report says that Huma Abedin knew nothing about the server. That’s what she told the FBI. But Cooper’s saying yeah, she helped set it up. She had an email on the system. She was aware of it from the very beginning.
Hewitt also asked Chaffetz if he was concerned that the contents of Clinton’s server may be leaked following Tuesday night’s hack of former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s emails. The congressman said he wouldn’t be surprised at all if that happened:
[N]o, because what Cooper told us, and remember, this is a guy who really doesn’t have IT background, there was no dual authentication, there was no encryption. We have devices that are missing. You have a laptop that was mailed and they don’t know where it is. It was mailed, and they don’t know where it is. It’s not a very secure network. I mean, what PRN was doing, Platte River Networks, and Datto, one of the cloud storage services that was offered, they didn’t have the proper protections for even the most basic of computer hygiene and protection.
Chaffetz said the “sloppy” security was a direct result of those involved not knowing what they were doing. Justin Cooper, the staffer the Clintons charged with setting up the private server, had no IT background, and during Tuesday’s hearing had been unable to answer “basic questions” he was asked about brute-force attacks that occurred under his watch.
And we’re up against the Chinese, the Russians and some guy in a van down by the river. I mean, this is sitting in the Clinton residence. It’s co-mingled with the Clinton Foundation, Clinton executive services, President Clinton’s server. You can’t tell me that it’s not subject to a whole lot of attention and attack by nefarious actors. I mean, clearly, it is …
This is the Secretary of State for the United States of America. Of course, they’re going to be trying to penetrate that. That’s, it created this vulnerability with some of the most sensitive secrets that we have. And we had a hearing the day before with everything from the CIA to the NSA right on down the line, all of which had their information compromised because it was either uploaded or imploded into Hillary Clinton’s email system. And it created a vulnerability that has untold consequence.
Chaffetz also said the situation was far worse than FBI Director James Comey had told his committee in July:
Everybody at Platte River Networks had access to her server. You had people without security clearances set up her server and have continued access for four years. There’s got to be a consequence to that. There just has to be a consequence to that. And would that, would that be allowed in any other situation, military, FBI? Absolutely not. The FBI has worked with the Department of Justice to have people charged for far less than that. That’s why it looks like there’s two sets of justice, that Lady Justice, you know, pulls her blindfold up and peeks and sees if it’s the Clintons. It’s just different.
Chaffetz concluded the interview by saying there would be consequences for former Clinton campaign and State Department IT staffer Bryan Pagliano, who failed to appear at Tuesday’s hearing, despite a congressional subpoena. He did not elaborate on what those consequences might be.
