To Hillary Clinton, the scandal over her use of a private email server is all a big joke.
The Democratic presidential candidate laughed it up with a group of donors at a $2,700-a-person fundraiser saying that the White House would not have been breached by Russian-backed hackers last year “had they been using my server,” the New York Post reports.
The event was held at the Long Island, N.Y. home of Nassau County Democratic chair Jay Jacobs.
Throughout her tenure as secretary of state Clinton used a private email server registered to her Chappaqua, N.Y. residence to host her personal email accounts. She has said that Bill Clinton first began using the server shortly after leaving the White House. While maintaining that her emails arrangement was impenetrable, she claims she did not exchange or store classified material.
But raising concern over whether Clinton’s system was fully protected are recent reports that Russian-backed hackers have infiltrated both the White House and the State Department.
The White House first noticed a breach of its unclassified email system in October. While its classified system was not penetrated, the suspected Russian cyber warriors obtained access to real-time information, such as President Obama’s detailed daily schedule.
The cyberattack experienced at State was described as the “worst ever” on the agency’s systems. It led to a temporary shutdown of all State Department email systems in November.
One person who is not cracking jokes about Hillary’s email set-up is Michael Morell, the former deputy director of the CIA. Last month he told talk radio host Hugh Hewitt that it was not wise for Clinton to use a personal account on a “homebrew” server. He also said that he believes at least one foreign government has hacked into Clinton’s server.
“I don’t think that was a very good judgment,” Morell told Hewitt. “I don’t know who gave her that advice, but it was not good advice.”
“I think that foreign intelligence services, the good ones, have everything on any unclassified network that the government uses.”