Hillary Clinton is giving the FBI her server containing thousands of emails from her time as Secretary of State, her presidential campaign confirmed Tuesday night.
Clinton “directed her team to give her email server that was used during her tenure as (Secretary of State) to the Department of Justice, as well as a thumb drive containing copies of her emails already provided to the State Department,” her spokesman, Nick Merrill, told CNN in a statement. “She pledged to cooperate with the government’s security inquiry, and if there are more questions, we will continue to address them.”
The decision comes just hours after news emerged that the Intelligence Community Inspector General confirmed Clinton’s email server included at least two emails that contained information classified as “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information” both before and after Clinton’s tenure. That revelation directly contradicted Clinton’s initial claim that her private email server did not contain any top secret information. (RELATED: IG: Top Secret Emails Stored On Hillary’s Private Server)
The handover is a surrender on Clinton’s part, as her campaign had maintained there was no need for her to turn over her server, as she said it contained no classified information and every work-related email had already been given to the State Department.
“We don’t think we have to do that,” Clinton communications director Jennifer Palmieri told MSNBC in July when asked whether Clinton should hand over her server to prove her trustworthiness.
While Clinton has always insisted that she turned over all work-related emails, the decision of what to delete and what to turn over was made entirely by Clinton and her attorneys, fueling criticisms that Clinton may be trying to hide something.
It’s unclear whether the FBI may be able to retrieve any deleted emails from Clinton’s server or her attorney’s thumb drive.
Clinton signed a sworn affidavit Monday saying that she had to the best of her knowledge turned over all potential government records in her possession. If that proves to be untrue, she could face perjury charges.
Clinton’s private emails have emerged as a key issue for her presidential campaign in its early months, causing many to doubt her trustworthiness and fueling speculation that she may have broken the law or exposed high-level U.S. communications to hackers. Recent polls have shown a majority of Americans doubt Clinton’s personal trustworthiness, and there is evidence that the issue is eroding Clinton’s popularity in some key presidential swing states. (RELATED: New Poll Has Devastating News For Hillary)
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