In August 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began an investigation to determine whether classified documents were mishandled in relation to Clinton's private email server.
^ "State Department probe of Clinton emails finds no deliberate mishandling of classified information". Washington Post. ^ a b Reilly, Ryan J. (June 14, 2018).
On March 12, 2015, in response to the uncovering of Clinton's private email account, it filed a motion to reopen the suit, alleging that the State Department had misrepresented its search and had not properly preserved and maintained records under the act. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted the motion to reopen the case on June 19, 2015.
Retrieved July 7, 2017. ^ "Senate Investigating Loretta Lynch's Alleged Interference in Hillary Clinton Email Probe". Retrieved July 7, 2017. ^ "The Senate is investigating whether former Attorney General Loretta Lynch interfered in the Clinton email investigation".
The committee continued to investigate Clinton's email practices, issuing subpoenas to testify to Bryan Pagliano , the former Clinton staffer who set up her private email server, and Cheryl Mills, Clinton's former chief staff.
On April 5, 2016, State Department lawyers requested that only "limited discovery" be granted in the case brought by Judicial Watch, including narrowing the scope of what could be asked in depositions of Clinton’s staffers. The Daily Beast reported that the “State’s lawyers proposed that the group only be allowed to ask questions about ‘the reasons for the creation of the clintonemail.com system,’ and not about how classified information was handled on the system or any issues related to protecting it from hackers.”
Clinton provided 300 emails. An additional set of emails, produced from other officials' email accounts, had been provided to the committee in August 2014 by the State Department. On December 5, 2014, Clinton released 30,490 printed emails to the State Department.
The State Department released another 3,000 pages of emails on January 8, 2016, after it missed a production deadline the previous week. In one email, after Jake Sullivan informed Clinton that staff members were having difficulty sending a document with talking points to her through secure fax, Clinton recommended he turn it into a "nonpaper" without an "identifying heading and send nonsecure." Because portions of this email exchange were redacted, it is unknown whether the talking points document contained classified information.
It allowed her to "reach people quickly and keep in regular touch with her family and friends more easily given her travel schedule."
FBI report and notes from Clinton's interview released. On September 2, 2016, the FBI released a 58-page report on its investigation into Clinton's private email server, including 11 pages of notes taken during the agency's interview with Clinton.
Clinton's potential criminal liability arose under 18 U.S.C. § 1924, the issue being whether she "knowingly" retained classified documents on her private email server. According to the Associated Press on August 31, 2015, experts in government secrecy law believed there was little chance criminal charges would be filed against Clinton. “ [T]o prove a crime, the government would have to demonstrate that Clinton or aides knew they were mishandling the information — not that she should have known. A case would be possible if material emerges that is so sensitive Clinton must have known it was highly classified, whether marked or not. … But no such email has surfaced,” the AP noted.
July 1, 2016 – According to a Justice Department official, Lynch will accept the “determinations and findings” of the FBI and career prosecutors who are investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
The same day, the State Department reopens its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. July 29, 2016 – A court filing reveals that the FBI has turned over “thousands of documents” to the State Department recovered during the investigation into Clinton’s email server.
February 13, 2016 – The State Department releases 551 of Hillary Clinton’s emails. Of those, 84 emails were redacted and deemed classified.
Pagliano is a former Clinton staffer who helped set up the private email server.
In response to being asked about deleting 33,000 emails while under investigation by a House panel, Clinton says other secretaries of state had done the same thing. Clinton also says she was never subpoenaed by the House.
2009 – Government employees are allowed to use private emails for government work . However, this practice is strongly discouraged. If using a private email, “the agency must ensure that federal records sent or received on such systems are preserved in the appropriate agency record-keeping system.”
September 23, 2016 – It is revealed that Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff and adviser at the State Department, was given a limited immunity deal by the FBI during its investigation of Clinton’s private email server.
After a reported intervention by the US Attorney’s office in New York, a week later and just days before the election, Comey informed Congress about the additional messages and that he was reopening the investigation of Clinton’s emails.
Former FBI Director James Comey had closed the investigation into Clinton’s email server in July with no criminal charges, but it would be reopened on October 28, days before the 2016 election, after Robertson’s concerns ended up being related to the US Attorney’s office.
As part of his investigation of Weiner’s communications with a 15-year-old girl, Robertson was searching the laptop computer when he discovered about 600,000 emails from Abedin, including many directed to or coming from Clinton.
Weiner was later convicted on charges of transmitting sexual material to a minor but at the time of Robertson’s investigation in September 2016, the discovery of the Clinton emails set off a tense and confusing period of silence from the agent’s supervisors, which alarmed him.
Anthony Weiner’s laptop led to the discovery of hundreds of thousands of emails between his wife at the time, Huma Abedin, and her boss, then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.