Benghazi Select Committee Chairman Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC) stated that Hillary Clinton only decided to get rid of emails “when our committee began to ask the State Department for her emails” in an interview broadcast on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”
Gowdy was asked, “What do you think happened in this case? Do you have any understanding as to whether the server was wiped clean?” He answered, “Well, I just know what her attorney said, which is it wouldn’t matter if we had the server or not. So, the bureau is really good at reconstructing things. There are folks in the past who have thought that they have deleted or wiped things clean, and the forensic computer experts are able to reconstruct it. I find it interesting, however, that it was 20 months after she separated from the State Department when she decided to wipe the server clean or delete. So, for 20 months those emails were neither too burdensome, nor too cumbersome. It was only when our committee began to ask the State Department for her emails that she said, ‘You know what, it’s been 20 months, gosh, I really need to get rid of this stuff.’ I just don’t think that passes the laugh test, but I haven’t had a chance to ask her about it either.”
Earlier Gowdy said, “you and I probably both delete emails all the time, but we don’t go through the extra steps of wiping something clean. Deleting it because you just find it too cumbersome, or burdensome to carry it in your inbox is one thing. Taking affirmative steps to actually wipe a server, clean denotes, or can denote, a desire, or a willingness, or an intention to conceal far beyond simply just deleting something.”
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