A Chinese state-owned company hacked ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server, then inserted code that forwarded to them a copy of almost every single email she sent or received after that, in a huge security breach that was reported only this week.
The breach was uncovered in 2015 by the Intelligence Community Inspector General, who warned the FBI about the intrusion, according to the Daily Caller.
The IC inspector general was so concerned by the revelation that officials drove over to the FBI to tell agents — including the now-removed anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok, according to Fox News.
The Chinese firm operated in the D.C. area, and stole her email by writing code that was embedded in the server and generated a “courtesy copy” for almost all of her emails, which was then forwarded to the firm. The code was found in the emails’ metadata.
A source told Fox News the hack was from a company that was a front for Chinese intelligence.
President Trump weighed in on the matter on Tuesday and early Wednesday, tweeting: “China hacked Hillary Clinton’s private Email Server.” Are they sure it wasn’t Russia (just kidding!)? What are the odds that the FBI and DOJ are right on top of this? Actually, a very big story. Much classified information!”
“Hillary Clinton’s Emails, many of which are Classified Information, got hacked by China. Next move better be by the FBI & DOJ or, after all of their other missteps (Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Ohr, FISA, Dirty Dossier etc.), their credibility will be forever gone!”
The FBI denied that there was any evidence that the servers were compromised. China also denied the report, saying it was a “staunch defender of cybersecurity.” A Clinton spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the FBI “found no evidence of intrusion.”
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told Fox News on Tuesday that her emails had been “obtained by a foreign country’s intelligence,” but did not name the country. He said it appeared that Strzok never followed up on the lead.
“People like Strzok, when they were briefed, knew this would devastate her chances of being elected and they weren’t about to do anything to hurt those chances,” he said.
Matt Wolking, a congressional communications aide, debunked the FBI’s and Clinton’s denials in a tweet thread, listing a number of stories where experts said her unsecured server was vulnerable to hacking by foreign actors.
“The problem with Hillary’s ‘no evidence of hacking’ defense is that none may exist. [C]yber experts are saying that there is no way she could know whether her account was ever compromised by hackers,” he tweeted, citing a Business Insider story from 2015.
Find the whole thread here or below.