The FBI was trying to get a look at thousands of Hillary Clinton’s emails on disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner’s computer partly to see if anyone had hacked in to steal classified information, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.
Investigating possible hacking appeared to be a secondary rationale for the email search, which FBI Director James Comey launched in the waning days of the presidential election.
When the FBI asked a magistrate judge in New York to issue a search warrant for Weiner’s computer on Oct. 30, an agent spent pages describing concerns it might contain evidence Clinton had mishandled classified information.
The warrant application, made public Tuesday, was filed two days after Comey informed Congress investigators had discovered email correspondence that could be pertinent to his recently closed probe of Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
In the document, the agent wrote that thousands of emails between Clinton and top aide Huma Abedin had been discovered on a laptop used by Weiner, Abedin’s estranged husband.
At the time, investigators had yet to look at the content of those emails, but based on previous work in the case the agent wrote they had reason to suspect they might contain classified material, possibly including top-secret information that could cause “grave damage to national security” if disclosed.
“A complete forensic analysis and review,” the agent added, “will also allow the FBI to determine if there is any evidence of computer intrusions into the subject laptop, and to determine if classified information was accessed by unauthorized users or transferred to any other unauthorized systems.”
A magistrate judge signed off on the search warrant that day.
The FBI hasn’t publicly revealed whether it found any evidence of a hacking attempt.
During the presidential campaign, hackers accessed the email accounts of Democratic Party officials and Clinton’s campaign chief, John Podesta, and leaked them to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.
U.S. intelligence officials have linked the hacking to Russia’s intelligence agency and its military intelligence division, although Moscow has denied those accusations.
After getting court consent to delve into the newly discovered emails on Weiner’s computer, agents spent several days analyzing them before Comey announced they contained no new evidence of wrongdoing by Clinton.
The surprise restart of the email probe, however, upended the presidential race just days before the election. Clinton supporters have blamed the investigation for her loss to Republican Donald Trump.
Weiner’s laptop was initially seized by agents investigating his online relationship with a teenage girl in North Carolina. That inquiry is ongoing.
Los Angeles lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg, who had sued to obtain the court papers, said in a statement he saw “nothing at all in the search warrant application that would give rise to probable cause, nothing that would make anyone suspect that there was anything on the laptop beyond what the FBI had already searched and determined not to be evidence of a crime, nothing to suggest that there would be anything other than routine correspondence between Secretary Clinton and her longtime aide Huma Abedin.”
U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel ruled Monday the public had a right to see the search warrant application and supporting paperwork. He ordered the redaction of sections of the paperwork related to the investigation into Weiner’s online correspondence.
Weiner, who resigned from congress in 2011 after revelations he was sending sexually explicit messages to multiple women, has acknowledged he corresponded with the teenage girl and has apologized for his “terrible judgment.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The only team better than the TONY-HUMA Team is the HILL-BILLY Team and with luck will never see teams like them again.
Those 33k e-mails will come to light thanks to huma…..They will name names that you would never dream of…..
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and to the non Christians HAPPY HOLIDAYS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR making America Great Again – to hell with politically correct.
Podesta’s emails were NOT hacked; they were LEAKED by a disgruntled DNC insider back in March 2016 BEFORE Trump had locked up the Republican Party nomination. The leak was intended to benefit Bernie Sanders, and not Trump.
Clinton’s performance as Sec. of State is treasonous. This type of action shows she held herself above the law. I hope Trump green lights a prosecution, but at this stage, it is doubtful.
“Los Angeles lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg, who had sued to obtain the court papers, said in a statement he saw “nothing at all in the search warrant application that would give rise to probable cause”
That may be the biggest lie in all of 2016 and that’s really saying something. There most definitely is proof that Hillary’s e-mail server was hacked, probably by at least five different foreign intelligence agencies and that she had Classified, Secret and Top Secret information on them. It rises AT LEAST TO THE LEVEL OF CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE and quite possibly TREASON.
We need to learn we must act as one people, with one set of goals, as having one country, albeit diverse. I remember when we were a “melting pot” and proud of it Now we are a salad bowl, cold stuff does not melt together and we have been taught to dwell on our differences, not our commonality. If we stand in solidarity (a union term, not meant as a communistic one), we are strong. We have enemies who would use us for their own greedy purposes – but we have the numbers. And if we stand together, those numbers will give us the advantage of strength. After all, as we know, the wealth of this country is created by the labors of her people. The fruits of those labors belong to us; not the billionaires who would (and sometimes do) own us.
PC is another way of expressing the courtesy and civility that bind people together into a civilization. It means, under the law, and to each other, we are all equal in that we all contribute to the American way of life, we give courtesy to each other and receive it. That’s all it is: it is not something we should allow to divide us. Remember our strength lies in our togetherness.
So, may I take this occasion to give greetings of the season, when all our celebrations seem to come together at the same time of the year, as we should also. I believe the greatest gift you can give to another is to be kind. Love is a great gift too; but more personal. So I wish you joy with your families, a renewal of faith, gratitude for all you have and for all the gifts you may receive (and give) when you and loved ones come together in celebration. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Joyful Kwanzaa and Happy New Year to all.
I would imagine that these emails have shown up in a great many places. Whoever Anthony Weiner was emailing. They are so afraid of Putin hacking those emails, but nothing about Huma/Anthony’s many associates. Being a Muslim, Huma has a duty to
lie, and cheat the infidels. Why not look at her connections to the Muslim Brotherhood. I am sure that they would love to learn all of our secrets. They could find many uses for them when they fall into enemy hands. I am sure she would be paid handsomely to find lots of soft targets in the USA. I do NOT trust the many Muslims embedded into the highest levels of our government. I pray that President Trump can plug up the many leaks, hacks, or whatever they are. Yes, Mr. Comey, Hillary was “extremely careless”
indeed!!!