The FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email has now expanded to
include obtaining data from a second tech company, which is fully
cooperating with the FBI probe that has threatened Clinton’s bid for the
Democratic presidential nomination, Fox News has learned.
A source familiar with the investigation told Fox that the FBI
contacted Connecticut-based Datto, Inc. in September and asked them to
preserve all data they had which may be connected to Clinton. Datto was
hired to help back up data in May 2013 by Platte River Networks, the
Colorado-based tech company that managed Clinton’s server and has
already been cooperating with the FBI investigation.
The cooperation of a second tech company raises new questions about
whether the FBI is now obtaining any of the emails that Clinton says she
and her attorneys deemed to be personal and deleted, as Republican
critics have demanded to know if any of those emails were really
work-related emails that should have been turned over to the State
Department along with other federal records.
Datto's cooperation also raises more questions about whether anyone
at the company, where employees do not have security clearances, had
access to classified information that was in Clinton’s server. The
source familiar with the investigation said that like all major tech
companies on the front lines, Datto has faced cyberattacks, another
subject of great interest to the FBI in its probe of Clinton’s server.
The FBI investigation gathered new steam this past Friday when
officials at Datto received written consent from both Platte River and
Clinton’s camp to turn over relevant data to the FBI, a process that is
now underway as Clinton struggles in the polls just days before the
first Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.
However, the source familiar with the investigation stressed it’s not
clear whether Datto has in its possession all of Clinton’s personal and
officials created while she was Secretary of State -- or new emails or
other data created after she left office.
The confusion comes from the fact that Datto was hired by Platte
River and not the Clinton team, so the company had no idea it was
backing up data for Clinton until August of this year when company
officials read news reports about Platte River having the high-profile
contract.
Once Datto officials realized this summer that they had been backing
up some of Clinton’s data which was now the subject of an FBI probe, one
company official recalled, “there was a collective lump in our throats”
and they sought to cooperate fully.
Datto’s involvement was first revealed by Senate Homeland Security
Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is investigating the security of
Clinton’s server, and sent a letter to the company this week seeking
more information.
Aides to Johnson have privately expressed interest in emails among
Platte River officials about whether there was a record of a “directive
to cut the backup” of Clinton’s data.
In August, Johnson wrote, an employee at Platte River voiced
suspicions over searching for an email from Clinton Executive Service
Corp. directing such a reduction in data being stored in October or
November 2014 and then again around February, advising Platte River to
save only emails sent during the most recent 30 days.
“Starting to think this whole thing really is covering up some shaddy [sic] [expletive],” the Platte River employee wrote.
When employees at Platte River discovered that Clinton’s private
sever was syncing with an offsite Datto server, one Platte River
employee wrote in an email, “this is a problem.”
The source familiar with the investigation stressed there was no
conversation between employees of Datto and Platte River about covering
up any data. Though the source noted that this summer Platte River
employees were “surprised” to learn that the Clinton data was being
backed up in an offsite cloud, which wasa more extensive backup than
Platte River officials had anticipated. As a result, officials at Datto
took steps in August to make sure the Clinton data was being preserved
because they did not want to run into a legal problem.
Michael Fass, general counsel at Datto, would only comment on the company’s general decision to cooperate with the FBI probe.
“With the consent of our client and their end user, and consistent
with our policies regarding data privacy, Datto is working with the FBI
to provide data with its investigation,” Fass told Fox in an emailed
statement that referenced Platte River as well as Clinton.
Fass added in the emailed statement late Tuesday, “Also, we received a
letter from the Senate Homeland Security Committee and Government
Affairs Committee just last night and we are in the process of
responding to it. Datto is a data protection and business continuity
company that provides backup data storage to thousands of Managed
Service Providers, including Platte River Networks. Datto has no role in
monitoring the content or source of data storied by MSP clients such as
Platte River.”