A State Department investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server found hundreds of security violations and determined that at least 38 people were “culpable,” according to a report released Friday.
The internal review found the use of the server represented “an increased risk” of being compromised or inadvertently disclosed, though investigators also concluded there was “no persuasive evidence” that anyone deliberately mishandled classified information.
Using a private email system “added an increased degree of risk of compromise, as a private system lacks the network monitoring and intrusion detection capabilities of the State Department,” the review said.
Investigators covered 33,000 emails that Mrs. Clinton turned over for review. The State Department said it found a total of 588 violations, but it could only assign blame for 91 of them.
The reason the State Department could not assign fault was because some of the individuals left the agency during the time it took to complete the investigation.
Another obstacle, according to the report, was the more than 30,000 emails that were lost — a missing tranche that prompted President Trump’s notorious tongue-in-cheek plea for Russia to find them.
DOCUMENT: Read the report on Clinton email probe
The report didn’t say what, if any, disciplinary action employees will face nor did it name who was responsible for the violations. But violations tied to current State Department officials are sent to the Bureau of Human Resources and former employees have the violations mentioned in their files.
Investigators handed the report over to Congress earlier this month. It was released Friday by the office of Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee until last year.
The State Department received the emails in December 2014, long after Mrs. Clinton left the department in early 2013. Mrs. Clinton’s email controversy dogged her through the 2016 election.
The Clinton campaign accused Republicans of blowing it out of proportion, but Mr. Trump and his supporters insisted she engaged in criminal behavior and was never punished. The “lock her up” chants at Mr. Trump’s campaign rallies were largely inspired by the server controversy.
An FBI investigation was launched in 2015 after it was revealed that she used a personal server for government emails. Former FBI Director James B. Comey famously announced that the Justice Department would not be filing charges against Mrs. Clinton.
At the time, Mr. Comey concluded Mrs. Clinton had been “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” but “no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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