The FBI has seized four State Department computer servers as part of its investigation into how classified information was compromised on Hillary Clinton’s private email server:
The four servers, which were located at the State Department’s headquarters building, were seized by the FBI several weeks ago. They are being checked by technical forensic analysts charged with determining how Top Secret material was sent to Clinton’s private email by State Department aides during her tenure as secretary from 2009 to 2013, said two people familiar with the probe. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because it is an ongoing investigation.
State Department spokesman John Kirby referred questions about the computer servers to the FBI. An FBI spokeswoman, Carol Cratty, declined to comment.
No other details about the servers, including whether they are part of the department’s classified system, or used for unclassified information networks, could be learned.
A spokesman for the Clinton campaign did not respond to an email request for comment.
Highly classified information was found in Clinton’s private emails, and the FBI is attempting to determine the origin of the information. However, it’s a complicated process:
[T]hose with authority to create classified information have broad authority to label information in one of three categories: Confidential, Secret, and Top Secret.
The FBI is primarily concerned with trying to determine how Top Secret information made its way on to the private server.
[…]
One theory is that Clinton aides who were cleared for access to national security secrets first read classified reports on State Department information system and then “gisted” the material into private emails for Clinton.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill recently told the New York Times that, “[Clinton] and her team took the handling of classified information very seriously, and at home and abroad she communicated with others via secure phone, cable, and in meetings in secure settings.” However, the latest release of Clinton emails from the State Department shows that Russia-linked hackers attempted to breach her account no less than five times.
On a related note, the State Department confirmed to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that Clinton holds a security clearance for Top Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information, which is the highest-level security clearance. Lawmakers in Congress have called for that clearance to be revoked based on her use of a private email system to conduct official government business.