Newly Declassified DOJ Watchdog Report Shows FBI Cut Corners in Clinton Email Investigation
I'm archiving "Clinton annex" here to make its text searchable. You can download the annex in PDF format via the link below:
Check my other posts for the previous parts. This is part 11.
IV. (redacted) REQUEST TO REVIEW THE THUMB DRIVES IN THE MIDYEAR INVESTIGATION
(redacted) Near the end of our review, and after we had completed nearly all of our interviews, the OIG obtained emails from the FBI's (redacted) system indicating that in late May 2016 FBI OGC lawyers drafted a memorandum requesting access to the thumb drives for purposes of the Midyear investigation. As described in more detail below, this draft memorandum stated that review of the thumb drives was necessary to conduct a "thorough and complete investigation" and to "assess the national security risks" associated with former Secretary Clinton's use of a private server. However, the FBI never finalized the memorandum or submitted this request to the Department.
(redacted) Over the course of dozens of interviews with FBI members of the Midyear team and senior FBI officials, including highly classified, compartmented interviews pertaining to the (redacted) reports, no witness mentioned the existence of this draft memorandum or that there had been discussions about requesting access to the thumb drives for purposes of the Midyear investigation. This was so despite the OIG's routine practice of asking witnesses whether there was information that the FBI wanted to obtain but could not, whether the FBI was able to obtain everything it needed to complete the investigation, and whether there was anything that the OIG did not ask but needed to know about the investigation. When asked why no one mentioned the request to search the thumb drives in connection with Midyear, witnesses stated that they did not recall the existence of the draft memorandum until the OIG brought the issue to their attention.
(redacted) Based on this new information, we conducted limited re-interviews in an effort to understand whether the FBI considered the information to be critical to the investigation and why the request was never finalized and sent to the Department. However, for various reasons, we were unable to re-interview several former FBI officials involved in the Midyear investigation, including Comey and McCabe, regarding discussions about the request to search the thumb drives.
A. (U) Draft Memorandum in May 2016
(U) Initial Discussion with Comey
(redacted) On May 10, 2016, Comey held a meeting with FBI senior officials and several members of the Midyear team. Notes taken by Strzok indicate that the discussion at this meeting included whether the Midyear team should request access to the thumb drives:
(redacted) Has T1 been asked selectors[?] (redacted) Req[uest] to DAG for [redacted] thumb access to DD[.] (redacted) T1 provided selectors. (redacted) Letter to AAG from DD re Clinton selectors[.]
(redacted) Strzok told the OIG that while he was aware of the issue and remembered discussions about requesting access to the thumb drives, any decisions were made above his level. He said that everyone thought that the thumb drives were something that the FBI needed to review for general counterintelligence purposes, but that the Midyear investigation was only a small part of that issue.
(redacted) Anderson said she recalled mentioning the issue at a meeting with Comey around the same time that the FBI was engaged in efforts to obtain the Mills and Samuelson laptops.7 Anderson told the OIG that she had been involved in the requests to the Department and the White House to search the first five thumb drives for information associated with (redacted) sources in early (redacted), and that she wanted to make sure that the Midyear team was thinking about the data on those thumb drives. She said that this discussion led FBI Attorney 1, the lead attorney assigned to the Midyear team, to draft a memorandum requesting access to the thumb drives.
(redacted) According to FBI Attorney 1, as the Midyear team neared the end of the investigation, they met weekly with Comey to discuss what remained to be done to ensure that they "check[ed] the boxes." As noted in our unclassified report, Comey told the Midyear team in early May 2016 that there was an "extraordinary sense of urgency" to complete the Midyear investigation. FBI Attorney 1 said that the FBI had been seeking access to the thumb drives for counterintelligence purposes, and that at one of these meetings either Anderson or Baker raised the issue of whether the Midyear team should review the thumb drives. FBI Attorney 1 said that she did not recall Comey having a reaction to this suggestion, but that he was generally supportive of the Midyear team taking the steps needed to complete the investigation.
(U) Drafts of the Memorandum
(redacted) On May 20, 2016, FBI Attorney 1 sent an email to Strzok and the Lead Analyst that stated, "Here's a (rough) first draft of the MYE (redacted) memo." The email attached a draft memorandum from McCabe to Yates requesting access to the first five thumb drives for purposes of the Midyear investigation. The draft memorandum summarized the information that the FBI had obtained from T1, incorrectly stating that there were seven thumb drives. It then stated:
(redacted) In order to conduct a thorough and complete investigation and to assess the national security risks associated with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, the FBI believes it is necessary to review the first five thumb drives, which contain information stolen from USG agencies, including the Department of State. Specifically, the FBI proposes conducting a narrowly-tailored review which includes searching all known email addresses associated with former Secretary Clinton and reviewing folders associated with the Department of State.
(redacted) The FBI assesses that it must conduct targeted searches in order to determine the full scope of unauthorized disclosure of classified emails found on the former Secretary's server and to identify any potential cyber intrusions of the server.... As you may be aware, there are press reports indicating that the Russian intelligence service, and others, has infiltrated the former Secretary's private email server. The FBI must review the data that is currently in its possession to determine the accuracy of such statements and to fully assess the damage caused to the national security of the disclosure of such information.
(redacted) The FBI has already conducted a review of the data on thumb drives six and seven, as well as material that has been provided by T1 on an (redacted) During the course of this review, the FBI has determined that mere keyword searches will not be sufficient as many of the documents (redacted), rather than (redacted). Therefore, the FBI proposes reviewing (redacted) associated with the Department of State, as that is the most likely place to find the former Secretary's emails...
(redacted) The draft memorandum provided proposed procedures for FBI review of the data, including limiting the data to a standalone computer system and restricting the review team to a small number of employees. On May 23, 2016, Strzok replied, "Looks good to me. I believe there are now eight, not seven, thumb drives."
(redacted) FBI Attorney 1 also sent a copy of the draft memorandum to Anderson on May 20, 2016. Anderson provided comments on the draft memorandum the next day, May 21, 2016. One of Anderson's comments stated, "In explaining the potential relevance of the data to our investigation, we should address the timeframe of the data (2014), given that the Secretary left the Department of State in 2013."
(redacted) On May 27, 2016, FBI Attorney 1 sent a revised draft to Anderson, Strzok, the Lead Analyst, and an attorney in the FBI OGC Cyber Law Unit. The revised draft memorandum addressed Anderson's comment about the relevance of the (redacted) data, stating:
(redacted) The FBI assesses that it must conduct targeted searches in order to determine the full scope of unauthorized disclosure of classified emails found on the former Secretary's server and to identify any potential cyber intrusions of the server. FBI investigation has determined that approximately 2063 emails found on the former Secretary's private server contain classified information, up to and including information classified at the TOP SECRET//SAP level. These emails include senders or recipients from the Department of State and may have been exfiltrated by the (redacted) actors. (redacted) Moreover, the FBI must determine if the (redacted) actors were able to successfully infiltrate the former Secretary's private email server and exfiltrate classified data. As you may be aware, press reports indicate that the Russian intelligence service, and others, has infiltrated the former Secretary's private email server. The FBI must review the data that is currently in its possession to determine the accuracy of such statements and to fully assess the damage caused to the national security of the disclosure of such information.
(redacted) We were unable to identify any additional drafts of this memorandum after May 27, 2016, evidence that this request was ever finalized and sent to the Department for approval, or emails exchanged between members of the Midyear team discussing whether the request to search the thumb drives was necessary.
7 (U) The efforts to obtain the Mills and Samuelson laptops occurred in May and June 2016 and are discussed in Chapter Five of the unclassified report.