Huma Abedin, a top aide to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had a simple three letter response upon learning that her boss’s private email server had been the target of a hacking attempt – “OMG.”
The revelation comes amidst the release of 277 pages of FBI files concerning Clinton.
One email in the document drop shows Abedin responding to IT professional Justin Cooper who explained that he had to shut down the supposedly secure server on January 9th, 2011, because “someone was trying to hack us.”
“I had to shut down the server,” Cooper wrote. “Someone was trying to hack us and while they did not get in I didn’t want to let them have the chance to.”
??NEWS: There are 277 pages of previously released documents related to Hillary Clinton sitting on the FBI’s FOIA server. They’re not mentioned on the Bureau’s page where the PDFs usually pile up. Several things of note here. [1/6] https://t.co/pWlMlrfkCO
— David Martosko (@dmartosko) May 7, 2019
After responding with the shorthand for ‘Oh My God,’ Abedin emailed other top aides warning them not to email “HRC anything sensitive” and that she would “explain more in person.”
Repeated Hacking Attempts
In June of 2018, FBI emails obtained by Fox News showed that “foreign actors” were able to gain access to some of Clinton’s emails, including one which was identified as “secret.”
In an original draft statement, former FBI Director James Comey indicated that a combination of evidence made it “reasonably likely that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s private email account.”
He would later make edits to that statement watering it down. The phrase “reasonably likely” was replaced by “possible.”
Despite evidence to the contrary, Clinton insisted during a news conference in March 2015 that her server “was on property guarded by the Secret Service, and there were no security breaches.”
It Gets Worse
Security breaches in Clinton’s home where she housed the server weren’t limited to hacking attempts. There were physical problems as well.
Cooper, according to handwritten notes via FBI agents, informed the Bureau of a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) within Clinton’s homes.
The notes indicate that doors housing these areas were simply left open at times.
“Open door — not always secured, sometimes when HRC not @ residence was not closed. (both resid),” the notes said.
Granted, these people housed the Secretary of State’s private server in the bathroom, but leaving the door open isn’t exactly a minor infraction akin to leaving the toilet seat up. It’s inviting entry for anybody who wishes to access these ‘secure’ areas.
President Trump has suggested in the past that both Clinton and Abedin deserve jail time for their role in the email scandal, referencing, in particular, a report that the top aide had forwarded government passwords before they were hacked.
“She [Abedin] put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents,” Trump wrote last January. “Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act?”
OMG.
They never did act. These new documents show just how willing the FBI was to look in the other direction when it came to Clinton’s reckless handling of government data.
