New documents suggest Clinton’s email server may have crashed

An email conversation between a top Hillary Clinton aide and a Clinton Foundation executive suggests the private server that Clinton and her staff used to communicate may have malfunctioned at least once during her tenure.

Huma Abedin, Clinton’s then-deputy chief of staff, complained that her private email was “down” the evening of Oct. 9 and into Oct. 10, 2012, according to an email chain obtained by Citizens United through the Freedom of Information Act.

“My bigger problem right now is I can’t even get into my clinton email,” Abedin wrote to Stephanie Streett, executive director of the Clinton Foundation, on Oct. 10, 2012.

Abedin said she might need documents Streett had sent her to be re-routed to her official State Department account given the complications with her other address.

“[M]y email was completely down…But hopefully it’s up and running soon,” Abedin later clarified.

Emails from the same day that have been released by the State Department indicate agency officials did send Clinton several messages on the private server, but suggest she did not respond to any of them until after 8 p.m. that evening.

“Did we survive the day?” Clinton asked aide Jake Sullivan the night of Oct. 10, 2012.

There were no emails sent to or from Clinton’s private account on Oct. 9 of that year. However, the batch of emails from 2012, which were published in May, pertain only to Benghazi. The State Department is set to publish other emails from the 2012 time frame later this year.

If Abedin is indeed referring to the private server that Clinton and her top aides used in the newly-obtained email chain, the suggestion that it could have malfunctioned during such a critical period underscores many of the concerns that have been raised about the email arrangement.

The crash described by Abedin took place just weeks after the terror attack in Benghazi.

Critics have said the homebrew server, which may have even resided in Clinton’s Chappaqua home, likely left classified and sensitive information vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Clinton has never spoken about the types of security measures she might have taken to protect the server.

Abedin’s connections to the Clinton Foundation have also come under fire in recent days given an inspector general probe into her designation as a “special government employee,” which allowed her to collect paychecks from the State Department, the Clinton Foundation and a consulting firm called Teneo Strategies simultaneously.

The email chain obtained by Citizens United indicates Abedin discussed Clinton Foundation matters on her State Department account in at least this one instance.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter to Secretary John Kerry Thursday that Abedin had improperly collected a payment for unused leave time and suggested the inspector general had uncovered evidence that Abedin engaged in potential conflicts of interest.

“Huma Abedin is widely known as one of the hardest working and most dedicated public servants over the nearly two decades she served. The Inspector General’s report is fundamentally flawed, including contradicting its own conclusion by finding that Huma — a woman who regularly worked 16-20 hour days — also worked hard while on maternity leave,” said Karen Dunn, Abedin’s attorney, of the watchdog’s findings.

“No hardworking, dedicated public servant should be subjected to such irresponsible allegations based on a fundamentally flawed report — and it [is] appropriate that the State Department is now reviewing the IG’s report,” Dunn continued. “Huma has been nothing but cooperative in helping the Department work through its record keeping issues, and she will continue to do so in the hope the right thing is done.”

Abedin has also worked with the inspector general during its probe, her attorney said.

Court documents filed July 7 indicated Abedin was then one of the only top Clinton aides who had yet to turn over their personal emails to the agency following its June 26 request.

Sullivan and Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, had already complied with the request, according to the documents.

Abedin’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment on whether Abedin has since finished handing over her private, work-related emails.

The State Department inspector general also did not immediately return a request for comment on its investigation of Abedin’s employment arrangement.