Clinton Aide Asked Secret Service Agent to Assist With Securing Hillary Email Server

A computer-related “theft of information” at the Clinton Foundation, confirmed by United States Secret Service personnel but so far denied by the Foundation, is prompting new questions about the Clintons’ use of public resources for Hillary Clinton’s private email server. The cyber crime committed against the Clinton Foundation’s servers was revealed in the recent release of FBI interview transcripts related to Hillary Clinton’s private emails.

As THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported in October, a Secret Service agent (whose name is redacted by the FBI) in Bill Clinton’s detail testified that “he… assisted the Clinton Foundation in a case related to theft of information on the Clinton Foundation Information systems.” According to an official at the Secret Service, the agency is statutorily charged with investigating computer-related fraud and has even assisted in bringing several international hackers to justice in recent years. The work done for the Foundation was carried out under this legislative mandate. A person at the Secret Service familiar with the Foundation incident confirmed this work was done during some period in 2010 or 2011.

But in January 2011, according to the agent’s testimony, an aide to Bill Clinton asked the agent to do research on security for an email server located at the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua, New York.

The following is an excerpt of the unnamed Secret Service agent’s testimony as given to FBI investigators:

[The Secret Service agent] was contacted by JUSTIN COOPER in January 2011 to assist with the security of an email server at the Clinton residence in Chappaqua, New York.

Cooper is a long-time senior advisor of Bill Clinton who helped set up the server at the Clintons’ home in Chappaqua. The agent testified he simply researched information on the topic, which he then, per Cooper’s instructions, passed along to Bryan Pagliano, the State Department employee and former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer who was largely responsible for setting up the server for the Clintons.

The Secret Service declined to officially comment on the agent’s testimony and the FBI said their agency did not have “any additional information to provide you beyond the documents that were released under FOIA [Freedom of Information Act].”

However, two sources that TWS spoke to at the Secret Service who are familiar with the agent’s testimony and the related incidents said that the Secret Service agent “absolutely” worked on Clinton Foundation computer equipment in the “theft of information” case described by the agent, and that his account is “100 percent accurate.”

After TWS
published the original story in October, a Clinton Foundation spokesperson, Brian Cookstra, responded and told TWS, “I’d suggest you talk to USSS because this isn’t related to the Clinton Foundation.” Cookstra also suggested, “[I]t appears the agent is conflating the Clinton Foundation with the president’s personal office, but this was covered publicly in Justin Cooper’s congressional testimony and in both his and Mr. Pagliano’s FBI interviews which are also publicly available.” (Emphasis added.)

When told of the Clinton Foundation’s response that the reported “theft of information” and the Secret Service agent’s work on the case “isn’t related to the Clinton Foundation,” both Secret Service sources were adamant that the agent “absolutely” did work for the Clinton Foundation and that documentation exists backing up his statement.

The Clinton Foundation has ignored several follow up requests for comment or clarification regarding the foundation’s denial that the agent did work for the foundation and the foundation’s suggestion that the “theft of information” case relates instead to the “president’s personal office.” Both statements directly contradict U.S. Secret Service records.

For her part, Hillary Clinton has repeatedly denied that her private server was ever hacked, although the FBI believes based on its investigation that such hacking was possible. Neither the Secret Service nor its agent, however, have any evidence of that.

The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the Clinton Foundation’s suggestion that the “theft of information” was possibly related to the Clintons’ private office server in Chappaqua.