Norwalk company finds itself at center of Hillary Clinton email probe

Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, raised concerns of a possible breach prior to the installation of the software.

While setting up its server for Clinton, Platte River retained Datto to set up a virtual backup server that could provide immediate recovery if the primary server failed, Johnson said in his letter.

Emails sent between Datto and Platte River Networks during that time indicate there was confusion about where the backed-up data would be stored, and for a while it was backed-up to an off-site Datto server, apparently against the wishes of Clinton staff. A Platte River employee aired suspicions and reportedly wrote, “this whole thing really is covering up a few shaddy [sic] shit”, according to an excerpt cited by Johnson.

It was here that a Platte River employee voiced suspicions about a cover-up and sought to protect the company.

[ Justice Department attorney Marcia ] Berman called that “an incredibly novel legal theory” and she said it was foreclosed by a 1980 Supreme Court decision that held FOIA could not be used to obtain near-transcripts of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s phone conversations. He also asked whether Datto and its employees were authorized to store and view classified information.

One e-mail suggests Clinton’s team told the company to cut back-ups to 30-days. The FBI’s forensic analysts are working to determine exactly what data was sent across the Internet from Platte River Networks in Denver to Datto, Inc.in Connecticut.

Citizens United, a film production group, has been suing the State Department to turn over official emails between Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, and individuals associated with the Clinton Foundation.

Adding to the candidate’s angst, the State Department is demanding answers to why there appears to be a gap of at least two months in emails Clinton turned over – a gap that dwarfs Richard Nixon’s infamous 18-minute gap on White House tapes. Their existence challenges Clinton’s claim that she has already provided all of her work emails from her tenure as secretary, which are the subject of numerous public records lawsuits.

Not only did Datto “defy” that request, he said, the firm never billed Platte River for the backup service. Before then, Clinton has said, she used an old AT&T Blackberry email account, which she says she can no longer access.

The committee is requesting a broad scope of materials from the company by October 19, including contracts, data retention policies and documentation of any cyberattacks that Johnson said could have compromised Clinton’s emails. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for evidence that classified information and state secrets traveled through this email improperly.

But her lawyer, David Kendall, told the committee that Clinton aides had changed the server’s settings so that only emails she sent and received in the previous 60 days would be saved, according to The New York Times.