A Review of Various Actions by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation and
Department of Justice in Advance of the
2016 Election
Oversight and Review Division 18-04 June 2018
CHAPTER NINE:
DISCOVERY OF
CLINTON EMAILS ON THE
WEINER LAPTOP AND
REACTIVATION OF THE MIDYEAR
INVESTIGATION
In this chapter, we discuss the discovery of Clinton emails
on the Weiner
laptop and the eventual reactivation of the Midyear
investigation. Section I details
the discovery of these emails by the FBI’s New York Field
Office (NYO) and Section
II discusses the numerous notifications of this fact to FBI
Headquarters in late
September and early October. Section III describes the
initial response by FBI
Headquarters and Midyear personnel to this discovery.
Section IV discusses NYO’s
processing of the Weiner laptop. Section V details the
ensuing inaction by FBI
Headquarters and Midyear personnel, and the explanations we
received from FBI
leadership and Midyear personnel for this inactivity. In
Section VI, we discuss the
Weiner case agent’s concerns about this inactivity and, in
Section VII, we describe
the actions taken by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Southern District of New York
(SDNY) as a result of these concerns. In Section VIII, we
discuss the response by
the Department and FBI to SDNY’s notification about the
Weiner laptop. Section IX
examines the reengagement on this issue by FBI Headquarters
and Midyear
personnel. Section X describes the events that led to the
decision to seek a search
warrant for the Weiner laptop. We provide our analysis in
Section XI.
I. Discovery of
Emails by the FBI’s New York Field Office
A. Seizure of
Weiner Laptop and Devices
In September 2016, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office
for the Southern
District of New York (SDNY) began investigating former
Congressman Anthony
Weiner for his online relationship with a minor. The FBI’s
New York Field Office
(NYO) was in charge of the investigation. A federal search
warrant was obtained on
September 26, 2016, for Weiner’s iPhone, iPad, and laptop
computer. The FBI
obtained these devices the same day. The search warrant
authorized the
government to search for evidence relating to the following
crimes: transmitting
obscene material to a minor, sexual exploitation of
children, and activities related to
child pornography.
B. Emails and
BlackBerry PIN Message Viewed by Case Agent
The case agent assigned to the Weiner investigation was
certified as a Digital
Extraction Technician and, as such, had the training and
skills to extract digital
evidence from electronic devices. The case agent told the
OIG that he began
processing Weiner’s devices upon receipt on September 26.
The case agent stated
that he noticed “within hours” that there were “over 300,000
emails on the laptop.”
The case agent told us that on either the evening of
September 26 or the
morning of September 27, he noticed the software program on
his workstation was
went into the email folder on the laptop to see why the
processing was “hung up.”
He explained that, because the laptop was still processing,
he was only able to view
the emails that were immediately visible in the window on
his computer screen.
The case agent told us that the first item he clicked on was
“either an email
between Hillary and Huma [Abedin] or a BlackBerry PIN
message.” The case agent
stated that, in the window of items visible to him, he saw a
“couple” of emails
between Clinton and Abedin and at least one BlackBerry PIN
message between
Clinton and Abedin. The case agent told us that the
BlackBerry PIN message in
particular caught his attention because his “general
understanding” was that those
messages reside on a “BlackBerry proprietary-like backbone”
and would not “leave
much of a trace because it doesn’t go through any external
servers other than a
BlackBerry server.” When asked specifically how he
identified this BlackBerry PIN
message as being between Clinton and Abedin, the case agent
stated that “it was
obvious” from the domains, which were “something like
HR15@BBM-dotsomething,
and HAbedin@BBM-dot.” With respect to the emails he
observed, the
case agent said he recalled seeing emails associated with
“about seven domains,”
such as yahoo.com, state.gov, clintonfoundation.org,
clintonemail, and
hillaryclinton.com.
The case agent told us that he asked another agent to take a
quick look at
his computer to “make sure, am I, am I seeing what I think
I’m seeing?” The other
agent told the OIG that he “vividly” recalled what he
described as the “oh-shit
moment” when the case agent said that Hillary Clinton’s
emails were on the laptop.
The other agent stated that, while he did not view the
content, he believed that he
did see the domain portion of the emails and remembered
thinking at the time that
it was the same domain that had been associated with Clinton
in news coverage.
The other agent told the OIG that he and the case agent
agreed that this
information needed “to get reported up the chain”
immediately.
C. Reporting of Clinton-Related Emails to FBI NYO
Supervisors
The case agent told us that, after speaking with the other
agent, he
immediately told his Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) what he
had observed,
including that he had seen “private BlackBerry messages,
private messages
between Hillary and Huma to which Anthony Weiner was not a
party.” The NYO
SSA corroborated this account, stating that the case agent
came into his office on
September 27 and told him “he had discovered emails that
could be tied to Hillary
Clinton.” The SSA told us that he specifically recalled the
case agent mentioning
domain names associated with Hillary Clinton, the Clinton
Foundation, and possibly
Clinton for President. The SSA also recalled the case agent
telling him “early on”
that there were “hundreds of thousands” of emails. The case
agent and SSA told
us that because the search warrant for the laptop was
limited to child exploitation
offenses, they agreed during this meeting that the emails
were not covered under
the search warrant and the case agent should not review
those emails. The SSA
and the case agent met with their Assistant Special Agent in
Charge (ASAC) to
make him aware of the emails. The ASAC told us that the SSA
and case agent
initially briefed him on September 28. The ASAC stated they reported
that the
laptop was still processing, but there were approximately
141,000 emails of interest
at that moment. The ASAC further stated that the case agent
and SSA identified
seven different domains of interest. The ASAC’s notes from
the morning of
September 28 corroborated this account. The notes included
references to
“imaging, processing ½ way through,” “141k emails,” and
seven domains, which
were @clinton.com/gov, @state.gov, @clintonemail.com,
@AW.com,
@clintonfoundation.org, @presidentclinton.com, and
@hillaryclinton.com.
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