What about that Hillary lawyer, David Kendall?
Hillary Clinton’s private attorney, who was permitted to retain copies of Clinton’s emails until earlier this month, may not have had the proper security clearance or adequate tools to protect those documents.
“[I]t appears the FBI has determined that your clearance is not sufficient to allow you to maintain custody of the emails,” wrote Sen. Charles Grassley in a letter Friday to David Kendall, Clinton’s attorney.
Three days earlier, the FBI had taken from Kendall a thumb drive that he used to store copies of the work-related emails Clinton turned over to the State Department in December of last year.
Investigators grew increasingly concerned about the documents Clinton and her attorney still possessed after the intelligence community inspector general determined some of the emails were classified up to “top secret,” the highest level of classification in government.
Grassley noted the State Department had identified classified information among Clinton’s emails as early as May.
But the agency did not give Kendall a safe in which to store the thumb drive until July, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said.
“Thus, since at least May 2015 and possibly December 2014, it appears that in addition to not having an adequate security clearance, you did not have the appropriate tools in place to secure the thumb drives,” Grassley wrote. “Even with the safe, there are questions as to whether it was an adequate mechanism to secure [top secret] material.”
The Iowa Republican pressed Kendall on whether his security clearance was active when the State Department allowed him to keep the thumb drive despite knowing it contained classified information.
Grassley also demanded to know who besides Kendall was granted access to the emails at Williams & Connolly, the law firm where he works.
Daily Mail:
The IT company Hilary Clinton chose to maintain her private email account was run from a loft apartment and its servers were housed in the bathroom closet, Daily Mail Online can reveal.
Daily Mail Online tracked down ex-employees of Platte River Networks in Denver, Colorado, who revealed the outfit’s strong links to the Democratic Party but expressed shock that the 2016 presidential candidate chose the small private company for such a sensitive job. One, Tera Dadiotis, called it ‘a mom and pop shop’ which was an excellent place to work, but hardly seemed likely to be used to secure state secrets. And Tom Welch, who helped found the company, confirmed the servers were in a bathroom closet.
It can also be disclosed that the small number of employees who were aware of the Clinton contract were told to keep it secret. The way in which Clinton came to contract a company described as a ‘mom and pop’ operation remains unclear. However Daily Mail Online has established a series of connections between the firm and the Democratic Party.
Platte River Networks worked for Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper – once heavily tipped to be Clinton’s 2016 running mate – during his election to be mayor of the city in 2003
The company’s controversial vice president of sales David DeCamillis is also said to be a ‘big Democrat’ supporter who offered his house to Joe Biden for the party’s convention held in Denver in 2008.
It will be the small scale of the firm and its own home-made arrangements which will raise the most significant questions over security and over what checks Clinton’s aides made about how suitable it was for dealing with what new transpires to be classified material.
Daily Mail Online spoke to former employees of the firm, including Tera Dadiotis, who was a customer relations consultant between 2007 and 2010. Describing it as ‘a great place to work, but kind of like a mom and pop shop’, Tera reacted with disbelief that her former company was hired to manage the email system of Democratic juggernaut Hilary Clinton.
Speaking to Daily Mail Online at her home in Castle Rock, Colorado, Tera said: ‘I think it’s really bizarre, I don’t know how that relationship evolved. ‘At the time I worked for them they wouldn’t have been equipped to work for Hilary Clinton because I don’t think they had the resources, they were based out of a loft, so [it was] not very high security, we didn’t even have an alarm.
‘I don’t know how they run their operation now, but we literally had our server racks in the bathroom. I mean knowing how small Platte River Networks… I don’t see how that would be secure [enough for Clinton].’
Founded in 2002 by entrepreneurs Treve Suazo, Brent Allshouse and Tom Welch, Platte River Networks worked out of a 1,858 square feet loft apartment in downtown Denver up until this earlier year when they moved to a much bigger 12,000 sq.ft space.
The company celebrated the upgrade with an open house party on June 18, which they excitedly posted on their website and facebook page. Describing the old office, Tera, 30, said: ‘It was a loft downtown and they [the co-founders] owned it. It was one big open space where we had cubicles and two bathrooms.
‘I actually lived in the same building.’
Clinton’s ‘homebrew’ computer system housed her emails while she was Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013. Platte River Networks provided its services in mid-2013 according to Barbara Wells, the company’s lawyer. In March Clinton said she wiped the server clean but experts say some of the more than 60,000 emails she deleted may be recoverable.
The server is now in the hands of the FBI who took it off Platte River Networks hands last Wednesday. Four emails on the private server are said to have been ‘classified’ with two of them labeled ‘top secret’, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Tuesday. Up to 60 in all may have been found during further samples, it has been reported. Clinton has maintained nothing on her server was classified at the time she saw it.
Wherever the truth lies, Tera thinks Platte River was an unsuitable choice for Clinton, she said: ‘It’s so weird, because it’s just a small IT company. I know they’ve expanded quite a bit since I left but I do think it’s strange, we only had the three owners and like eight employees. We didn’t do any work in other states.
‘No offense to them, but who are they? I know of a lot of IT companies that are much bigger. When I was there I answered all the phone calls, paid all the bills, and had a good handle on what was coming in and going out.
‘We were like your local IT company, nothing special or fancy, we had a really good reputation but that was on a local level.’
She thinks Clinton should have used a company with government security clearance, adding: ‘I just think government stuff should be handled by the government.’ Baffled by how Clinton decided to hire Platte River, ex-employees suggested David DeCamillis, the company’s vice-president of sales and marketing might have had a hand in courting her business.
Another theory put forward was that Colorado governor John Hickenlooper recommended them to her. The Democratic National Convention was held in Denver in 2008.
Tera said: ‘David DeCamillis was a big Democrat. He went to the Democrat Convention. ‘He definitely helped Platte River grow, he had a strong sales background. And he brought a lot of clients on, that was his role as the VP of sales.’
Platte River co-founder Tom Welch revealed DeCamillis – who we revealed was sued for fraud when he worked for Lou Pearlman, the disgraced music impresario who discovered Backstreet Boys and NSync – had hoped to put up Joe Biden, now the vice-president, during the 2008 convention. ‘During that Democratic Convention David DeCamillis was going to rent his home to Joe Biden. It was in a relatively posh part of Denver, it was called Washington Park in downtown Denver,’ Welch said.
‘Then Joe Biden was selected as [vice-presidential] candidate and didn’t take him up on the deal.
‘I’m not sure how that all happened, all I know he was saying he had the opportunity to make quite a bit of money doing it. ‘I think when he was selected as a Vice President candidate he got more luxurious accommodation.’
Welch, 47, sold his third of the company to Suazo and Allshouse in February 2010.
He had no idea Clinton became a client until the news broke last week. He said: ‘The whole thing is very surprising to me. ‘I had no idea they had that kind of client, when I was with the company we were a small Denver business focused company, we really didn’t do a lot, we did some stuff statewide, may have had a client or two in the western region but we certainly weren’t doing business in Washington DC or on the East coast.’
Welch, who now runs his own IT company Colorado Cloud, revealed Platte River did work for John Hickenlooper when he was running to be mayor of Denver. He said: ‘In the past, when I was with the company we did some work with John Hickenlooper, he was running for mayor of Denver Colorado, around 2004.
The space that we had our office was essentially designed as a residential unit… the bathroom connected to the master closet and that’s what we retrofitted as a server room
Tom Welch, former Platte River Networks executive
‘We did some IT support for his campaign.’
Asked if that was the connection to Clinton, he said: ‘I would have no idea, it’s the only connection I can possibly imagine. Hickenlooper was elected Mayor of Denver in 2003 and served two terms until 2011 when he became Governor.
Welch also said it was also ‘very possible’ Clinton’s team came across Platte River thanks to the 2008 Denver convention.
Welch confirmed his former company kept its servers in the bathroom closet.
He said: ‘The space that we had our office was essentially designed as a residential unit… the bathroom connected to the master closet and that’s what we retrofitted as a server room.’ He claimed the set up was secure, adding: ‘Our internal network was extremely secure. At the time Inca St was a relatively obscure location, second floor office. The technology we had in place was pretty good. The security we had in place at the office was really good to protect our well-being.’
Asked if he thinks Clinton’s emails could ever have been at risk from hackers, he said: ‘What changed after I left the company I have no idea, I really could not comment on that. I don’t know.’ However he thinks the company will struggle to overcome the Clinton controversy.
He said: ‘If they can get through this hurdle I suspect its going to cost them a fair amount of money, if they can survive the money side of it, they’re going to have a pretty serious black eye from an industry perspective if it’s shown they didn’t take the proper security measures or anything along those lines – that could hurt them.’ Asked if the fault lay with Clinton and not Platte River, he added: ‘I don’t know where you assign blame. Is it her fault for hiring an IT management company?’
Jim Zimmerman, another ex-employee recalled the company being secretive about acquiring Clinton as a client.
Speaking to Daily Mail Online, he said: ‘Before they actually did the work, they said “that we’ve got this contract we’re going to do it, we don’t want a lot of talk about it, we just want to get in and get out”. ‘The sales rep made a general announcement to say we were going to do it and we would just prefer to keep it private.
‘I don’t know the techs were who dealt with her account, they didn’t say, they said they’re doing it and that’s it.’
Zimmerman, 55, added: ‘It was an ego trip for somebody I’m sure. They may have seen it as a feather in their cap and a challenge. And I’m sure it wasn’t Hillary that hired them directly, I’m sure it was whoever was doing the managing. ‘I’m sure it was an exciting contract for the guys who sold it [to her].’
Zimmerman also thinks the Democratic National Convention may have been where Platte River first came onto Clinton’s radar.
He said: ‘To acquire business like that, my best guess is it had something to do with the convention being in town… that would be three degrees of separation, everybody had something to do with that. ‘I’m sure someone knew somebody at DNC and said “hey how would you guys like to do this” and they probably thought, that would be such a cool thing to do for our company.
‘I know at that time Platte River was marketing heavily, I mean they were jumping on work.
‘And when I heard it on the radio about Hilary Clinton emails a year or so ago. I thought “I can think of two guys who are c***ing their pants right now, they did not expect this.’ Defending his ex-employers from criticism, Zimmerman added: ‘I’m sure they didn’t do anything wrong. They didn’t write the emails, they didn’t make the choice to tell her she was going to use that email server. They were just turning the wrenches… you make it as secure as possible.
‘If she did stupid stuff on the email and sent out classified information, that’s all on her, Platte River can’t control what she does with it. In the end they can only build something to her requirements. ‘They were just doing what they were contracted to do to the best of their abilities.’
For me details, photos and the timeline of server-gate, click here.
