Wiped clean: Clinton’s email server erased before it was sent to FBI, her lawyer says

Hillary Clinton’s personal lawyer has told a Senate committee that emails and all other data stored on the Democratic presidential candidate’s computer server were erased before the device was turned over to US government authorities.

In a letter sent last week to Senator Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, attorney David Kendall said the server was transferred to the FBI on August 12 by Platte River Networks, a Denver firm hired by Clinton to oversee the device. The Senate committee made Kendall’s letter public on Wednesday. In exchanges with reporters earlier this week, Clinton said she was not aware if the data on her server was erased.

Federal investigators, prompted by a request from the inspector general for the State Department, requested custody of the server to learn whether the data stored on it was secure. NBC News has reported that an FBI team is now examining the server. Forensics experts said this week that some emails and other data may still be extracted from servers even after they are supposedly expunged.

Separately, John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, said Tuesday in Columbia, South Carolina that, to his knowledge, no other copy had been made of the server’s contents other than those her lawyers turned over to the FBI.

As campaign officials answered questions, one of Clinton’s rivals said the email issue has become a distraction for the Democratic Party.

“I think that it’s a huge distraction from what we should be talking about as a party,” former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley told reporters in Nevada.

Instead, he said more debates should be held among the candidates to address raising the minimum wage, repairing the country’s infrastructure and other issues. “Until we do, our party’s label is going to be the latest news du jour about emails and email servers and what Secretary Clinton knew and when she knew it.”