FBI Overlooked Key Evidence In Hillary Clinton Email Probe, Declassified Files Reveal

Last Updated:July 22, 2025, 09:06 IST

A source had handed over thumb drives to FBI, which contained State Department data obtained through cyber intrusions, including emails from then-President Barack Obama and others

During the 2016 presidential campaign, the FBI’s Cyber Division reportedly tried to gain access to the hard drives for a targeted search related to the Clinton investigation. (AFP)

The FBI gave only a cursory review to potentially critical evidence during its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while serving as secretary of state, according to a portion of a watchdog report revealed Monday, as reported by the New York Post.

A confidential source had handed over thumb drives to the FBI, which contained State Department data obtained through cyber intrusions, including emails from then-President Barack Obama and others. This revelation comes from a declassified appendix to the June 2018 Justice Department inspector general report.

Despite the significance of the content, the FBI chose not to “comprehensively" analyse the thumb drives, citing concerns over individual data that may have been swept up during the hack. This decision came even though an internal draft memo concluded that a full review was necessary to “assess the national security risks" tied to Clinton’s use of a private server.

“This document shows an extreme lack of effort and due diligence in the FBI’s investigation of former Secretary Clinton’s email usage and mishandling of highly classified information," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), about the appendix.

The original report was authored by then-DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who currently serves in the same capacity at both the Federal Reserve Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Whether the FBI has conducted a more thorough investigation of the thumb drives since the 2018 report remains unknown.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, the FBI’s Cyber Division reportedly tried to gain access to the hard drives for a targeted search related to the Clinton investigation. However, that request was denied, according to witness accounts cited in the watchdog report.

Then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe later sent a memo to then-US Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, asking to use the drives for the bureau’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. That request was also denied due to concerns that the FBI’s search parameters were overly broad and insufficiently protective of privileged information.

Although the drives were “queried" at least three times, the purposes of those searches were redacted. One of the queries came from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. According to the report, a witness who searched for Clinton’s name found a redacted number of results that included “clintonemail.com."

The New York Post reported that Senator Grassley criticised former FBI Director James Comey for failing to “perform fundamental investigative work," adding that the bureau had “left key pieces of evidence on the cutting room floor."

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