State Department officials did nothing to protect Hillary Clinton’s emails after a high-profile breach that exposed her personal email address in 2013.
A Romanian hacker named Marcel Lazar Lehel hacked into an account belonging to Sidney Blumenthal, an informal Clinton aide, in 2013 and sent several emails to reporters.
Gawker was among the outlets to publish the Blumenthal emails, several of which involved discussions with Clinton. The online news publication identified the former secretary of state’s “clintonemail.com” domain.
“It is most certainly not a governmental account,” Gawker wrote in March 2013.
But despite the media attention, the State Department made no effort to secure Clinton’s email server, according to a report by McClatchy.
The agency said it could not do anything to ensure the safety of Clinton’s emails because the hack was directed at Blumenthal, who was not an employee of the State Department.
Security experts dismissed that rationale, with many insisting State officials could have taken action at the time to protect Clinton’s server.
The State Department has been reluctant to specify when it first learned of Clinton’s unusual email arrangement.
Her use of a private email server to shield her government communications emerged as part of an investigation by the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
