10 Big Revelations from the Clinton FBI Report

Hillary Clinton had better brace herself for the ongoing maelstrom that will result from the FBI’s release late Friday of its report detailing its investigation into her use of a private email server during her tenure as secretary of state.

Although the FBI waited to release the 58 pages of documents until Friday — when many Americans were already into their Labor Day weekend — the aftermath of the release promises to dog an already scandal-ridden Clinton throughout the final weeks of her presidential campaign.

“Hillary Clinton’s answers to the FBI about her private email server defy belief,” Trump said. “After reading these documents, I really don’t understand how she was able to get away from prosecution.”

“Hillary Clinton’s answers to the FBI about her private email server defy belief,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said in a statement Friday. “I was absolutely shocked to see that her answers to the FBI stood in direct contradiction to what she told the American people. After reading these documents, I really don’t understand how she was able to get away from prosecution.”

Here are 10 of the most important and troubling revelations dredged up from the FBI’s documents:

1.) The report revealed Clinton promptly had her private archive deleted just a few weeks after The New York Times published an article revealing the email account’s existence in late March of last year. The FBI report found that a Clinton staffer had an “oh s*** moment” when the article was published and proceeded to delete “the Clinton archive mailbox” while using “BleachBit to delete the exported .PST files he had created on the server system containing Clinton’s emails.”

The staffer’s actions suggest Clinton’s use of a private email server were far less innocent than she would care to admit.

2.) Clinton failed to turn over 17,448 “unique work-related and personal” emails to the State inspector general during the investigation. That’s a lot of emails.

3.) On 39 distinct occasions, Clinton told FBI investigators she did not “recall” or otherwise “remember” details of questions pertaining to processes, training and specific email content. Clinton attributed many of these recall failures to events that occurred following her December 2012 concussion, showing she has used the concussion to her advantage while simultaneously denying it affected anything pertaining to her fitness for performing presidential duties.

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4.) The FBI was unable to recover at least eight of the mobile devices Clinton used to send and receive emails with her private server, as well as five additional devices. Because these devices could not be recovered or examined, the FBI could not accurately discern whether or not they had been hacked or otherwise compromised.

“As a result, the FBI was unable to acquire or forensically examine any of these 13 mobile devices,” one of the documents stated — casting doubt on Clinton’s prior claims to have accessed her private email account on only one device.

And the FBI was OK with this?

5.) The FBI’s summary of its interview with Clinton revealed that the former secretary of state did not understand that an email marked with a “C” meant that it was confidential. “Clinton stated she did not know what the “C” meant at the beginning of the paragraphs and speculated it was referencing paragraphs marked in alphabetical order,” one of the documents stated.

Really?

6.) A personal laptop and thumb drive that Clinton used to archive her emails mysteriously went missing after it was mailed. Although the emails were deleted from the laptop, the documents revealed the laptop’s hard drive had not been wiped. “Neither Hanley nor [redacted] could identify the current whereabouts of the archive laptop or thumb drive containing the archive, and the FBI does not have either item in its possession,” the documents read.

That’s a pretty strange coincidence, to be sure.

7.) Someone did try to hack into Clinton’s private email server on at least one occasion, but “they were unsuccessful,” as the FBI noted, showing that Clinton’s email server was clearly a security threat.

8.) Clinton revealed herself to be a hypocrite when she issued an email to all State Department employees warning them to avoid using a private email address, due to “information security concerns.”

But when questioned, Clinton “stated she did not recall this specific notice, and she did not recall receiving any guidance from State regarding e-mail policies outlined in the State FAM.”

9.) Clinton would often purchase replacement BlackBerry devices during her tenure as secretary of state, and aide Human Abedin “indicated the whereabouts of Clinton’s devices would frequently become unknown once she transitioned to a new device.” Justin Cooper, a former aide to Bill Clinton, “did recall two instances where he destroyed Clinton’s old mobile devices by breaking them in half or hitting them with a hammer.” Violent.

10.) Clinton told the FBI during her interview that she believed the “classification level of future drone strikes depend on the context,” showing once again her complete disregard for handling confidential and sensitive materials.

Even with Clintonian wordplay and a media eager to provide cover, Clinton will have a difficult time explaining away these latest revelations.