Clinton’s aide left classified briefing paper in Russian hotel – FBI documents
The FBI investigation looking into Hillary Clinton’s breaches of professional conduct has made public another violation, which culminated in “verbal security counselling,” after an aide to the secretary of state left sensitive documents at a Moscow hotel.
Amidst another 189 pages of various interviews looking into Hillary Clinton’s use of her private email account during her work as secretary of state in 2009-2013, the FBI published an incident with Monica Hanley, one of the former aides who was closely involved into the scandal.
According to earlier reports, Hanley bought multiple BlackBerry smartphones for Clinton from AT&T stores located in the Washington, DC, area, which were potentially used to send work emails and which the FBI now cannot find.
In an interview with Hanley, which was conducted in January, it was revealed that during one of Clinton’s trips to Russia, Hanley was given a diplomatic pouch with the secretary of state’s briefing book. The aide took the pouch to the suite of the Russian hotel she was sharing with Clinton.
US Diplomatic Security (DS) “found a classified document from the briefing book in the suite during a sweep following Clinton and Hanley’s departure.”
As a result Hanley received “verbal security counseling” from the DS who told her that the briefing book and document “should never have been in the suite.”
According to the documents, much of the carelessness in handling the classified information over email was due to the staffers thinking they were doing nothing wrong, due to a lack of training.
In 2014, Clinton’s office released some 55,000 emails to State Department investigators, while admitting that she erased another 33,000. The Judicial Watch filed lawsuits demanding that another cache of 14,900 emails uncovered by the FBI are also released.
READ MORE: FBI releases 58 pages of Clinton email probe
While the FBI began its investigation in July 2015 at the request of the US Intelligence Community Inspector General, most of the recovered emails – around 1,050 pages – are not expected to be available until after the November 8 presidential election, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper said that the material could be as much as 10,000 pages.
