That trivial but deliberate online purchase is the earliest known hint of the private email system that now plagues the presumptive Democratic nominee’s presidential campaign. Some State Department officials learned as early as March 2009 that Clinton was using a private server in the basement of her family’s home. In one meeting with Bentel, a staff member worried that messages sent or received using the private server could contain documents that needed to be preserved under federal regulations. And in January 2011, according to the inspector general report, a Bill Clinton aide wrote to Abedin that he had to shut down the system because Clinton’s server had been targeted by outsiders. Abedin and Sullivan are now Clinton campaign aides and Nides, currently vice chairman of the Morgan Stanley financial services firm, is a major Clinton fundraiser.

Source: Washington Post May 25, 2016 19:33 UTC