Hillary Clinton’s BlackBerry Obsession May Land Her In Trouble

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Hillary Clinton is a big BlackBerry fan, and this obsession of hers may land her in trouble with an FBI case pending. A bombshell report claimed that the State Department and spy community issued her warnings that her phone and private email server were outdated and hence posed national security risks, but she ignored them, says the Boston Herald, citing federal prosecutors and officials.

Clinton continued using BlackBerry despite warnings

A former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Joseph E. diGenova, said the point to be noted is that the incident is not an isolated one but rather, it is four years of defiance of federal law.

“The warnings that they received about not using BlackBerries were repeated and clear. And they ignored them. By doing so, they again established a gross negligence as well as intent to ignore the law,” the attorney said.

According to a report from The Washington Post, Clinton kept using her BlackBerry even when State Department officials were looking for ways to officially accommodate the device. It has been reported that her personal server in her New York home was not secure enough. The Post also claimed that intelligence and NSA members were also asking Clinton to abandon the old device.

Apart from Clinton, her staff members were also considered BlackBerry “addicts,” claim the emails and documents detailed in a recent Washington Post story. Since the start of her presidential campaign, Clinton and her staff have allegedly been dodging questions regarding the security and vulnerability of her email use while she was Secretary of State.

Clinton and her aides to be questioned next

A former official at Homeland Security and the Department of Justice, Nathan Sales, is also surprised with Clinton’s love for BlackBerry.

“What stood out for me was, the reason why the secretary decided to have her server was she was so enamored with her BlackBerry. Personal convenience is not a very good reason,” Sales said.

According to sales and other legal experts, it is hard to say if Clinton or her staff could be charged with violating a federal espionage statute.  A lesser charge would be failure to safeguard state secrets, says the Boston Herald.

With the upcoming July Democratic convention in Philadelphia, the FBI, which has assigned 147 agents to the case, is said to be moving swiftly. According to U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Clinton and her aides will be questioned next.

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