Clinton's email problems: Six takeaways from the Inspector General report

An  83-page document prepared by the State Department’s Inspector General, which was given to lawmakers and leaked to the press Wednesday, laid out general problems with the department’s records, but specifically targeted Hillary Clinton for her actions involving a private email server she used during her tenure as secretary.

The report concluded that the email server set up at Clinton's New York home had violated federal rules for how government business is conducted.

What else did the report reveal? Here are six takeaways:

1. Despite several claims that she had permission, Clinton's email setup was never approved by the State Department.

The IG report found no evidence that Clinton "requested or obtained guidance or approval to conduct official business via a personal email account on her private server." The department’s policy during Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State required that daily operations by conducted via secured, authorized means. That wasn’t done, the report said.

2. Staffers were concerned with the server being in her home, but were told the “matter was not to be discussed.”

According to the report, two Information Resources Management staffers had expressed concerns to their boss over the server being kept  at Clinton’s home because “information sent and received on Secretary Clinton’s account could contain Federal records that needed to be preserved in order to satisfy Federal recordkeeping requirements.” One of the staff members who raised the question about the server was to "never to speak of the Secretary’s personal email system again."

3. Clinton had concerns  about personal emails being “accessible.”

Clinton aide Huma Abedin suggested the two should “talk about putting you on state email or releasing your email address to the department so you are not going to spam,” after some trouble with Clinton’s emails not getting to certain employees at the State Department. Clinton responded via email: “Let’s get separate address or device but I don’t want any risk of the personal being accessible.”

4. The server was shut down because there was a concern it was being hacked.

A technical adviser retained by Bill Clinton told Abedin that the  server at the Clinton home was shut down because he thought "someone was trying to hack us and while they did not get in i didnt [sic] want to let them have the chance to." Later that day, the server was shut down again over the same concern.

5. Clinton and her staff had concerns over being hacked, but didn’t act on them.

"Two of Secretary Clinton’s immediate staff discussed via email the Secretary’s concern that someone was 'hacking into her email' after she received an email with a suspicious link," the report noted. Employees of the State Department are required to report suspicious incidents to Information Resources Management officials when it comes to their attention. "However, OIG found no evidence that the Secretary or her staff reported these incidents to computer security personnel or anyone else within the Department," the report states.

6. Clinton said she would cooperate fully with any investigation into the security of her email system.

The IG report indicated she refused a request for an interview.

Sources: The Washington Post; The New York Times; Politico; The Associated Press

Cox Media Group