The FBI warned the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign in March that its computers had been the object of a foreign-government cyberattack, Yahoo News reported Thursday evening.
However, according to Yahoo News, when the FBI requested that the Clinton team turn over email logs and staff addresses, the campaign’s lawyers refused.
At the time, Mrs. Clinton was being investigated by the FBI for possible criminal offenses in her setting up and using a private email server to conduct government business and handle classified information.
Citing “two sources who have been briefed on the matter,” Yahoo News said the FBI’s approaches to the Clinton campaign came shortly before the Democratic National Committee found its systems had been penetrated by hackers believed to be working for the Russian government.
According to one of the Yahoo News sources, FBI officials met with the Clinton team to share its concerns at campaign headquarters in Brooklyn. However, the Clinton campaign said “the FBI’s request for sensitive personal and campaign information data was overly broad and too intrusive,” Yahoo reporter Michael Isikoff wrote.
While there is no direct evidence yet that Russian hackers actually succeeded in their efforts, the Clinton campaign and the DNC likely would have known about the possibility.
“Chinese intelligence hackers were widely reported to have penetrated both the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain in 2008,” Yahoo wrote.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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