WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton’s lawyer has admitted all data was erased from the server the Democratic front-runner turned over to federal investigators, as polls show her losing support amid the growing email controversy — and GOP front-runner Donald Trump catching up to her.
In a letter last week to Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made public by the committee yesterday, attorney David Kendall said Clinton’s server, turned over to federal authorities as part of a security probe, “no longer contains data.”
The release of the letter came a day after Clinton dismissed questions from reporters at a Las Vegas press conference about whether the server had been wiped clean.
Clinton replied sarcastically: “What, like with a cloth or something?
“I don’t know how it works at all,” Clinton said, suggesting that only the media, and not voters, were interested.
But new polls suggest the email investigation, in which intelligence officials have flagged hundreds of emails stored on Clinton’s server as containing possible classified information, is resonating with voters.
A CNN/ORC poll shows Trump trailing Clinton by only 6 points in a general election match up, with Clinton up 51 to 46 percent. That’s an improvement from a 16-point differential in July for the real-estate mogul.
The poll also showed Clinton’s favor ability ratings at the lowest point since 2001, with 44 percent of American adults viewing Clinton favorably and 53 percent unfavorably.
GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate as well as federal intelligence officials are probing Clinton’s private email use during her tenure in the State Department to determine whether classified information was mishandled. If it is discovered that classified information was exchanged or stored on the server, such transmissions may have violated government guidelines for the handling of classified material.
Kendall said in the letter to the committee that he and another lawyer at his firm were given security clearances by the State Department to handle a thumb drive that contained about 3,000 emails later turned over to the agency. Kendall said the thumb drive was stored in a safe provided in July by the State Department.
Yesterday Clinton campaign officials reiterated their claim that none of the emails that have been flagged by federal officials for further review were marked “classified” at the time they were sent to Clinton by her aides.
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
