| 1 | WASHINGTON -- The FBI is taking a closer look at the way Hillary Clinton's private email was set up, the Washington Post first reported Tuesday evening. |
| 2 | The Post reported that the FBI recently contacted the technology firm based in Colorado that helped manage Clinton's email system. |
| 3 | The bureau also reached out to Clinton attorney David Kendall to question him about a thumb drive he has that holds "copies of work e-mails Clinton sent during her time as secretary of state," according to the newspaper. |
| 4 | Kendall confirmed this to CBS News' Nancy Cordes, saying in a statement, "Quite predictably, after the IC (Intelligence Community) IG (inspector general) made a referral to ensure that materials remain properly stored, the government is seeking assurance about the storage of those materials. We are actively cooperating." |
| 5 | The State Department also told CBS News' Margaret Brennan that the action taken by the FBI stems from the same referral from the IC IG first reported in recent weeks. |
| 6 | It is therefore a step in the process that is already underway, and not a new action. |
| 7 | In late July, at least one inspector general asked the Justice Department for an investigation into Clinton's use of a private email account for official business while she was secretary of state. |
| 8 | This has already come up as an issue in the 2016 campaign, as part of a congressional investigation by a special committee. |
| 9 | The request for the Justice Department investigation came after the inspector general for the State Department and the inspector general for the intelligence community wrote a memo in late June suggesting that Clinton's private account had "hundreds of potentially classified emails" in it, and they were concerned about the possibility that classified information may have been compromised. |
| 10 | But the Justice Department has said that Clinton herself is not the target of the investigation. |
| 11 | Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill told Cordes in an email that Clinton "did not send nor receive any emails that were marked classified at the time." |