Hacker who claims he breached Clinton server pleads guilty, strikes deal with fedsThe Romanian hacker who claimed he easily breached Hillary Clinton's email server pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to two counts of computer hacking charges, as part of a deal with the Justice Department.
In exchange for a reduced sentence, Marcel Lehel Lazar – also known as Guccifer -- has agreed to cooperate with federal authorities in the future.
Lazar pleaded guilty to the unauthorized access of a protected computer and aggravated identity theft, counts tied to his illegal intrusion into systems belonging to former U.S. government officials, including former Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Under the deal, Lazar faces seven years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.
The alleged hacking crimes are separate from Lazar’s claims of having breached Clinton’s personal server. The plea agreement does not mention the FBI investigation of Clinton's email practices or his claims that he accessed her private server in March 2013. Such agreements typically do not stipulate how a defendant will aid the government.
But the plea deal comes as the FBI is moving to conclude its investigation into Clinton’s exclusive use of a private server for government business while secretary of state. Lazar, who was facing more than 20 years in prison and cut what amounted to a very favorable deal, is currently being held in a Virginia jail – which means he will be available to the FBI and U.S. attorney.
As outlined in the plea agreement which Fox News has reviewed, Lazar has agreed to extensive cooperation with the U.S. government. According to the court filing, Lazar has agreed to be "reasonably available for debriefing and pre-trial conferences as the U.S. may require."
The document states: “The defendant agrees to testify truthfully and completely at any grand juries, trials or other proceedings.”
Additionally, Lazar has agreed to provide all documents, writings, and recordings within his custody to the U.S. government that may be relevant to investigations or inquiries.
He appeared in court wearing a green jumpsuit, and was soft-spoken during the 35-minute proceeding.
He was asked repeatedly if he understood the terms, and he affirmed, “Yes I do.”
While government officials who would not speak on the record admit he’s an accomplished hacker, they also cast doubt on claims he breached the server. Still, Guccifer told Fox News specific details of the server's configuration and its apparent lack of security. He said he copied some files and posted them to his "Guccifer Archive" online. This is the kind of information the FBI could verify by examining the server or questioning Clinton IT specialist Bryan Pagliano, who has struck an immunity deal with the Justice Department.
An intelligence source told Fox News at the time of his extradition from Romania in late March -- which was usual because his prison term there was not complete and no major financial fraud was alleged against U.S. victims -- that it was not a "coincidence" and was connected to the FBI email probe.
The same source said Guccifer’s breach of Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal’s account – which was connected to his indictment in the U.S., and which first exposed the .Clintonemail account -- put national defense information at risk.
“[Hillary Clinton’s] gross negligence allowed this material to get out to an adversary,” the source said. “Through her communications with Blumenthal, [Clinton] contributed exposure and risk.”
Fox News was first to report on Lazar’s claims that he breached former secretary of state Clinton’s server.
While his claims could not be independently verified, and he offered no hard evidence, he made the same claims during another interview in Romania with NBC News which aired after Fox News’ reporting.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/05/25/hacker-who-claims-breached-clinton-server-pleads-guilty-strikes-deal-with-feds.htmlFormer Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a secret email to conduct official business broke a number of department policies, an inspector general concluded in a report sent to Capitol Hill Wednesday that also suggests she used the account to try to hide her communications from the public.
The 83-page report, obtained by The Washington Times, is devastating in its evaluation of Mrs. Clinton’s behavior, saying it can find no record of her getting approval from either security or legal staffers for her unique arrangement. The report also undercuts many of her campaign’s explanations for her use of the system, dismisses comparisons to her predecessors’ email use, and points to repeated hacking attempts that she failed to report.
After one of the 2011 hack attempts Mrs. Clinton’s tech staffer shut the server down for a few minutes, hoping that would solve the situation, but quickly warned top aides not to send Mrs. Clinton “anything sensitive” after the attempted breach, according to the report, which was obtained by The Washington Times.
PHOTOS: These pro-gun celebrities may shock you
After another suspicious attempt Mrs. Clinton said she was scared to open email — but failed to report the matter.
“Notification is required when a user suspects compromise of, among other things, a personally owned device containing personally identifiable information,” the investigators said. “However, OIG found no evidence that the Secretary or her staff reported these incidents to computer security personnel or anyone else within the Department.”
At one point in 2010, Mrs. Clinton’s emails were ending up in subordinates’ spam filters because they were coming from a non-state.gov account. One of her top aides urged her to sign up for an official account or letting everyone in the department know of her address so she could be added as a verified account, but she refused, saying she didn’t “want any risk of the personal being accessible.”
In 2011, technology staffers proposed giving her an official department Blackberry to replace her personal device, which was malfunctioning. The staffers said she already had an official account, used to maintain her calendar, but said using it for email would make her messages subject to open-records requests. Her top personal aide, Huma Abedin, rejected the suggestion, saying it “doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
Mrs. Clinton, in a striking move, refused to cooperate with the probe. All of her colleagues did: current Secretary John Kerry and former Secretaries Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright.
Mrs. Clinton’s staff was also reluctant, the investigators said. Her chief of staff, deputy chiefs of staff and her technology gurus all refused to cooperate with the probe.
The emails have proved damaging to Mrs. Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Her campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday morning, but her spokesman posted a Twitter message saying the report “makes clear her personal email use was not unique at State Dept.”
Mrs. Clinton has said her use of the secret email account was not a good choice, but has insisted she did not break any laws and did not risk secure information.
The new report lays out many of the details of Mrs. Clinton’s server. The domain name clintonemail.com was registered on Jan. 13, while she was still serving in the Senate and before she was confirmed to be secretary on Jan. 21.
State Department staffers were repeatedly asked to help solve problems with Mrs. Clinton’s server and her devices, such as her Blackberry — particularly in trying to communicate between her secret address and the state.gov accounts used by most of her subordinates.
But the inspector general was unable to discover who gave the final approval for Mrs. Clinton to use the odd arrangement. The department’s legal office said it was not asked to review or approve the setup, and was unaware of anyone else approving it — though some of them did email Mrs. Clinton on her secret account.http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/25/hillary-clinton-failed-report-several-hacking-atte/--------------------------------------------------------
Who has the power to say:
"It's OK, let the Secretary of State use her personal email server with me".
Who?
